The African Futures Institute (AFI) is an independent institution derived from the African Futures Programme of the UNDP. It was established in 1992 as a result of a consensus between donors recognizing that sustainable development requires a long-term vision to guide the formulation of comprehensive and balanced poverty reduction strategies. The National Long Term Perspective Studies (NLTPS) framework pioneered by the programme emphasizes the interdependence of social, structural, human, governance, environmental, economic, and financial elements in shaping a country’s vision and strategy. It is an interactive process designed to facilitate a national consensus on development goals, strategies and policies.
The overall goal of the AFI was to support development in African countries through strengthening capacity for long-term perspective studies. Specifically, the AFI provided technical support to African countries to develop the NLTPS as a process aimed at institutionalizing long-term approaches to development planning. More specifically, the objectives of the AFI were to enhance the capacity of national planning institution to define, quantify and develop long-term development objectives and integrated strategies to achieve them, strengthen national capacities to undertake broad-based national dialogue, develop and expand knowledge required to link long-term objectives and medium term planning and development frameworks. As a result, the impact of the project reflected in enhanced capacity of African countries to undertake broad-based long-term perspective studies for policymaking and planning and increase their alignment to the PRSP and other policy instruments.
The activities of the AFI included:
- technical support to countries in the design, formulation and operationalization of long-term perspective studies, taking into account the PRSP and MDG;
- training to expand the knowledge and skills required for long-term strategic management and planning;
- research aimed at improving the NLTPS framework and improve analytical approaches and strategies for their implementation;
- communication and dissemination to provide wide and user-friendly access to their outputs. The AFI will leverage its relationship with UNDP to establish and build partnerships with donors, countries, and other development partners.
