The Futuribles International Association
Objectives
The Futuribles International Association is a think-tank on the future. Its main objectives are to:
- Promote and develop foresight as an anticipatory approach in the service of action;
- Explore the possible futures that exist in embryo in the current situation and the issues associated with them;
- Clarify the choices and strategies that can be adopted by the various actors to meet the challenges of the future;
- Sensitize as wide an audience as possible to the issues of the future.
Activities
Through its Vigie system (Vigie means look-out or look-out post, as on a ship), the Association carries out foresight analysis studies aimed at understanding what are the major current transformations (exploring major trends and uncertainties, detecting and analysing emergent phenomena, identifying actors’ strategies etc.). These studies incorporate a long-term view and emphasize the actors’ margins for manoeuvre; their aim is to inform the strategies and actions of the association’s members and public debate more generally.
To carry out its work as effectively as possible, Futuribles International promotes thinking on the principles, methods and practice of foresight exercises and offers training for all kinds of audiences (citizens, elected representatives, senior civil servants, directors, etc.).
It is committed to carrying out its work over the long term in association with its members and with the actors and experts best capable of contributing to it. It ensures that its thinking is widely spread and shared, so as to fuel public debate. The association hopes, in this way, to contribute to decision-making and to action that best incorporates the issues on which it strives to cast light. With this aim, the association regularly organizes events (a dozen round tables per year, working groups, and a Futures Forum every two years).
In recent years, the Association has developed permanent or one-off foresight systems that enable possible futures to be explored in more narrowly defined fields than those examined by the generalist Vigie system. Four of these are currently in operation: Vigie Alimentation (on food), le Forum prospectif des territoires (on local and regional development), le Forum prospectif de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (on West Africa), le Forum prospectif Santé 2040 (the Health 2040 Foresight Forum).
Organization
The members of the association are individuals (ordinary members) or legal entities (partner members). They are supported by the full-time staff team of Futuribles International and by a scientific advisory board made up of volunteer experts.
Every two years, the General Meeting elects its Supervisory Council: 10 individuals and 10 representatives of legal entities.
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Legal Entities:
CIRAD (Centre for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development)
Marie de Lattre-Gasque
Individuals:
Futuribles International’s Executive Committee is elected by the Supervisory Council. Its composition at present is as follows:
The Association’s resources come mainly from the contributions paid by its members (around 50%), income related to its training activities (around 25%) and the foresight forums that it develops on specific topics (around 25 %). It may also receive gift income and subsidies.
The Futuribles International Association maintains close links with the Futuribles Company, which, among other things, is responsible for disseminating its studies. A formal convention governs relations between the two.