On the Front Foot: Envisioning a Model for Anticipatory Action in the Pacific

Anticipatory action is gaining increasing momentum across the development, humanitarian, and resilience-building landscape as an effective approach to prevent or mitigate the impacts of disasters. The approach is based on a simple principle: linking early warning information and foreseeable impacts to pre-emptive action. It is seen as a way of better protecting lives and livelihoods – rather than waiting for the worst to materialise.

Work on anticipatory action at the community level is widespread and expanding in the Pacific, as is the energy to implement anticipatory action systems at national and regional levels. It is timely to consider how establishing and scaling up anticipatory mechanisms, through collaborative action that respects, supports and leverages Pacific, knowledge, values and priorities, can strengthen the existing resilience architecture.

This paper explores good-practice approaches to implementing anticipatory action in the Pacific. It identifies existing elements across the Pacific upon which anticipatory action systems can build, as well as the key barriers to their implementation. It explores the evidence base on anticipatory action, identifying the strengths, opportunities and lessons learnt from systems worldwide that may inform suitable approaches for the Pacific, and presents a pathway for collective work towards establishing anticipatory action systems in the Pacific.