The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is already here… challenges are as huge and varied as opportunities: are we ready for them? Can knowledge systems contribute to make the best of this wave of change, leaving no one behind?

There is no way to answer this with a simple strategy, and in isolation. On the contrary, this is an incredible window of opportunity to sense how knowledge can play a significant role in making public policy decisions to face the “unknown” embracing complexity, and maybe even to re-define what knowledge is and how it can be co-produced.

This paper is the result of a collaboration between a group of organisations, interested in the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on policymaking process and the production and use of knowledge to inform those policy processes.

 The organisations are: Capability (Finland), Demos Helsinki (Finland), HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation (Switzerland), Politics & Ideas (global), Southern Voice (global), UNESCO Montevideo and Using Evidence (Canada). An early draft of this discussion paper was used to kick start a panel discussion at the Think Tank Initiative Exchange in Bangkok in October 2018, chaired by Andrea Ordoñez of Southern Voice and Leandro Echt of Politics & Ideas. These are the first steps of a collaborative policy research project that we want to undertake in different countries, bringing together policy makers, practitioners and policy researchers to explore the changes in the capabilities of governance and knowledge systems in middle-income countries as a result of the imminent Fourth Industrial Revolution. If you or your organisation are interested in this topic or want to join this initiative, please get in touch with Southern Voice at: secretariat@southernvoice.org.

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