Anticipatory humanitarian action: what role for the CERF? Moving from rapid response to early action

Forecast-based early action is emerging among humanitarian and disaster risk management practitioners as an approach that can reduce the impact of shocks on vulnerable people and their livelihoods, improve the effectiveness of emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts, and reduce the humanitarian burden.

The field of forecast-based early action is rapidly expanding, and consolidating the evidence, experience and lessons from early efforts to develop forecast-based action and finance tools can help improve the impacts and effectiveness of future investments.

These studies consider three types of humanitarian financing-delivery ‘systems’: an international fund and UN delivery mechanism (CERF); a national social protection delivery system (HSNP in Kenya); and enhanced coordination between non-state and state actors (in Bangladesh). The working papers set out the context and rationale for scaling up each system and describe the process of co-production used to bring together the necessary stakeholders to develop a sound concept.