WFSF at the
ASBAR World Forum
by Dr. Erik F. Øverland
E
arly spring 2018, I got a request
from the ASBAR World Forum in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to contribute to
the 2018 Forum. ASBAR World Forum
is an annual event aimed at making
“the impact of knowledge on society
tangible through making the creation,
integration, conversion, and exploita-
tion of knowledge an essential prac-
tice for all”. Translated to normal
English, this means that the forum is
established to promote innovation,
dialogue and — what Europeans are
talking so much about at time being —
higher degree of societal impact from
knowledge building processes, like re-
search, science and similar. This year
there were five main themes of the
forum, the future of Education, Health,
20 HF |
April 2019
Energy, Environment, and Technology.
Formally, the ASBAR World Forum
2018 was organised under the patron-
age of HRH Prince Faisal Bin Bandar
Al Saud, governor of Riyadh region.
The Forum was also organised to-
gether with, both local, national and
international partners. The main local
partner was King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology KAUST.
International scientific partners were
above all UNESCO, Harvard Business
Review, MIT, IE Business school in
Madrid, and of course our Federation,
the WFSF. In addition, the consultancy,
McKinsey Company, also had a role. I
was invited as a speaker in the Forum.
I nominated a few from our member-
ship to also take part in this. At the end, Mr.
Magnus Jörgel and myself went there with
different roles. Magnus facilitated a workshop
on the Futures of Youth, which included a
wide range of local and national participants,
Dr. Riel Miller from UNESCO (and WFSF), and
myself.
Dr. Fahad Al-Orabi Al-Harthi, President of
Asbar Center For Studies, Research & Com-
munications, was the Chairman of the ASBAR
World Forum, and he announced the idea of
establishing a Futures Institute in Riyadh. We
are invited to play a role in this, but exactly
what kind of role we may play still has to be
defined.
There is no secret that Saudi Arabia and some
of its leaders lately have received very critical
attention. We are very aware of this and think
that futures reasoning without compromise
is a way to move forward, also for the King-
dom of Saudi Arabia. To that agenda we both
should and can contribute.
Top
Magnus Jørgel in the background, Riel Miller on the
right with local participants in the Workshop on the
Future of Youth
Second from Top
Erik F. Øverland, Masmak Fort, Riyadh
Previous Page
The Venue: Kingdom Centre Riyadh
Left
WFSF Member Magnus Jörgel, Nisreen
Laham and Erik F. Øverland
Right
Magnus Jörgel at the ASBAR World
Forum 2018
HF | Human Futures 21