Arab
Planning Institute organized a Training Program on "Approaches for Future
Studies" for the benefit of Abu Dhabi Fund for Development during the
period of 12/3/2019 to 14/3/2019. The program was organized in the premises of
the fund in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The objective of the program was to train participants on how
to prepare long-term future studies and familiarize them with the scientific
methods used in prospective studies and Futures studies. The program started
on with a definition of future studies and
how it is linked it to economic and social development, and with issues and
challenges faced by humans. The program then focused on historical development
of the science of foresight and how it began to address future issues. The
program also analyzed how the approaches used in futures studies were transformed
into new methodologies and tools based on modern scientific methods. These
methods were compared them with standard
subjective methods as well as the highlighting the difference between
prospective and traditional forecasting methods.