Case Study: UNDP explores future-ready international development with Superflux’s Mantis Systems

UNDP explores speculative development futures with Superflux at a 1,000-attendee conference

The customer, a major reinsurance company, faced a pervasive culture of short-termism and risk aversion within the international development sector. They challenged Superflux to help galvanize practitioners into unconventional and longer-term thinking to imagine new ways of doing development.

Superflux created Mantis Systems, a speculative and fictional organization, as an experiential futures provocation. They infiltrated a major industry conference with a realistic booth to directly engage over 1,000 professionals. The intervention successfully sparked critical thinking, excitement, and a desire for new organizational models, with attendees seeking collaboration and partnership offers. Superflux's work empowered the sector to better understand how future organizations might be structured and funded.

UNDP