Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has marked a significant global achievement as the Dubai Municipality has attained the highest level of accreditation in Future Foresight Leadership by the Global Institute for Management Innovation (GIMI). Achieving the “Future Foresight Leadership – Master” level, Dubai Municipality becomes the first local authority worldwide to reach this advanced milestone, reinforcing its commitment to innovative governance and future-oriented planning.
A New Milestone for Dubai’s Future Endeavours
This achievement comes less than a year after Dubai Municipality secured the third level of accreditation in November 2025, illustrating a clear transition from systematic foresight to spearheading future-oriented initiatives. This progression is the result of the municipality’s efforts to enhance its tools and methodologies, strengthen the capabilities of its teams, and expand the application of foresight across various municipal functions.
Comprehensive Foresight Framework
The Dubai Municipality received this prestigious accreditation following a thorough evaluation conducted by international experts using the S4 model, which assesses institutional maturity in foresight across four pillars: Scoping & Designing, Scanning & Screening, Scenarios & Foresight, and Strategy & Innovation. Dubai Municipality achieved the perfect score of 10/10 across all four pillars.
Shaping Dubai’s Future
His Excellency Mrowan Ahmed Bin Ghalita, Director General of Dubai Municipality, affirmed that the municipality’s teams are continuously achieving milestones with determination and commitment to excellence. He emphasised the belief that the future is a daily responsibility and that every decision made today must be based on a forward-looking perspective for the benefit of Dubai’s residents and visitors, cementing the emirate’s status as the best city in the world to live and work in. He stated, “We are proud to be the first municipality in the world to achieve the fourth level of international accreditation in future foresight, a distinction that embodies Dubai’s leadership under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai. Dubai is a city that does not simply wait for the future; it envisions, designs, and creates it.”
Engineer Nasser Boushahab, Executive Director of the Planning and Governance Sector at Dubai Municipality, added, “Achieving the highest level of international accreditation in future foresight is a significant milestone in our journey. It confirms that innovation and foresight have become intrinsic to our planning, decision-making, and service delivery. Today, we do not simply read the future; we monitor weak signals, explore alternative scenarios, and test our strategic options before allocating resources.”
From Signals to Scenarios
The detailed evaluation report highlighted Dubai Municipality’s excellence in identifying key change drivers and critical uncertainties, relying on an extensive foresight knowledge base comprising 556 elements across the five STEEP domains (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political). This includes 396 weak signals, 114 trends, 36 megatrends, and 10 wild cards, alongside 33 documented change drivers, all of which feed into a comprehensive set of alternative scenarios. The assessment also underscored the importance of the municipality’s ongoing horizon scanning initiatives, which integrate global trend platforms with impact analyses on the authority’s services and operations.
The report further emphasised the pivotal role of the “Foresight Observatory” initiative and the “Future Makers” network, as well as the development of integrated alternative scenarios up to 2040, supported by dynamic system modelling through simulation systems like Vensim. This enables the municipality to test and assess its strategic decisions against various future conditions before implementation, fostering a culture of foresight among its teams and transforming foresight into a practical value that benefits the city.
The Global Institute for Management Innovation (GIMI) is a non-profit international organisation headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, dedicated to embedding innovation and foresight as essential management disciplines amongst governments, institutions, and corporations worldwide.
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