World Future Council

The Future Policy Award (FPA) celebrates policies that create better living conditions for current and future generations. The aim of the award is to raise global awareness for these exemplary policies and speed up policy action towards just, sustainable and peaceful societies. The Future Policy Award is the first award that celebrates policies rather than people on an international level. Each year the World Future Council chooses one topic on which policy progress is particularly urgent. In 2009, the Future Policy Award highlighted exemplary policies foro food security. In the International Year on Biodiversity, the Future Policy Award 2010 celebrated the world's best biodiversity policies.[9] In the International Year of Forests, the Future Policy Award 2011 celebrated successful policies that protect, enhance and sustainably utilize forests for people, and thus contribute to a better world.[10][11] In 2012, the Future Policy Award celebrated the world's most inspiring, innovative and influential policies on the protection of oceans and coasts.[12] In 2013 the question was which existing disbarment policies contribute most effectively to the achievement of peace, sustainable development, and security?[13] In 2014the Future Policy Award was dedicated to policies that address one of the most pervasive human rights abuses that humanity is facing: violence against women and girls.[14] The Future Policy Award in 2015 committed to policies that contributed to protecting and strengthening the rights of boys and girls.[15]

The 2017 Future Policy Award was dedicated to policies that effectively addressed land and soil degradation, and the related risks to food security and livelihoods, and help secure a sustainable and just future for people living in the world's drylands.[16] In 2018, the FPA – often referred to as the "Oscar on best policies" celebrated the world's best policies scaling up Agroecology[17]; the Indian state Sikkim was awarded Gold.[18]

The website futurepolicy.org website presents political solutions and assists decision-makers in developing and implementing future just policies. It is an online database designed for policy-makers to simplify the sharing of existing and proven policy solutions to tackle the world's most fundamental and urgent problems. It now contains policies, for example on renewable energies, energy efficiency, sustainable cities and food production in the era of climate change, that have been promoted in WFC publications, films and hearings.[19]

From 28-30 November 2017, the World Future Council hosted an international child rights conference in Zanzibar to explore the positive impacts of Zanzibar's Children's Act and share success stories on child protection, children friendly justice and participation from around the world. The Zanzibar Children's Act had received the Gold Future Policy Award in 2015.[20] Across three days, over 100 participants took part in a varied schedule of workshops, presentations and field visits looking at how to translate child rights laws onto paper into national and location programmes that improve the experiences of children and young people on the ground and effectively tackle child abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The conference was convened with the support of Janina Özen-Otto, the JUA Foundation, and the Michael Otto Foundation.[21] The conference closed with the Zanzibar Declaration on Securing Children's Rights, signed by over 50 representatives and policymakers from Ghana, Indonesia, Liberia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Somaliland, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zanzibar, as well as experts on children's rights and representatives from civil society, including Gertrude Mongella and Auma Obama.[22]

The Global Policy Action Plan (GPACT) is a set of 22 interlinked, proven policy reforms that together, build sustainable, peaceful, and just societies and help to realise international commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The "best" policies identified by the World Future Council are those that meet the seven Principles for Future-Just Law-Making. A coherent best policy guide that brings together working innovative policy solutions and forward-thinking practical tools.[23]

Feed-In Tariff (FIT) laws to speed up renewable energy production have been introduced in several countries e.g. the UK, Australia, several US states, among them California, as well as in Ontario (Canada), with the support of the World Future Council. In establishing the Alliance for Renewable Energy, the World Future Council has created a coalition to spread renewable energies and contributed to the implementation of Feed-in Tariffs in the United States.[24]

The WFC has embarked on a Campaign for Ombudspersons for Future Generations on all governance levels. For the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or 'Rio+20' in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012 the WFC was calling for the establishment of Ombudspersons for Future Generations, as a concrete solution under the second theme of the Summit 'Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development'.[25]