The first day’s sessions of ICESCO Future Forum, which kicked off today at the headquarters of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), reached great momentum, as it covered the  following themes: “Foresight by 2040”; “Future Literacy”; “Positionning Artificial Intelligence in its right perspective”; and “The Future of Sciences”.

The first session, held under the theme “Foresight by 2040”, was moderated by Dr. Kais Hammami, Director of the Center of Strategic Foresight, and features the respective presentations of Mr. Sobhi Tawil, Head of Foresight in the Education Sector at UNESCO; Ms. Sandra Coulibaly Leroy, Assistant Director for Intelligence, Assessment and Foresight at the OIF; and Prof. Ted Fuller, UNESCO Chair on Responsible Foresight for Sustainable Development, who gave a presentation on the need to reconsider foresight in light of the necessity to have an ethical framework.

Other speakers also gave presentations at the first session, namely Ms. Manon Raclot, Director in charge of the prospective practice within YouMeO; Mr. Koffi Kouakou, Foresight expert and philosopher from South Africa, who talked about the geographical aspect of dealing with foresight; Dr. Pierre Marcel Rossel, anthropologist; and Dr. Saly Mohamed Mabrouk, Expert in organizational excellence and future shaping.

The second session revolved around the theme “Future Literacy” and was moderated by Mr. Riel Miller, Head of Futures Literacy, UNESCO, and featured presentations by the following speakers: Ms. Damhof Loes, Senior Lecturer Futures literacy, Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands; Dr. Claudia Baisini from Cambridge University; Ms. Kwamou Eva Feukeu from UNESCO; the researcher Ms. Jessica Kim Bland; Dr. Fred Carden, Director of Using Evidence Inc.; and Mr. Samir Benmakhlouf, Founder and Managing Director, London Academy Casablanca, Former CEO of Microsoft Morocco.

Under the theme “Positionning Artificial Intelligence in its right perspective”, the third session was moderated by Ms. Sasha Rubel, Programme Specialist, Knowledge Societies Division, Communication and Information Sector at UNESCO. This session included six presentations by the following speakers: Mr. Sidi Ali Maelainin, Corporate Citizenship Manager for IBM in North Africa; Ms. Niki Iliadis, Senior AI Policy Researcher and Program Manager at The Future Society; Ms. Pauline Noiseau, Coordinator at Algora Lab; Dr. Rim Faiz, Professor at IHEC Carthage; Mr. Hichem Iraqi Houssaini, Director General of Microsoft Morocco; and Mr. Mohamed Hedi Shili, Director of Legal Affairs at ICESCO.

The last session dealt with the theme of “The Future of Sciences” and was moderated by Prof. Najla Bouden Romdhane, National Coordinator of the Tertiary Education for Employability (TEEP) Project at the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It featured the participation of Ms. Zineb Iraqi, Supervisor of the Center of Planning, Statistics and Assessment at ICESCO; Prof. Hanan Issa Malkawi, Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Yarmouk University, Jordan; Prof. Ghada Mohamed Amer, Vice Dean for Postgraduate and Research, Benha University / Vice-President of Arab Science and Technology Foundation; and Prof. Farida Khammar, representing ICESCO Chair in Algeria.

As for the second day, six strategic workshops will handle the theme “Horizon 2040”, namely “Education: Major trends”; “Culture: Need for intercultural dialogue; Sciences: Future challenges”; “Artificial Intelligence: Towards ethical technology in service of societies”; “Human and social sciences: Development and Foresight”; and “Future literacy laboratory”. The workshops will be held at the same time, from 9:00 am. to 12:30 pm., followed by the Forum’s closing ceremony.