Bhutan

Excellencies,

We, the undersigned institutions, experts, and stakeholders committed to systemic foresight, responsible innovation, and sustainable resilience governance, respectfully submit this appeal for the formal recognition and institutional support of the National Working Group for Bhutan (NWG–Bhutan) and the Nexus Ecosystem (NE), developed by the Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Bhutan today faces interconnected and accelerating systemic risks:
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), landslide hazards, droughts impacting food and water security, biodiversity vulnerabilities in Himalayan ecosystems, and energy security challenges tied to climate impacts on hydropower.
These vulnerabilities align directly with the foresight imperatives outlined in the Pact for the Future, requiring sovereign, anticipatory, and innovation-centered resilience strategies.

Bhutan’s international leadership in environmental stewardship, the Gross National Happiness model, and sustainable development provides a strong strategic foundation. However, the intensifying complexity of systemic risks demands strengthened systemic foresight infrastructures, anticipatory governance capacities, and sovereign digital public goods.

The National Working Group for Bhutan (NWG–Bhutan) addresses these systemic needs by:

• Embedding systemic foresight, disaster risk governance, and anticipatory policy innovation into Bhutan’s frameworks for climate resilience, sustainable mountain development, biodiversity conservation, food and water security, energy modernization, and holistic well-being;

• Strengthening early warning systems, dynamic risk scenario simulation infrastructures, and systemic foresight platforms aligned with the operational mandates of the Emergency Platform;

• Mobilizing distributed expertise across ministries, research and technical institutions, energy authorities, biodiversity agencies, private sector actors, and civil society organizations;

• Institutionalizing sustainability and systemic foresight governance frameworks aligned with the Declaration on Future Generations.

NWG–Bhutan’s operational foundation is the Nexus Ecosystem (NE) — a sovereign, cloud-agnostic, open-access digital public goods platform that:

• Provides disaster risk modeling, anticipatory policy simulation infrastructures, innovation ecosystem foresight mapping, and sustainable development governance monitoring systems;

• Embeds responsible digital governance standards, cybersecurity resilience protocols, sovereign data protections, and AI ethics aligned with the Global Digital Compact;

• Supports the development of holistic resilience, sustainability, and well-being indicators aligned with the Beyond GDP Initiative, reinforcing Bhutan’s leadership in systemic foresight and sustainable governance.

Together, NWG–Bhutan and the Nexus Ecosystem provide Bhutan with sovereign, scalable, and future-ready infrastructures to operationalize systemic foresight, sustainable innovation ecosystems, and resilient governance.

Accordingly, we respectfully request:

1. Formal Recognition of NWG–Bhutan as a national and international platform advancing systemic disaster risk foresight, anticipatory governance innovation, sovereign digital resilience, and sustainable development leadership under the Pact for the Future;

2. Institutional and Financial Support, enabling NWG–Bhutan’s full integration into multilateral resilience financing frameworks, anticipatory governance hubs, and sovereign digital public goods initiatives;

3. Recognition of the Nexus Ecosystem (NE) as a sovereign digital public good essential for Bhutan’s disaster risk intelligence infrastructures, anticipatory policy simulation platforms, innovation ecosystem monitoring, and sustainable governance frameworks;

4. Framework Integration, ensuring systematic inclusion of NWG–Bhutan and NE outputs into global disaster risk dashboards, anticipatory governance hubs, innovation ecosystems, and Pact for the Future foresight monitoring mechanisms.

The systemic resilience and sustainable development challenges facing Bhutan and the broader Himalayan and South Asian regions demand sovereign, anticipatory, and digitally sovereign infrastructures.
NWG–Bhutan and the Nexus Ecosystem offer a transformational, scalable, and future-ready pathway for systemic foresight, responsible innovation ecosystems, and resilient governance.

In full alignment with the Charter of the United Nations and the transformational ambitions articulated in the Pact for the Future, we submit this appeal and reaffirm our commitment to collaborative action, systemic foresight leadership, responsible innovation, and sustainable governance for Bhutan.

Respectfully submitted,