The study aims to produce strategic insights that contribute to an understanding of the forces and trends shaping the future trajectories of Qatari society across socio-cultural and socio-economic domains. The project is situated methodologically in foresight analysis, drawing on trend projections, path dependency perspectives, Delphi techniques, and analysis of complex adaptive systems thinking.
The study aims to provide policymakers with a comprehensive understanding of emerging trends, trend drivers, inflection points and data analysis across four strategic areas: Higher Education, Technology in Public Health, National Culture, and Social Welfare. Further, the project also aims to help identify the challenges and opportunities facing Qatar, policy design options and innovative pathways for improving socio-economic well-being and for positioning Qatari society strategically in readiness to manage emerging trends.
Further, the study aims to pave the way for a program/center for strategic foresight analysis at HBKU and focused on Qatar and the MENA region, with the aim of becoming a key resource of strategic foresight analysis, knowledge, and expert-training and available to Qatari policymakers. In doing so, the project aims to seed the foundations of the first regional center for foresight analysis, over-the- horizon forecasting, and training, providing an interface between day-to-day public sector management and public sector planning for the future by training officials in foresight analysis, resilience and sustainability, with a specialist focus on socio-economic aspects of policymaking for ‘future proofing’ Qatari society. The medium to longer-term aim is to strengthen the culture of public management in preparedness design as a key objective to meet Qatar’s long term social and economic development objectives.