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01 Nov Introducing the FMG Future Governance Index
Denmark Tops New Global Ranking of Future Governance; Finland Best Prepared for Climate Change, while Singapore Leads Tech Advancement
[Singapore, 2 November 2021] The Future-Moves Group (FMG) today released the Future Governance Index (FGI), an original and independent index that measures, ranks and examines countries’ quality of governance with a future-focused perspective.
Developed for the first time by FMG, a Singapore-based public policy and strategy consultancy, the FGI addresses the governance readiness of 65 countries in the face of five profound and complex global structural shifts, referred to as “Megatrends” in the report, namely: Climate Change & Resource Scarcity; Technological Advancement; Ageing & Urbanising Population; Shocks & Crises; and Slowbalisation.
FMG was inspired to create the FGI in response to the impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having around the world, which has simultaneously highlighted the critical importance of effective governance while also demonstrating that traditional measures of governance – which tend to focus on governments and the maturity of political processes – needed to be taken further.
With this in mind, the index’s central idea and methodology were specifically designed to not only evaluate countries’ government performance in the past, but to assess governance readiness for the future, especially with the looming impact of the five megatrends set to change and challenge global governance structures for generations to come.
Among many fascinating results of the overall Future Governance Index rankings, Europe dominates the top positions, with Denmark placing 1st. The index finds that the Scandinavian country’s readiness to keenly address all five megatrends as the overarching reason for its topping of the future governance leaderboard.
Singapore represents the best-in-class for Asia, coming in at 6th, while the United States, in 10th, is the only other non-European country in the top 10. With its surprisingly low position of 23rd, the FGI warns that China’s journey towards becoming a global superpower looks set to face significant governance challenges – most acutely within the Ageing and Urbanising Population megatrend.
Together with detailed country-specific “policy prescriptions” within the report, the FGI argues that there are common priority areas for all countries to focus on to improve governance performance, including economic diversification, infrastructure investment, social cohesion, and forward-looking plans.
FMG’s CEO, Devadas Krishnadas, trusts that readers will find the FGI’s rankings, country analyses, and policy recommendations highly valuable:
The FGI was conceived upon our conviction that for leaders and decision-makers to spearhead a whole-of-nation effort towards better governance, they need to do so with a future-focused outlook in mind. We trust that our index will bring attention to the importance of political, social and economic capital in managing megatrends, and hope that the FGI becomes an indispensable tool for countries working towards improved governance performance.
The full 148-page Future Governance Index report, together with an accompanying customisable, interactive online dashboard, is free to access to the public and is available for download now at:
https://future-moves.com/futuregovernanceindex/
Further Information and Media Requests
For further information or interview requests, please contact:
Mr Glenn Wray
Associate Director of Global Marketing, Future-Moves Group
T: +65 8133 8501
About the Future Governance Index
The FMG Future Governance Index (FGI) is an original index published for the first time in November 2021 by the Future-Moves Group. It is the first index of its kind to take a future-focused perspective towards governance.
The FGI measures, ranks and examines the governance performance and readiness of 65 countries in the face of five global megatrends. Countries’ respective abilities to deal with these megatrends will be determined by the relative health of countries’ “Governance Bank” accounts, made up of Economic, Social and Political capital.
The index uses a comprehensive and original methodology, proprietary to FMG, with each country’s ranking computed from a database consisting of 117 individual measures informing a total of 90 indicators. Countries receive a ranking for each of the five megatrends, with these scores then aggregated to produce a final overall Future Governance ranking.
Through robust research and qualitative analysis, the FGI report offers evidence-based and practical solutions for governance actors on how to prepare for and prosper from the profound global changes afoot.
For more information, visit www.future-moves.com/futuregovernanceindex
About Future-Moves Group
Headquartered in Singapore, Future-Moves Group (FMG) is a premier strategy and management consulting firm, with a focus in public policy. Armed with deep experience and a passionate team, FMG aims to help its international clients in multiple sectors stay ahead of the curve by understanding trends, emerging risks and anticipating change to make practical decisions and deliver tangible outcomes.
Through its two primary pillars of business – Consulting and Advisory work – FMG undertakes large-scale, strategic and complex projects in both the public and private sectors. Underpinned by a foresight-driven approach and committed to evidence-based data analysis, FMG brings a unique set of expertise to the table: from consulting on government sector transformations; to visioning and strategising exercises; to advising global enterprises on cross-border taxation policy, and more.
For more information, visit www.future-moves.com
-End of Media Release-
Appendix I: Ranking of Top 30 Countries by Future Governance Score
(See pages 25-26 of the FGI report for the full ranking table.)
Appendix II: Methodology of the Future-Governance Index
(See pages 18-23 of the FGI report for a full and detailed description of our methodology.)
Conceptual Framework
The Future Governance Index (FGI) is a composite index measuring countries’ respective governance performance against high-impact megatrends set to heavily influence the future of the world. To meet the challenges wrought by these megatrends, countries need to build up governance capital – or their “governance bank”, which is made up of social, political and economic capital.
Calculating the Scores
The index is therefore made up of a total of 117 measures informing 90 indicators, categorised according to the three capital accounts and five key megatrends. The indicators used for the Climate Change & Resource Scarcity Megatrend are shown below as an example (see pages 21-23 of the FGI for the total set of indicators used).
The index uses publicly available global data sources from internationally recognised organisations such as, The United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (among many others). A total of 65 countries are included to cover a broad range of income levels, population sizes and regions. More countries may be added in the future as forward-looking measures become readily available.
To produce a quantitative measure for governance, FMG adopted a hierarchical calculation structure (as shown below) that is commonly used in other indexes. Since data sources come in a variety of formats, the data gathered from each source is normalised, weighted, and aggregated to produce the final FGI score on a scale of 0 (lowest score) to 1 (highest score).
