"Anticipatory Action in the Asia Pacific region has come a long way in the last 5 years” reported Gwendolyn Pang, Deputy Regional Director, IFRC APRO, spotlighting recent activations 2020 in Mongolia for dzud and in Bangladesh for cyclones and floods, “especially considering we are able to implement Anticipatory Action even under COVID-19 conditions”. Gwendolyn insisted that “although we are living in a climate crisis, we don’t have to accept that climate disasters are inevitable. The World Disaster Report (WDR) argues that we can make a difference now, by working together and by becoming more 'climate smart', meaning that we get our priorities right, use forecast science more intelligently to act early, respond faster and more effectively by integrating and localising our approaches”. She believes we can “outsmart disasters by having pre-approved plans in place to launch forecast-based early action for extreme weather events in nine disaster-prone countries across Asia” and encourages everyone to read the WDR, which is “based on substantial research and data analysis, with inputs from dozens of National Societies around the world.... and to share it with your colleagues and to use it as a catalyst for increased cooperation across sectors.
Hilla Wessel