21st August 2019, International Institute for Global Health, (UNU-IIGH)
How can foresight and futures thinking be applied into global health? This was the ultimate question posed by the United Nations University – International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH, a designated UN think tank on global health) to MIGHT’s foresight and futures thinking team.
In a recent industry engagement practice held on the 21st August 2019, MIGHT’s very own in-house futurists, Mr. Rushdi Abdul Rahim and Dr. Liz Alexander shone light on the question and its potential among UNU-IIGH’s international team of researchers. During the sharing session, Mr. Rushdi Abdul Rahim and Dr. Liz Alexander detailed the importance of engaging leadership, partners and champions to cultivate long-term strategic thinking synergies.
Both futurists pointed to the practical use of foresight to unleash the collective power of people to identify future opportunities and risks. Talking about the most important way to prompt change, both speakers alluded to injecting critical thinking into the university’s long term development as one place to start. In addition, both speakers discussed how to shape a brighter future by rallying participatory engagement and timely policy intervention.
Sharing real case applications of foresight through games, both futurists encouraged the university’s researchers to go the next step. By thinking out of the box to, the conversation captivated the attendees to formulate dynamic solutions for any given challenge that otherwise would only produce a linear narrative. Finally, the session eased UNU-IIGH researchers into mindfulness of foresight and futures thinking’s importance, with a potential collaboration agenda to be furthered in the future.
