Foresight: A Strategy for the Future of the TCU

The Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) is preparing for future challenges using foresight as a tool. The TCU 2040 project is a methodology that envisions the future in a structured and strategic way. In a scenario of rapid technological transformation, environmental challenges, and geopolitical instability, this structured and participatory approach enables exploring different future situations, anticipating changes, identifying opportunities, and minimizing risks.

Inspired by successful international practices, such as those in Singapore and Finland, the TCU seeks to strengthen its relevance and resilience, adapting to the demands of society and promoting innovation in public governance. With this initiative, the Court reaffirms its commitment to generating value for society by 2040, aligning with the best global practices in strategic planning.

Why is foresight essential in today's world?

Foresight stands out as an indispensable tool to confront the rapid technological transformation, environmental challenges, and geopolitical instability that characterize the world now. Beyond simple forecasting or trend analysis, it is a structured and participatory approach that explores multiple future scenarios, broadening the strategic horizon of organizations and governments. It stimulates imagination, anticipation, and proactive action in the presence of uncertainties.

Over the past few decades, several nations have realized that global competitiveness and sustainable development require more than a reactive response in the face of change. It is necessary to imagine and shape the future collectively. These examples reinforce that the future must not be seen as an inevitable destination, but as a field of possibilities that can be built with planning and collaboration.

Foresight Worldwide: Lessons from Anticipatory Governance

Singapore Foresight as a pillar of public policies

Since the 1970s, Singapore has institutionalized foresight at the heart of government, through the Centre for Strategic Futures (CSF). The continuous practice of thinking in 20 to 30-year horizons has allowed the country to anticipate challenges and opportunities in infrastructure, energy, and education. The result was the transformation of a small port into one of the most advanced logistics and financial hubs on the planet. Singapore's experience reveals the importance of integrated foresight in public policymaking, articulating government, academia, and the private sector around a shared national vision.

Finland Democracy and the future in Parliament

Finland excels in the democratization of thinking about the future. Since 1993, the country has maintained the Parliamentary Committee of the Future that requires systematic foresight reporting from the government by each legislative session. This practice reinforces democratic legitimacy and dialogue between science, technology, and politics. As a result, Finland has consolidated itself as a global standard in education, innovation and sustainability, anticipating transformations in the digital and ecological economy. The Finnish case demonstrates that foresight can be institutionalized as a permanent mechanism of participatory governance.

South Korea Foresight and accelerated development

The South Korean trajectory shows how foresight can be a driving force for economic and technological transformation. Based on long-term national plans, such as Vision 2030 and Vision 2040, the country has gone from receiving international aid to one of the largest economies in the world in a few decades. The strategic focus on education, research, and innovation, combined with the advance of key sectors such as semiconductors and biotechnology consolidated a foresight model oriented to competitiveness and technological autonomy. The Korean experience shows that long-term visions can sustain rapid trajectories of modernization when the State, the private sector, and society are in alignment.

United Arab Emirates The future as a national identity

Through the UAE Centennial Plan 2071, the United Arab Emirates has embraced one of the most ambitious visions on the planet. The project sets century-long goals in areas such as education, governance and social cohesion, and is already producing tangible results: economic diversification beyond oil, development of global hubs in tourism and innovation, and significant investments in renewable energy and space exploration. The Emirati experience shows that foresight can be an element of national identity, articulating the pride from the past with the intentional construction of the future.

China The state foresight and strategic planning

Since 1953, China has used five-year plans to direct economic and social development. In recent years, this tradition has evolved with initiatives such as Made in China 2025, aimed at global leadership in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy. The Chinese case highlights the power of foresight as an instrument of strategic coordination and government continuity, allowing the country to anticipate technological disruptions and realign production chains pragmatically and efficiently.

The Future Starts Now: Lessons for a Better Tomorrow

An analysis of international cases shows that the success of nations that have adopted foresight does not depend only on the quality of the projections, but mainly on the ability to institutionalize envisioning the future. Planning with horizons of 15, 20 or even 30 years, maintaining continuity beyond political cycles, allows for the alignment of science, technology, and public policies with a shared vision of the future.

More than a technical tool, foresight is a culture of anticipatory governance, a way of thinking that connects the present to the desired future. By fostering strategic imagination and dialogue among multiple social actors, it strengthens national resilience, stimulates innovation, and expands crisis-response capacity. International experience shows that investing in foresight is ultimately investing in the future, a future shaped in the present with purpose, collaboration, and long-term vision.