The community of anticipatory action (AA) is growing, with many new stakeholders. Ralf Südhoff, Centre for Humanitarian Action, Director, invited people new to the AA community to talk about their experiences so far – and about their wishes for the future.
Google´s Alexander Diaz, Head of Crisis Response and Humanitarian Aid, sees technology as key to AA, explaining that sharing best practice is crucial. “Technology can be an enabler. Data can help to make predictions where the next crisis will strike. To make meaningful progress, partnerships are key.”
Dane Mcqueen, Development and Humanitarian Affairs / United Nations at UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senior Advisor, hopes for (early warning) signals to go out earlier and funding to come in earlier - with more flexibility. He also noted that unlike elements of climate change, some conflict is man-made and can be averted with political influence.
For Joseph Insitful, Green Climate Fund (GCF), Senior Climate Information and Early Warning Systems Specialist, one of the most important points was that investments of the private sector can also save lives. “Sometimes it is not the problem of the forecast, that a disaster hit the people hard, but that the communication was not right.” On what prompted the GCF to join AA, Joseph explained that the evidence of the benefits of AA had accumulated and it simply made sense.
“Save the Children works since 2012 on anticipatory action”, emphasized Laura Swift, Senior Food Security and Livelihoods Technical Advisor, “ it was so important to predict food crises, we wanted to act earlier, and with early-warning tools and The Household Economy Approach (HEA) it could be predicted who would need help in which region and for how long.” What is needed is a model for understanding the barriers and enablers. “It is critical to achieve sustainability, through pilots we learnt we need to have local partners on board to improve that.”
“There are so many vectors”, explained Monica Rull, Médecins Sans Frontières, Medical Director, “and the interaction between humans, animals, and the environment is complex, and patterns are changing. Local solutions are crucial and you have to keep your eyes and ears open, because the local people have the best solutions!” In medical terms, preparation and anticipatory action are the same, but COVID has proven that we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
Last but not least, Mike Weickert, Director of Preparedness and Field Readiness, World Vision, talked about the small-scale AA work that World Vision has already done. He wished for a more coherent approach, more research, and noted that funding is of course key to all of this.
What are the barriers? Monica Rull said ”Everyone competes for money. I would wish we would sit down and talk honestly about this, but hands are bound for many organizations.” Many people do not understand where their money went, explained Dane Mcqueen, the figures are important for people to get the bigger picture. Climate innovation is critical, emphasized Joseph Insitful, to be prepared for the challenges of tomorrow.