The National School of Government in South Africa is responsible for training government employees and offering regional training. While prioritizing the SDGs is essential, achieving them has proven to be challenging due to growing complexity and uncertainty. To achieve the SDGs, responsive policies and implementation capabilities were recognized as a need. Also, it was noted that institutions need access to high-quality information, knowledge and expertise to forecast the future, identify trends, benchmark good practice, make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Developing countries are more impacted by the SDGs and require resources, like the SI Platform, to understand and adopt policies to support the achievement of the SDGs. Therefore, SI was included in the training of government trainees through this new programme. Interns in government ministries in South Africa are not employed permanently but rather hired on a short-term basis to upskill and train to make them more employable on the open job market.

Curator and Institution: Bongani Mayimele, Director for International Relations and Partnerships, National School of Government, Republic of South Africa; Bryonie Guthrie, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic Forum; Willem Fourie, Associate Professor, University of Pretoria; Simone Smit, Head of Exploration, United Nations Development Programme’s Accelerator Lab

Subject(s): Public policy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Relevant SI feature: Strategic Intelligence Premium features: “Monitor”, “Create Map”, “Advanced Dynamic Briefing”; SDG transformation maps

Learner level: Adult learners, government official trainees

Time allotment: Five training days and a total of one month to develop pitches

Assessment: Summative assessment policy pitch