Intergenerational Foresight 2026

South Asia What if every initiative entering a community, from health and education to infrastructure and climate resilience, were required to embed a time-bound handover mandate, making community leadership a legal obligation rather than an aspiration? South Asia sits at a crossroads of demographic strength and systemic fragility. Home to nearly 2 billion people, with more than 50% under the age of 30, the region faces overlapping pressures of inequality, sovereign debt, climate volatility and declining institutional trust.113 Each monsoon, drought, or economic shock tests not only physical infrastructure but also the social contracts that bind communities to the state and to one another.114 Over decades, governments, donors, philanthropies and private investors have channelled substantial resources into education, health and climate adaptation. Yet despite billions in investment, gains frequently erode once project cycles conclude. Schools struggle after external funding ends, health systems lose trained staff and climate infrastructure deteriorates when maintenance responsibilities remain unclear. The issue is not the absence of investment, but the absence of inheritance.115 Across the region, initiatives are commonly implemented for communities rather than by them. When ownership ends at delivery, dependency deepens, local knowledge atrophies and trust in institutions weakens. During regional sprint interviews, teachers, youth volunteers and rural women voiced a consistent frustration: “They ask for our votes, not our voices.” This gap between participation and authority has become one of South Asia’s most persistent governance failures. H Intergenerational Foresight: An Approach for Long-Term Responsibility in Governance 43