Integrating Sustainable Development: A Foresight Analysis of Interactions Among Competing Development Challenges

Abstract

This report documents an exercise undertaken by development scholars based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the University of Sussex (both in Brighton, UK) to explore the interactions among three key goals of international development policy and practice, namely reducing inequalities, accelerating sustainability and building secure and inclusive societies. Experts from a selection of relevant fields of study convened in three deliberative foresight workshops to explore these three themes individually and their interactions, using an adapted scenario-building methodology. The report describes the adapted scenario methodology used during the workshops, presents the future scenarios generated during each event, and analyses the insights emerging from the scenarios as well as the workshop discussions leading up to them. The analysis draws attention to potential tensions and conflicts, as well as complementary and mutually reinforcing dynamics, which may be expected to emerge between the three themes in the future.