The types, dimensions, and dynamics of humanitarian crises are increasing – in some instances exponentially. The challenge for those with humanitarian roles and responsibilities is to have the capacity to deal with ever increasing complexity and uncertainty. A starting point is to appreciate that much of the future will have decreasing links with the past, that planning from the future offers a far more creative way to prepare for dealing with plausible crisis threats of the future.
Taking aim at this challenge, recent work has helped create a new set of tools and resources for enhancing organizational and inter-organizational capability to assess the extent to which organizations’ current thinking and behaviour reflects truly anticipatory and adaptive capacities, embraces new approaches to innovation and innovative practices, and fosters new forms of collaboration and leadership that go well beyond the humanitarian norm.
On 12 December, PHAP organized an online briefing providing participants with an introduction to “strategic foresight” and to a new set of tools developed for this purpose. Beris Gwynne from Incitāre and Randolph Kent and Joanne Burke, creators of the Humanitarian Futures Platform, explored the capacities that can help humanitarian organizations ensure that they are “fit” for the future.