Development of the Futures Ecosystem Infrastructure in Lithuania: Resources and Opportunities |
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This paper outlines a vision for the architecture of Lithuania's futures ecosystem. It presents the concept of the Lithuanian futures ecosystem infrastructure and discusses the current regulatory framework for the Lithuanian futures ecosystem as well as the existing and potential stakeholders specified in the Law on Strategic Management of the Republic of Lithuania.
Building on the Quadruple Helix model, the paper explores which actors from government, civil society, business, and academia could influence the activities of Lithuania’s futures ecosystem and the roles they could play. This type of organised cooperation between government, academia, business sector, and civil society can lead to optimal and most forward-looking collective decisions. The multi-level nature of the futures ecosystem is emphasised, which, under the Quadruple Helix model, suggests that the involvement of government, academia, business, and civil society in the foresight process has to be approached in a way that differentiates between stakeholders at national, regional, and local levels. The paper finds that although Lithuania has recently taken a number of steps to introduce elements of anticipatory governance into public management, the demand for foresight is still emerging and foresight in Lithuania is, for the time being, mainly linked to the process of developing strategic planning documents.
The model proposed by the OECD for building a successful infrastructure for a futures ecosystem is also discussed in the paper. A number of systemic elements are identified as necessary for the emergence of effective long-term foresight systems in the government, namely demand and mandate; capacity and skills; institutional adaptation; incorporation of foresight into public policy-making; and feedback and opportunities for learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results of the drafting session of the White Paper on the Lithuanian futures ecosystem, moderated by the OECD experts.
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