Foresight and Innovations Services

Foresight & Innovations Portfolio

OUR APPROACH TO FORESIGHT AND INNOVATIONS PORTFOLIO

We support organisations across the Global South to move from reactive project cycles to future-ready, innovation-driven strategies that are resilient to political, economic and climate shocks. Drawing on strategic foresight, systems thinking and outcome harvesting, we help clients see emerging shifts early, test new responses safely, and learn in real time what works, why it works, and how to scale or pivot under shrinking funding envelopes.

Our portfolio blends classic development consulting (programme design, MEL, CSR, partnerships, advocacy) with a distinct Foresight and Innovations lens and responsible AI adoption, enabling governments, NGOs, social enterprises and corporates to align today’s decisions with tomorrow’s opportunities.

Foresight and Innovation Services

1. Strategic Planning and Organisation Futures Ready Blueprints

We help organisations systematically scan their environment, explore plausible futures, and translate insights into actionable choices. From here, organisations can reposition their strategic plans from static documents to living, future-aware roadmaps built on foresight and learning.

Key offerings:

• Foresight-infused strategic plan development and refinement, integrating horizon scanning results, scenario implications and adaptive pathways.
• Strategy stress-testing against multiple futures, including funding contractions, regulatory shifts, political transitions and climate shocks typical to Global South contexts.
• Horizon scanning and trend sensing with a focus on realities across African countries and broader local dynamics, fragile contexts and power dynamics.
• Futures diagnostics to surface leadership assumptions, blind spots and biases underpinning current strategies and investment choices.
• Scenario development (best-case, worst-case, baseline, transformative) for sectors such as governance, climate resilience, digital inclusion, extractives, education and health.
• Strategic options design—identifying “no-regrets” moves, hedging strategies and innovation pathways under different future conditions, including shrinking ODA and evolving philanthropy.

2. Foresight-Driven Programme Design and Implementation

We redesign “Programming Approaches” to foresight-driven, learning-centred interventions that links intended outcomes to current delivery.

Key offerings:

• Participatory futures-informed programme reviews, combining strategic plan refinements, sense-making immersions, participatory reflections, validation forums, and sounding-board sessions.
• Organisation “vision architecture” and programming biographies that map how an organisation’s identity, values and portfolio can evolve over the next 5–10 years under different scenarios.
• Red Teaming/ refinement of Theories of Change, logical frameworks and impact measurement frameworks to ensure they account for uncertainty, shocks, disruptions, non-linear changes and emergent outcomes.
• Beneficiary and stakeholder journey mapping over time, including network mapping, knowledge graphs and “snowballing change” to capture, track and understand micro trends and indirect shifts.
• Design and curation of internal organisation/ sector knowledge forums, intranet spaces and the publication of sector/ thematic reflection papers, playbooks, case studies, and “futures practice notes”.

3. AI‑Enabled Foresight, Communications and Capacity Building

We support leaders and teams to understand, critique and responsibly deploy future-ready communication and consulting capabilities.

Key offerings:

• Futures-thinking and strategic foresight training including practical tools that can be embedded into annual planning and review cycles for NGOs, CBOs, Foundations, Trusts, Political Parties, Professional Associations, Federations, Cooperatives, social enterprises, Faith Based Organisations etc,
• Strategic Advisory to support narrative development, counter malign/disinformation, misinformation and coordinated attacks.
• Technical Support in workflow re-engineering and AI integration for PR Agencies, Consulting Firms and Development Organisations, focusing on tasks such as research synthesis, scenario exploration, knowledge management and insights dashboards.
• Technical Support in developing prototype AI-enabled and technology solutions e.g internal chatbots for policy and programme teams, AI-supported evidence retrieval, agentic Whatsapp channels etc.
• Leadership retreats and board sessions on AI governance, risk, and opportunity in impact-driven organisations, ensuring ethical, inclusive and context-sensitive adoption.

4. Corporate Social Responsibility and Partnerships Strategy Development

We evolve CSR design into a forward-looking “Shared Value Futures” offer that aligns corporate purpose, ESG expectations and community resilience. This is combined with advisory on alliances, partnerships and sponsorship arrangements to ensure clients have 360 view of CSR ecosystem and avoid duplication, redundancy and efforts that are prone to community backlash.

Key offerings:

• Foresight-informed CSR strategy design that anticipates regulatory trends, stakeholder expectations, climate risks and social licence dynamics relevant to local and international realities.
• Ecosystem mapping and foresight-informed partner identification—spotting emerging actors (impact investors, local funds, innovation hubs, civic tech groups) and future-relevant coalitions.
• Fundraising and resource mobilisation strategies designed for a future of blended finance, impact-linked instruments and constrained grant funding.
• Convening and facilitation of collaborative initiatives and collective impact platforms that use shared foresight, data and learning to address complex social challenges.

5. Futures-Informed Advocacy, Movement Building and Policy Influence

We bring foresight and deep context analysis into advocacy and movement building work, helping clients argue not only for what must change now, but also for the futures they want to secure.

Key offerings:

• Futures-anchored advocacy strategy and campaign design that connects present policy demands with long-term societal trajectories e.g Public Interest Litigation, Digital Rights, Security Sector Reforms, Social Protection etc.
• Stakeholder and power-mapping with a time dimension—how political coalitions, interest groups and citizen movements may evolve and what this implies for advocacy windows.
• Preparation of policy briefs and memoranda to parliaments, regional bodies and international forums that incorporate scenarios, risk analysis and options for resilient, future-proof regulation.
• Community-level and Movements participatory futures shaping both current policy debates and long-term visions.

Insert Case Studies of

1. AMREF Study & Community Engagement
2. RELI Strategic Plan
3. ZAF Midline Review