Human Futures April 2019 | Page 20

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