World Futures Day 2025: Anticipation in an era of volatility
Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/12/2025
9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Categories
In November 2021, the UNESCO General Conference unanimously adopted 2 December as “World Futures Day” (WFD). Over the years, key milestones recognizing the importance of anticipatory decision-making have been met, such as the Secretary General’s Our Common Agenda, the adoption of the Pact for the Future along with the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.
This year’s World Futures Day will highlight UNESCO’s intersectoral and multidisciplinary approach to addressing today’s major challenges through futures thinking and foresight and will illustrate the benefits of the practical application of foresight in policy-making when navigating in an era of volatility. It will also leverage the interdisciplinary network of over 1100 UNESCO University Chairs, including 35 UNESCO Chairs in Futures Studies across the world as antennas who are identifying and exploring issues that are emerging and on the horizon in their diverse fields of expertise.
World Futures Day will also be the occasion to announce UNESCO’s Global Anticipatory Policy Coalition, led by UNESCO’s MOST Programme. Serving as a global platform, the Coalition will foster knowledge exchange and peer learning by convening government officials and foresight experts experienced in applying foresight to share lessons and best practices to promote foresight and anticipation capabilities across Member States and advance forward-looking, equity-driven policy solutions for social transformation. The Coalition will operate in an interdisciplinary manner, engaging across sectors to ensure that foresight and anticipation is mainstreamed into policy development and implementation.
The theme this year will be
Anticipation in an era of volatility
UNESCO will spotlight the power of foresight, futures literacy, and anticipatory governance in shaping inclusive and forward-looking policies. Together, we will explore how reimagining education, knowledge, and governance can strengthen resilience, inspire innovation, and build more equitable futures for all.
The morning will include a public lecture and dynamic panel discussion. Various foresight workshops will be held in the afternoon including on Education, Culture, Ethics of Neurotechnologies, Climate, Biodiversity and the Oceans.
For more information kindly contact Maya Prince at m.prince@unesco.org and Lea Chaussis and l.chaussis@unesco.org.
This event is held in-person. Please register here.
The venue will be
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
Fontenoy/Floor: RdC-Room/Salle Miro 1
125, Avenue de Suffren, 75007 Paris