Anticipatory action (AA) is a proactive approach to addressing the potential impacts of hazards that aims to reduce the burden on humanitarian response efforts, enhance community resilience, and provide more predictable resources compared to traditional humanitarian funding approaches. AA mechanisms often include pre-agreed predictable financing for pre-agreed plans, released when an agreed trigger point is reached. AA schemes integrated into government social protection (SP) programmes can be a cornerstone of a country’s shock mitigation and response framework alongside other government and humanitarian channels, however despite growing interest in the AA agenda for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), efforts have not yet reached significant scale or impact. Additionally, while there is a growing evidence base on AA’s effectiveness and impact, it is still at an early stage for demonstrated evidence at scale.
Decisions and financing for AA schemes are inherently political. This report reviews the feasibility, behavioural, political and economic factors that affect the demand and financing of anticipatory action (AA) programmes integrated into government social protection (SP) systems and discusses recommendations for increasing support for these interventions.