Using foresight methodologies to equip Fellows to shape long-term, inclusive food futures

The African Food Fellowship’s latest Foresight Workshop has given Cohort 5 Fellows in Kenya and Rwanda a hands‑on, immersive introduction to shaping long‑term food system transformations. Held in January and February 2026, the three‑day workshop blended conceptual learning with highly participatory exercises, showing how foresight enables food systems leaders to understand complex systems, navigate uncertainty, and collaboratively design future pathways.

“Foresight methodology is essential for food systems leaders because it enables long-term planning in complex and uncertain environments, and ensures marginalised and less visible voices are included in shaping future pathway. It also helps leaders anticipate risks, shocks, and emerging opportunities and supports stronger strategic decisions by testing actions against multiple plausible futures,” said African Food Fellowship Rwanda Lead Anysie Ishimwe.

The Fellows benefitted from highly interactive sessions that delivered core skills including:

• Stakeholder mapping: A process of  identifying key actors, interests, and power dynamics to enable inclusive decision making
• Systems mapping:  Using tools such as Rich Pictures, participants visualize the system and identify relationships, root causes across the food system
• Drivers and uncertainty analysis: understanding forces shaping the future to plan under complexity
• Scenario building and backcasting:  testing strategies against multiple plausible futures
• Data-informed foresight:  linking evidence to system trends and gaps
• Causal loop mapping: identifying leverage points for systemic change

The workshop followed the arc of a real foresight process and was facilitated by Fellows who had themselves gone through similar workshops in past years. Eric Kagotho, a cohort 3 Fellow from Kenya, said that being a facilitator was a deeply enriching experience that allowed him to put his learning to practice and share the practical applications of foresight methodology with participants.

“In my work with farmers, foresight is most useful for helping move conversations beyond immediate challenges and short-term fixes. Farmers are constantly responding to uncertainty weather, markets, input costs, and policy changes and many interventions focus on reacting to the latest problem. Foresight helps us step back and understand the patterns behind these challenges, such as recurring risks, market behaviour, and power dynamics that shape farmers’ choices over time,” he said.

He added that foresight methodologies allow him to work with farmers and stakeholders to identify directions that build resilience for example, reducing vulnerability to shocks, strengthening decision-making under uncertainty, and avoiding solutions that solve one problem but create another later.

“In this way, foresight supports more grounded, realistic strategies that reflect farmers’ lived realities rather than one-off or purely technical interventions,” said Eric.

Participants were highly receptive to the workshop, praising the participatory design, the creativity of tools like rich picturing, and the co‑facilitation with alumni, which strengthened peer learning. Many highlighted how the workshop deepened their understanding of food systems as dynamic and non‑linear—and left them better equipped to lead change in their communities and institutions.

“Fellows appreciated how various scenarios can have starkly different effects on the stakeholders in a food system. They are very keen to apply this thinking in their work and we are at hand to support them as they deliver their mandate as food systems leaders,” said African Food Fellowship Kenya Lead Gacoki Kipruto.