The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
Foresight informs decisions; it does not make them. This page, part of Foresight Nexus at The Global Risks Forum (GRF), locates the public and sectoral decision-makers who act on foresight, the bodies that commission and advise on it, and the boundaries that keep convened dialogue from being mistaken for decision. It explains why clear decision rights make foresight more useful, not less.
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For decision-rights context, in GRF's situational-awareness reading, the map opens on population density, flood water and active fires, framed on the Arctic; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
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Decision rights in Foresight Nexus define who decides what in foresight as well as risk management and systemic risk: public authorities take statutory decisions, operators and institutions take operational ones, and affected communities, including Indigenous rights holders, hold rights of consent and participation. The platform brings evidence and options to those who decide and takes no decision itself.
Fig.How GCRI, GRF and GRA share one field while the authorities decide. Design, not a record.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Laws, budgets, long-term strategies and public investments, decided under each jurisdiction's rules.
Supervisory priorities, infrastructure plans and operating strategies, each within a statutory or corporate mandate.
Communities and rights holders whose futures are shaped by decisions, including Indigenous peoples, whose participation and consent matter.
| Decision | Holder |
|---|---|
| Adopt a long-term strategy | Government or board |
| Commission foresight | Centre of government, ministry, parliament |
| Use a scenario in planning | The planning authority |
Foresight teams frame futures; the institution that owns the plan chooses what to do with them.
Many governments have created foresight units at the centre of government, in parliaments or in individual ministries. Some jurisdictions have established statutory roles for the long term, such as commissioners for future generations, and at the international level the Pact for the Future adopted at the United Nations in 2024 included a Declaration on Future Generations. International organizations, research institutes and companies also run foresight programmes.
These bodies advise. Their influence depends on access to decision-makers, on the quality and legitimacy of their work and on whether a decision-maker is required to consider it. Where foresight has a formal place in budget, planning or regulatory processes, it is more likely to shape choices.
Foresight Nexus brings signals, scenarios and comparison to the people who decide, and records what its dialogues conclude, including disagreement. It does not take decisions, issue binding recommendations or speak for any authority. Participants act within their own mandates. Convened sessions are described on Foresight Nexus dialogues, and the topic foresight in decisions examines how foresight can enter decisions responsibly.
GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Decision rights matrix | A table showing which body proposes, approves, executes and oversees each decision. |
| Competent authority | The body that a law or regulation designates to exercise a given power or duty, such as a supervisor, a civil protection agency or a ministry; only it can take the decisions the law assigns to it. |
| Free, prior and informed consent | The right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent, without coercion, in advance and with full information, to measures that affect their lands, territories and rights, as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets out. |
| Subsidiarity | The principle that a decision is taken at the lowest level able to take it well, with a higher level acting only where the objective cannot be achieved closer to the people concerned; the Treaty on European Union states it. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.