Belgium

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 Belgium (NWG–Belgium) and the Nexus Ecosystem (NE), developed by the Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Belgium today faces complex and interconnected systemic risks:
Coastal and riverine flooding, urban heatwave and drought vulnerabilities, biodiversity loss across wetlands and marine zones, food and energy security pressures, and cybersecurity and digital sovereignty risks.
These vulnerabilities align directly with the foresight imperatives outlined in the Pact for the Future, requiring sovereign, anticipatory, and innovation-centered resilience strategies.

Belgium’s leadership in European Union resilience initiatives, sustainable development diplomacy, renewable energy integration, and digital innovation offers a strong foundation. However, the intensifying nature of systemic risks demands strengthened systemic foresight infrastructures, anticipatory governance platforms, and sovereign digital public goods.

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

• Embedding systemic foresight, disaster risk governance, and anticipatory policy innovation into Belgium’s frameworks for climate adaptation, urban and coastal resilience, biodiversity conservation, food and energy security, digital modernization, and cybersecurity resilience;

• 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 federal, regional, and local governments, research institutions, renewable energy sectors, cybersecurity agencies, private sector innovators, and civil society organizations;

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

NWG–Belgium’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 Belgium’s leadership in systemic foresight and sustainable governance.

Together, NWG–Belgium and the Nexus Ecosystem provide Belgium 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–Belgium 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–Belgium’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 Belgium’s disaster risk intelligence infrastructures, anticipatory policy simulation platforms, innovation ecosystem monitoring, and sustainable governance frameworks;

4. Framework Integration, ensuring systematic inclusion of NWG–Belgium 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 Belgium and the broader European Union and North Sea regions demand sovereign, anticipatory, and digitally sovereign infrastructures.
NWG–Belgium 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 Belgium.

Respectfully submitted,