Yame Nkgowe: Future literacy, for what future?

Guest post by Yame Nkgowe

This year’s School of International Futures (SOIF) Foresight Retreat was a life affirming experience that everything I’d done until then had enabled me to meaningfully contribute to the gathering. It was truly transformative, stretching my understanding and reshaping my view on future literacy.

The setting—the historic Lainston House estate tucked away in the countryside of Winchester, on the outskirts of London, UK—could not have been more fitting for this opportunity to reflect deeply on our common paths moving forward.

The retreat invitation arrived at a turning point for me. My past year had been a whirlwind since joining the Pledge Network, a global value-aligned coalition. My contribution was to elevate African perspectives on strategic foresight for public governance and policy development, emphasizing fair and intergenerational futures. 

What began as a simple commitment evolved into a series of transformative engagements, from co-authoring a T20 policy briefs for the G20 Brasil, supporting the validation of the Wales Protocol for Future Generations, sharing perspectives and speaking at the UN Civil Society Conference, witnessing the Impact Coalition for Future Generations’ launch, and leading African perspectives on advancing the SDGs through circular economy frameworks with Chatham House and over 190 other global institutions.

Yet, as I sat in that room of peers at SOIF—a diverse group of thinkers and leaders from various fields—it struck me that, for all my work, I hadn’t fully embraced the structured methodologies that could sharpen my understanding of the future and navigating complex ideas around plausible, probable, and preferred futures. The retreat opened my eyes to the depth and rigor these concepts demand.

Even as I look back at the wonderful group picture that perfectly sums up the experience I could mention a lot of things from disentanglement, processing uncertainty, systematically edging towards transformation, but a few key takeaways for me are inspired by the live challenge – setting up responsible and democratic decisions on whether or how to directly intervene in the climate system to slow or halt global warming; specifically the use of solar radiation modification (SRM) climate interventions.

1. Getting in the room matters

Being present in the spaces where future-shaping ideas are taking place matters. The SOIF retreat brought together thought leaders, policy experts, and practitioners with diverse perspectives, united by a commitment to sustainable change. We often remark that being “in the room” with people who see the world differently is transformative, however we can miss that our journeys up to that point are what earn us our place in the first place.

The breadth of expertise on display provided a grounding reminder that multiple futures are possible—and that these futures are best shaped through collaborative inquiry. I truly left feeling that I had value and could add value to discussions on shared futures.

2. Literacy for What Kind of Future?

One of the retreat’s central themes was pushing us to question the purpose behind our engagement with future literacy. What kind of future are we preparing for, and whose interests does it serve? For example, our live challenge, centered on SRM as a potential climate intervention, raised profound questions about the ethical, political, and social implications of shaping planetary futures.

This exercise revealed how easily assumptions and biases can infiltrate even the most well-intentioned foresight exercises. SRM highlighted the complexities inherent in large-scale interventions that could affect every living being. It reminded me that future literacy is not just about predicting or preparing for probable futures but critically evaluating and exchanging diverse views on preferred ones—grounded in ethics, inclusivity, and equity.

3. Embracing the Short-Circuit Moments

A quirky thought occurred to me regarding the kind of thinking that is required to make such gatherings between such a diverse and smart audience, what I call “short-circuit thinking.”

These moments require us to step back, break from traditional logic, and view issues through an entirely different lens. The SOIF retreat encouraged this by framing future scenarios in ways that disrupted our assumptions and traditional thought patterns. Perhaps to do that most effectively requires some degree of disorder – a ‘live wire’ left exposed – in the ways you think, enabling you to stretch your mind to access and disentangle hidden assumptions. .

This played out most vividly during the SRM challenge, where I realized that forward-thinking requires a willingness to embrace ideas that might seem counterintuitive or uncomfortable. These moments help to dismantle entrenched ways of thinking and encourage new insights, which are crucial for addressing issues that demand radical re-imagination such as tackling climate change.

4. The Importance of Meeting People Where They Are

Effective foresight and futures work cannot simply be top-down or confined to experts. One of the retreat’s most valuable lessons was provided during a panel discussion by an amazing thought leader, who emphasized the importance of grounding ideas in accessible language and context – not to win people over to your way of thinking, but to make relevant within their everyday lives.

If we’re to influence real change, our visions of the future must resonate with the realities of communities and stakeholders who will live those futures. This was an impactful nugget of wisdom as it helped process the techniques we learnt on how to frame complex, abstract concepts in ways that could ultimately connect with people’s lived experiences.

Moving Forward: Future Literacy as a Tool for Transformation

Reflecting on the SOIF Foresight Retreat, it’s clear that futures literacy is about far more than theories or methodologies. It is a profound commitment to envisioning a just and sustainable world, and actively working to bring that world into being. The retreat’s real impact lies in its encouragement to see foresight as a living, evolving process, driven by continuous learning and diverse perspectives.

The call to become future-literate and to share the ability within Botswana isn’t just about honing our ability to predict or prepare; it’s about fostering the imagination, courage, and responsibility to shape futures that are inclusive, fair, and sustainable. Following this experience, I am more committed than ever to using the tools of futures literacy to engage communities, challenge assumptions, and support decision-making that genuinely serves all generations.

Yame Nkgowe is one of two NGFP Africa members Small Foundation supported to attend the 2024 SOIF foresight retreat.