Strategy for Complex Systems

Pacific Community (SPC) – Growing the Pacific 2050 Strategy

Context & Challenge
Pacific Island countries and territories face converging pressures on agriculture and forestry systems, including climate risk, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and fragmented investment. Countries and territories have been navigating these challenges without a shared long-term direction to align national action, donor funding, and regional cooperation. The challenge was not technical knowledge, but coordination: creating a Pacific-led, future-facing strategy that could hold diversity, uncertainty, and sovereignty while still signaling collective ambition.

What We Did
As a subcontractor to Kerr Smith Design, Synthetikos co-led the design and facilitation of a multi-year, Pacific-led foresight and strategy process on behalf of Pacific Community. The work combined horizon scanning, strategic foresight, scenario development, and immersive experiential futures with extensive multi-stakeholder engagement across governments, farmers, foresters, youth, researchers, and partners, involving over 300 participants across the region. Insights were translated into a coherent 2050 strategy aligned with the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

What Was Different
Rather than treating foresight as an abstract exercise, the process made long-term futures tangible through experiential methods, including an immersive futures game that surfaced trade-offs and systemic risks. Strategy was framed as a navigation tool for uncertainty, not a fixed plan. Growing the Pacific will guide national adaptation, donor harmonization, and investment decisions for the next 25 years.

Impact & Learning
The process produced Growing the Pacific 2050, the first ever Pacific-led regional agriculture and forestry strategy, formally endorsed by Ministers and structured around five integrated pathways to drive coordinated action through 2050. The strategy now provides a shared reference point for national planning, regional cooperation, and development partner alignment across the Pacific. The core insight: long-term strategies gain legitimacy and durability when futures are co-experienced and co-authored.