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.