News
Update: December 2011
New Web version of IFs is up and running!
The Pardee Center for International Futures is pleased to announce that a new online version of the IFs model, featuring new visualization software and a new and faster server, is up and running. The new visualization software — AnyChart — allows for more pleasing line graphs, bar charts, maps, and cross-sectional plots. The new online version also features static URLs, which will allow users to directly email a line graph or bar chart. For an example, see this population distribution for Africa or this graph of relative material power to 2030 for China, India, and the U.S. Congratulations are particularly in order for José Solórzano for his leadership in this project.
African Futures policy brief number 2: “Knowledge Empowers Africa”
The African Futures Project is a partnership initiative between the Institute for Security Studies in Africa and the Pardee Center for International Futures. The project published its second Quarterly Policy Brief this month. The new brief explores what increased investment in education could mean for human development across the African continent. The report noted that while many countries in Africa will not reach the MDG target of primary education by 2015, a modest and sustained increase in spending on education could lead to universal primary education by 2030 and universal basic education (primary plus lower secondary) by 2035. Importantly, the report also noted that over time the increased spending on education would be more than offset by increased GDP arising from the more-educated populace. The findings were based on applying aggressive but reasonable increases in education participation rates developed as part of a normative scenario in Advancing Global Education, volume 2 in the Pardee Center’s Patterns of Potential Human Progress series.
Pardee Center representative meets with government groups in Singapore
Jonathan D. Moyer visited Singapore in early December to learn about the activities of three key groups within the Singaporean government and to introduce them to the International Futures forecasting platform. He met first with a group from the Centre for Strategic Futures and then with staff at the Horizon Scanning Centre, the group responsible for an international risk assessment and horizon scanning programme within the Office of the National Security Coordination Secretariat. Jonathan also met with a group at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation — the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore—to discuss possible uses of the IFs model for long-term investment strategies.