GAO 2018-2023 Strategic Plan: Trends Affecting Government and Society

We are publishing these trends as part of GAO’s strategic plan for fiscal years 2018-2023 to provide strategic context for our plan. The development of trends for GAO’s strategic plan is a major component of GAO’s foresight activities.

By exploring trends, key uncertainties, and their implications, we can better highlight national issues of greatest concern to the Congress and the American people in the years and decades ahead. Taking a longer view also helps us define the strategic context for our work and better address crosscutting and interconnected challenges that will require sustained collaboration and innovation.

 The 8 trend areas in GAO’s plan include:

• Global conditions affecting U.S. and international security

• The federal government’s long-term unsustainable fiscal path

• Global responses to challenges posed by divergent economic growth

• Technological advances and their impact on preparing the workforce of the future

• Demographic changes and their implications

• Five emerging technologies and scientific advances that could potentially transform society

• Increasingly complex governance relationships and practices

• Balancing competing natural resource and sustainability needs