Intergenerational Foresight 2026

Executive summary The capacity to think and act for the long term has become a defining challenge for leadership in the twenty-first century. Organizations and governments are operating in an environment characterized by deep uncertainty, overlapping crises and accelerating change. Yet, many of the structures that shape decision-making remain anchored in short-term incentives and narrow time horizons. Under these conditions, even well- intentioned leaders struggle to reconcile immediate pressures with the long-term consequences of their choices. Strategic foresight has become an essential capability in response to this tension. By enabling institutions to anticipate risk, explore alternative futures and prepare for disruption, foresight has strengthened decision-making across a wide range of contexts. However, its impact is increasingly constrained by the distribution of authority, expertise and legitimacy, as contemporary foresight remains concentrated within a narrow set of institutions, geographies and senior roles, often excluding those who will live longest with the consequences of today’s decisions or who experience future risks first.This handbook uses intergenerational foresight as an evolution of existing foresight and anticipatory governance practices. Intergenerational foresight is an approach to long-term decision-making that explicitly integrates intergenerational responsibility beyond temporal dimensions of governance. It brings multiple generations, regions and knowledge systems together in shared authority over how they envision, evaluate and govern the future. In doing so, it expands temporal horizons, broadens cognitive range and reconnects authority with long- term consequences, thereby strengthening both the quality and the legitimacy of long-term decisions. By articulating principles, mindsets and conditions, intergenerational foresight can deliver more credible, resilient and legitimate long-term outcomes. Intended as both a reference point and a catalyst, leaders and practitioners are encouraged to actively participate in intergenerational foresight as a living approach, one that evolves through hands-on involvement, continual reflection, and collaborative action, and that responds to a world in which the costs of delay, exclusion, and short-termism are increasingly difficult to reverse. Intergenerational Foresight: An Approach for Long-Term Responsibility in Governance 5