ID: 2136
Presenting Author: Abulele Adams
Session: 530 - Planetary Boundary Impacts and Mitigation/Regeneration SEA Guidance
Status: pending
FFI addresses IA professionals’ capacity gap through systems thinking methods on Earth and Human Systems. A Capacity Development Programme pilots March 2026 in South Africa.
The Future Fit Initiative (FFI) Capacity Development programme responds to a clear gap among Impact Assessment (IA) professionals and officials, lacking a full understanding of the future contexts within which their decisions must align. These future contexts include the rapidly rising impacts of climate change, biodiversity degradation and demographic trends pushing us to planetary and local tipping points such as freshwater system collapse and the inability to deliver on socio-economic needs.
The FFI proposes a long term capacity development programme with an over-arching framework of futures-thinking, understanding Earth and Human Systems boundary analysis, applying systems thinking, scenario development and regeneration planning in IA. This approach equips decision-makers to recognise compounding risks and to make choices that integrate ecological limits with growing development demands from demographic change and economic development needs.
The African continent is one of the most vulnerable to planetary boundary impacts and will likely experience the most demographic growth. The establishment of a Future Focused Earth and Human systems Professional Development Fellows Programme has been identified as a flagship component, fostering multidisciplinary competence characteristic of both Earth system science and ESIA. A pilot is planned for March 2026 in South Africa, with opportunity to scale in East and West Africa. Leveraging IAIA’s global leadership in capacity building, this programme is positioned as an offering to mainstreaming Earth and Human Systems into IA.
Abulele works at the CSIR as environmental scientist