Module 9: Wellbeing policy impact assessment
A key guiding philosophy
Governments urgently need to strengthen the long-term resilience of our societies and safeguard future wellbeing. Yet, future wellbeing often remains one of the least developed parts of wellbeing frameworks, both in terms of indicators as well as impact assessments. Future wellbeing outcomes are often poorly defined in wellbeing frameworks and/or discounted when policy impacts are assessed.
This hasn't always been the case. Long-term thinking has been central to Indigenous governance for centuries, as seen in practices like the Haudenosaunee's 'Seventh Generation' principle, which emphasises making decisions with consideration for their impact on seven generations down the line. This emphasis on sustainability and long-term environmental stewardship remains a key guiding philosophy for many Indigenous communities today.
A two-way assessment
Future-focused governance asks for a two-way assessment, looking at 1) how future trends may impact existing policy proposals as well as 2) how these policy proposals may impact on future wellbeing. There are several inspiring examples of how these assessments can be put into practice:
The Singapore Centre for Strategic Futures - which is part of the Prime Minister's office - uses a Scenario Planning Plus (SP+) toolkit to better plan for possible futures by identifying emerging trends, challenges, opportunities, and potential disruptions that may impact policies and strategies, either positively or negatively.
To help assess the impact of policy proposals on future wellbeing, the School of International Futures have developed an Intergenerational Fairness Policy Assessment toolkit. This open-access toolkit has been developed in collaboration with 400 experts, citizens, researchers and policymakers and is based on the best and most recent practices in policy assessment, risk management and strategic foresight and inspired by successful international experiences from countries like Japan, Singapore, Wales and France.
A third inspiring example is Future Design, first developed in Japan, which uses imaginary future generations (i.e., individuals tasked through role play to represent members of future generations) to identify future impacts of policy proposals, and to engage with current generation policymakers to design more sustainable policies.
Check out each of these resources in more detail here:
