Duties

Duties of the Government Foresight Network include:

• addressing major-impact change factors, development trends and weak signals in cooperation with other parties involved in anticipation activities, whenever possible
• sifting through anticipation data and drawing attention to possible overlap between the ministries’ anticipation work, variations in results and blind spots. Introducing initiatives to promote cooperation between administrative sectors
• improving the effectiveness of anticipation data in political decision-making
• serving as a ministerial contact forum for the preparations of the Government Foresight Report
• preparing a joint operating environment description to be used as background material for the ministries’ future reviews

A survey was conducted in winter 2008 to map out the Network members’ views on the Network’s functioning. In the replies, the following aspects were spotlighted as being central to the functioning of the Network:

• cross-linking the ministries' anticipation activities
• refining existing information
• thorough examination of change factors and alternatives
• conception of entities
• channelling information to back up decision-making
• increasing knowledge; learning from others