Which Country Is Leading the Charge in Futures Literacy?

When you hear "futures literacy," it might sound abstract—like something only futurists or policy wonks talk about. In reality, it's steadily gaining traction worldwide, and certain countries are shining when it comes to embedding it in education, governance, and innovation.

At the heart of this global movement is UNESCO, which has spearheaded the expansion of Futures Literacy Laboratories (FLLs) since 2012. There are now over 110 of these labs across 44 countries, along with 37 UNESCO Chairs dedicated to futures literacy, studies, and anticipation . These labs help communities explore multiple possible futures—so people can act with foresight instead of simply reacting to change.

But UNESCO is just the umbrella—countries like Finland, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stand out for their deep institutional integration of futures thinking:

• Finland has woven strategic foresight into its very governance. The government must present a “Report of the Future” each parliamentary term, and a dedicated Government Foresight Group under the Prime Minister’s Office oversees foresight efforts. There's also a robust infrastructure of futures research through institutions like the Finland Futures Research Centre and the Finnish Society for Futures Studies .
• Singapore has been in the game since the early 1990s, when it formed the Risk Detection and Scenario Planning Office within its Ministry of Defence. It now hosts the Centre for Strategic Futures and a cross-government Strategic Futures Network, reinforcing long-term planning at the highest levels .
• The UAE has institutionalized futures thinking in striking ways—every government ministry appoints a Director of Future Planning, coordinated via the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and Future. They also host the Dubai Future Forum and the Museum of the Future, both well-known global platforms for foresight and innovation .

In education, the Nordic region—especially Finland—is leading innovative developments. A 2024 project called FLiTaPE (Futures Literacy in Teacher and Professional Education in the Nordics) has brought together universities and futures institutes across Finland, Denmark, and Norway to embed futures-literacy training into teacher education programs .

Meanwhile, in Central and Eastern Europe, countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Türkiye are making strides. For instance, Poland’s Nicholas Copernicus Superior School incorporated futures literacy into its MBA and PhD programs, with strong institutional support and active academic engagement .

South Korea also deserves a mention, thanks to figures like futurist Youngsook Park, who has elevated futures literacy through her bestselling “World Future Reports,” media engagements, and leadership role in the World Future Society in Korea .

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Real-World Snapshot: National Leadership in the Futures Landscape

Country	Area of Influence	What They're Doing
Finland	Government & Education	Government foresight reports; regional teacher training projects
Singapore	National Policy	Long-standing foresight institutions within government
UAE	National Strategy	Ministers of Future Planning; global futures forums
Poland et al.	Higher Education	Futures literacy programs in MBA/PhD curricula, youth engagement
South Korea	Public Engagement	Media-driven futures literacy via popular futurists

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So which country is leading in futures literacy? There's no single answer—each nation stands out in different arenas. UNESCO is the leading global facilitator, but whether it’s Finland’s governmental foresight, Singapore’s strategic planning, the UAE’s institutional future roles, or academic and civic initiatives from Europe to Asia—the leadership is happening across many fronts. Each plays a part in weaving futures literacy into the habits of governance, education, and public dialogue.

 

How IIUM’s Futures Workshop Reimagined 2030

 

In late 2020, the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) ran a Futures Scenario Building Workshop that was unlike a typical academic seminar. Instead of looking back at data or debating the present, participants were invited to fast-forward—to imagine what life, learning, and leadership might look like in 2030 and even 2040.

The goal wasn’t prediction. It was imagination. What would happen if we challenged our assumptions about how communities, institutions, and organizations should work? What if we stopped waiting for change and started designing it?

2030 as a Turning Point

The workshop produced some fascinating possibilities for 2030, and three themes stood out.

1. Informal learning gains real recognition.
By 2030, it’s possible that online courses, grassroots knowledge-sharing, and peer-to-peer learning will hold the same value as formal degrees. Imagine a society where your community project, coding bootcamp, or self-taught design skills are recognized by employers and institutions. This vision reflected a deep shift toward inclusive and lifelong education.

2. Governance without rigid hierarchies.
Holacracy—a model where authority is distributed rather than concentrated—was highlighted as a potential structure for organizations and communities. The idea is simple but radical: shared responsibility, flexible roles, and decision-making that adapts to challenges rather than being stuck in bureaucratic chains.

3. Youth as present leaders.
Instead of treating young people as “leaders of tomorrow,” the workshop envisioned 2030 as the year when youth leadership becomes mainstream. By then, young voices could be shaping policy, running initiatives, and leading change in ways that are not symbolic but practical and powerful.

Why It Matters Beyond the Campus

While the workshop was held within IIUM, its relevance stretched far beyond the university walls. Community groups, NGOs, and local organizations can take lessons from these scenarios. Rethinking leadership, recognizing new forms of learning, and embracing distributed governance are not abstract ideas—they’re tools for building more resilient, adaptive, and inclusive communities.

Looking Beyond 2030

The scenarios didn’t stop there. By 2040, participants imagined a future where informal learning dominates education, organizations run smoothly without traditional hierarchies, and leadership flows seamlessly between generations. These ideas weren’t meant to be prophecies. They were provocations—ways to help us stay open to possibilities and avoid being locked into outdated assumptions.

A Different Way of Thinking

In the end, the workshop was about more than 2030 or 2040. It was about cultivating futures literacy—the ability to use the future as a lens for making better choices today. By opening up conversations on what might be possible, IIUM encouraged participants to see uncertainty not as a threat but as a resource.

That’s what made the event powerful. It wasn’t about getting the future “right.” It was about preparing communities, organizations, and individuals to imagine differently, plan creatively, and lead courageously as 2030 approaches.

IIUM’s Role In Developing Futures Literacy

 

International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has turned “futures literacy” from a buzzword into a working capability that connects Islamic values, sustainability, and community practice. The anchor is IIUM’s UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies – Anticipation for Sustainability and Well-being, housed at the Sejahtera Centre for Sustainability and Humanity (SC4SH). As part of UNESCO’s global futures-literacy network, the Chair’s mission is to build research, teaching, and community programmes that help people use the future to make better choices today—explicitly aligned with IIUM’s ethos of “humanising education,” the Maqasid al-Shariah, and the SDGs.

Unlike many universities that treat foresight as a short course or a one-off workshop, IIUM embeds it across functions. The Chair frames futures literacy as a universal skill and a node in UNESCO’s network, while SC4SH mainstreams it through sustainability education and community engagement. SC4SH’s Education for Sustainable Development unit even integrates Maqasid al-Shariah with SD learning pathways—an institutional bridge that makes futures literacy culturally grounded and locally meaningful.

A second pillar is IIUM’s stewardship of RCE Greater Gombak (a United Nations University–acknowledged Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development). RCE Greater Gombak formalises IIUM’s “whole community” approach—linking academics, students, indigenous groups, faith communities and local agencies—so futures literacy is practised in neighbourhoods, not just classrooms. UNU and national media note that RCE Greater Gombak was officially recognised in 2020 and is distinctive for operating as a functional (not purely geographic) RCE.

From this base, IIUM has built capability-building pipelines. In June 2022 the UNESCO Chair hosted a Futures Workshop for RCEs—“Futures & Foresight: Designing RCE for 2050”—to equip participants with futures-literacy tools (scanning, futures wheels, scenario archetypes) and to co-design strategies for the decades ahead. The programme, keynoted by Chairholder Prof. Sohail Inayatullah, treated futures literacy as hands-on craft, not theory.

IIUM then scaled the conversation regionally. As the RCE host, it convened the 14th Asia-Pacific RCE Regional Meeting in July 2022 at IIUM Kuala Lumpur—pairing conference dialogue with “real-world lab” site visits—to share practical methods for embedding foresight into ESD across Asia-Pacific networks. That outward-facing role continues: UNU-IAS has highlighted IIUM leadership (including Rector Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak) in championing whole-community approaches that localise the SDGs—an enabling environment where futures literacy can stick.

Inside the university, the UNESCO Chair’s project portfolio makes futures literacy a transdisciplinary habit. The “Domains & Discipline” agenda ties anticipation, foresight, and sustainability to policy-relevant questions; positions IIUM as the secretariat for RCE Greater Gombak; and commits to collaborating with ministries, parliamentarians, NGOs and industry so that futures work informs real decisions, not just papers. The same agenda connects to the Asia-Pacific Futures Network, reinforcing IIUM’s regional convening role.

Culturally, IIUM’s contribution is to contextualise UNESCO’s approach within an Islamic and Malaysian frame. Where UNESCO defines futures literacy as the skill that helps communities understand why and how they use the future—often taught through Futures Literacy Laboratories—IIUM’s Chair and SC4SH translate that into local curricula, community programmes, and values-driven dialogue. In other words, the university doesn’t import foresight wholesale; it “Islamicises” and localises it so it resonates with learners and communities.

Put together, IIUM’s role looks like an ecosystem: a UNESCO Chair that sets the scholarly and pedagogical spine; a Sejahtera Centre that operationalises learning and community work; an RCE that opens doors to real-world co-creation; and a steady calendar of workshops and regional meetings that diffuse practice beyond campus. It’s a model of futures literacy as capability + culture—anchored in faith-informed ethics, SDG commitments, and practical tools that help people imagine alternatives and act. For Malaysia and the wider region, that makes IIUM not just a participant in UNESCO’s network but one of its most distinctive local engines.

Futures Literacy: A Misunderstood Concept

Futures literacy is often misunderstood as an exercise in predicting the future, a kind of intellectual weather forecast that promises certainty in an uncertain world. But in reality, it is something much richer, deeper, and more transformative. Prediction relies on linear thinking—taking data from the present, extending it into tomorrow, and assuming continuity. Futures literacy, on the other hand, acknowledges that the future is not fixed but open, dynamic, and influenced by choices, values, and imagination. It shifts the focus from “what will happen” to “what could happen” and more importantly, “what do we want to happen, and how might we get there?”

This distinction is critical. Prediction is often about control, reducing uncertainty, and managing risks. It is useful in domains like finance or weather modeling, but it has limits because it assumes stability. Futures literacy embraces uncertainty instead of fighting it. It asks us to use the future as a lens to re-examine the present. For example, imagining a world where water is more valuable than oil forces us to think differently about today’s water use, conservation strategies, and governance. Such exercises do not claim that this world will definitely arrive, but they sharpen our awareness of weak signals, emerging trends, and vulnerabilities that prediction might miss.

The power of futures literacy lies in its pluralism. Instead of narrowing possibilities into a single “forecast,” it opens up multiple narratives. One scenario might show a highly automated society where AI dominates decision-making; another might imagine a decentralised, community-based future built on trust and shared resources. Both are plausible, and both reveal different assumptions about technology, power, and human agency. By exploring these alternatives, individuals and organisations can unlearn their biases, question entrenched narratives, and make choices today that are more informed, ethical, and resilient.

Critics sometimes argue that futures literacy can feel vague compared to the hard numbers of predictive analytics. But its purpose is not to replace forecasts—it complements them. Where prediction provides probabilities, futures literacy cultivates capacities: imagination, anticipation, and reflexivity. It trains people to see the limits of their own assumptions, to listen to emerging voices, and to co-create pathways that reflect collective aspirations. This is especially vital in a world where surprises—pandemics, geopolitical shifts, technological disruptions—upend the neat curves of predictive models.

Perhaps the simplest way to understand the difference is this: prediction is about certainty, while futures literacy is about possibility. Prediction narrows the horizon to what is most likely. Futures literacy expands the horizon to include what might be, what should be, and what we hope to avoid. It empowers communities to make better use of the unknown future by making sense of it as a space for learning rather than a space for fear.

So no, futures literacy is not merely about predicting the future. It is about changing our relationship with the future—from treating it as something that will inevitably arrive, to something that can be shaped, questioned, and reinvented. By doing so, it transforms how we live in the present. In essence, the value of futures literacy lies not in telling us what tomorrow holds, but in helping us become more creative, adaptive, and wise in facing whatever tomorrow brings.