Crucial Factors in the Efficacy of National Foresight

Foresight is a systematic and collaborative process for compiling views about the future, which contributes to the development of medium-term or long-term outlooks for the purpose of making up-to-date decisions, and mobilizing shared measures. The main functions of foresight are as follows: orientation, recognizing newly developed trends, adapting objective to fulfill needs, supporting and promoting decisions and policies serving the preferences of the interested, promoting external Crucial Factors in the Efficacy of National Foresight relationships with those who benefit from the research or education, and determining priorities. Because of the importance of foresight and its role in the country’s macro plans, the success and efficacy of foresight process has been of great concern to Iran’s management authorities. The present article is written on the basis of varied studies and research on different countries, and seeks to develop a criterion for the success of a foresight activity, and discuss the factors influencing such a success. For this purpose, after discussing the importance, definition and objectives of foresight, foresight projects in different countries are studied to indentify the factors which have influenced the efficacy of foresight in these countries.