Tools and resourcesEarly Warning and Anticipatory Action
As climate and environmental risks grow more frequent, severe, and unpredictable, humanitarian organizations are placing greater emphasis on preparedness, early warning/early action, and anticipatory approaches to reduce impacts before crises unfold, in line with Commitment 1 of the Climate and Environment Charter. From strengthening community early warning systems to developing forecast-based action protocols and preparedness plans, these resources offer practical guidance to help organizations anticipate hazards, act early, and reduce the exposure of people and communities to climate-related risks.
You may also find the following thematic pages relevant to this work:
You can navigate this guidance page by exploring tools, guides, trainings, and other resources organized under the following categories:
Getting Started
Foundational frameworks, key terminologies, and learning materials to build understanding of early warning and anticipatory action in humanitarian contexts.
Glossary of Early Action Terms
Interest in risk-informed early action has grown rapidly in recent years, bringing together humanitarian, development, climate, and risk-finance actors. These stakeholders often use inconsistent or conflicting terminology to describe similar work. This lack of shared language can create confusion, hinder collaboration, reinforce silos, and deter new actors from engaging. To help address this, the Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) and the ADAPT initiative developed a glossary to clarify key terms and support more coherent, aligned, and productive conversations across the early action community.
Languages: English
Access: Free
The Anticipation Hub is a platform to facilitate knowledge exchange, learning, guidance, and advocacy around anticipatory action both virtually and in-person. The Hub facilitates knowledge exchange, learning, guidance and advocacy for practitioners, scientists and policymakers that supports them to jointly work with at-risk communities to collectively achieve anticipatory action. The Hub offers a range of resources and tools, case studies, and platforms for exchange. Introductory resources include:
- What is Anticipatory Action?
- Foundations of Anticipatory Action: Learn the basics of anticipatory action through a concise yet comprehensive introduction, explaining what it adds to existing approaches.
- The basics of forecasting for anticipatory action: A five-part webinar series providing a foundational understanding of forecasting principles, impact-based forecasting approaches, and key considerations for decision-making.
- The Benefits and Importance of Locally Led Anticipation: This briefing draws on evidence from existing projects, as collected by organizations that work closely with local actors and the communities who are leading and implementing anticipatory action.
Languages: English, French, and Spanish
Access: Free
Climate Centre: A Practical Guide to Seasonal Forecasts
Short, practical guidance documents with advice on how to interpret and use seasonal forecasts, drawing upon lessons from ongoing research on using seasonal forecasts for early action, as well as from the practice of using seasonal forecasts in climate services projects.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Training and Learning
Recorded webinars, online trainings, and self-paced courses focused on early warning and anticipatory action.
Anticipation Hub and Partners’ Training and Learning
The Anticipation Hub offers a curated list of resources on anticipatory action for a range of stakeholders, from communities, to practitioners and policy makers. Find here training resources, including training of trainers’ tools kits, learning materials, presentations, podcast, webinars, etc. These resources could be used to facilitate anticipatory action awareness sessions, trainings, events etc.
Languages: English
Access: Free
Locally Led Anticipatory Cash Workshop Series
These workshops are run jointly between the Anticipatory Cash Working Group , the Locally-Led Anticipatory Action Working Group (both hosted by Anticipation Hub), the Global CVA & LLR Working Group and the Group Cash Transfer Working Group (both hosted by CALP). The overarching objective of the workshop series is to strengthen buy-in among stakeholders that the use of cash transfers in anticipatory action in various contexts is possible, imperative to meet basic needs and alleviate suffering of the population prior to a crisis and should be locally-led.
Languages: English, Arabic, French, and Spanish
Access: Free
CARE Climate Resilience Academy Courses
The CARE Climate and Resilience Academy is an online learning platform and capacity-sharing initiative run by the CARE Climate Justice Center and supported by CARE experts. CARE offers a two-part courses on Responsive and to Locally Led Anticipatory Action:
- Anticipatory Action #1: Introduction to Gender Responsive & Locally Led Anticipatory Action : This course provides a basic understanding of Anticipatory Action, its role in the Disaster Risk Management Cycle, and its connections to resilience building. It identifies the key components that makeup Anticipatory Action and explains what Gender-Responsive and Locally Led Anticipatory Action is, as well as its importance in reducing the impact of various disasters.
- Anticipatory Action #2: Gender Responsive & Locally Led Anticipatory Action in Practice: This course will explore the three key components of Anticipatory Action: triggers, early action, and pre-arranged financing, along with MEAL for Anticipatory Action. It provides recommendations and examples to ensure these components are Gender-Responsive and Locally Led.
Languages: English
Access: Free
Anticipatory Action for Drought within the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement
Recognizing the increasing examples of planning anticipatory action ahead of drought within the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, the lessons learned and the questions that are often asked, a webinar series was developed to showcase approaches, challenges and lessons learnt from projects on drought. The webinar series was hosted by the Anticipation Hub, the German Red Cross and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, specifically tailored for National Societies and partners that wanted to develop an EAP for drought or were doing so, and were looking for opportunities to exchange ideas and learn what has been done.
Languages: English
Access: Free
RedR UK is offering innovative, high-quality online training courses aiming to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to respond to and advocate for improved action around climate change and disaster risk reduction. Courses are free to Charter Signatories.
Languages: English
Access: Free and paid courses
Engagement Opportunities
Networks, working groups, and communities of practice that facilitate peer learning and collaboration on early warning and anticipatory action
Anticipation Hub Engagement Opportunities
The Anticipation Hub is a platform to facilitate knowledge exchange, learning, guidance, and advocacy around anticipatory action. They support existing network initiatives and help fuel new collaboration and exchange between policymakers, practitioners and scientists, designing and implementing anticipatory action projects. The Hub aims at supporting its users to connect to a wide range of expertise, incubate innovative ideas and co-create solutions needed to enhance and scale up anticipatory action. Engagement opportunities include: a community directory, dialogue platforms, and its newsletter.
Specifically the Anticipation Hub hosts and shares a selection of thematic working groups, including (among others!):
- Linking Risk Financing to Anticipatory Action
- Anticipatory Action in Conflict Practitioners’ Group
- Working Group on Locally Led Anticipatory Action
- Anticipatory Cash Working Group
- Working Group on Anticipatory Action for Displacement
Languages: English, Spanish, and French
Access: Free / Membership Required
Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP)
The Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) brings together an unprecedented range of stakeholders across the climate, development, humanitarian and hydrometeorological communities, with the aim of getting ahead of disasters. REAP aims to build a network of networks across communities, levels and contexts. Anyone sharing REAP’s ambition and identifying actions or making commitments towards achieving REAP’s objectives is welcome to join. These commitments can either directly through its own activities, or indirectly by supporting the work of REAP and its Partners. Local organisations are encouraged to participate via existing networks.
Languages: English
Access: More information on how to join REAP is available on their website
Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) CVA, Environment and Climate Change Community of Practice
The CALP Network is a dynamic global network of over 90 organisations engaged in the critical areas of policy, practice and research in humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and financial assistance more broadly. The group is a space for discussion and experience sharing amongst organisations interested in the linkages between CVA and the fight against environmental degradation and climate change.
Languages: English
Access: Organizations can join using an online form
Other Networks and Forums on Anticipatory Action (Anticipation Hub)
There are a range of existing networks including, forums, partnerships and platforms that are directly supporting or highly relevant to anticipatory action. These collaborative networks facilitate knowledge exchange and strengthen policy and advocacy on anticipatory action directly through adjoining topics like early warning and early action, or through specific topics like data management, insurance or hazards, which provide additional knowledge and insights to support anticipatory action. The Anticipation Hub has compiled a list of various engagement groups on their website.
Languages: English, Spanish, and French
Access: varied
InsuResilience Global Partnership
The Partnership aims to strengthen the resilience of developing countries and protect the lives and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people against the impacts of disasters through Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance solutions. The InsuResilience Global Partnership supports implementing programmes and projects related to Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI).
Languages: English
Access: Membership (through application) in the InsuResilience Global Partnership is open to all application, including private sector (insurers, reinsurers, etc.), multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations and V20 and G20+ countries.
Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS)
CREWS is a mechanism that funds Least Developed Countries (LDC) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) for risk informed early warning systems, implemented by 3 modalities, based on clear operational procedures.
Language: English and French
Access: Three modalities of funding available to implementing partners with country endorsement to all ODA-eligible LDCs and SIDS
Technical Guides
Frameworks and guidance documents to support the integration of early warning and anticipatory action into humanitarian programming and decision-making
IFRC, Climate Centre: Forecast-based Financing and early action for droughts: guidance notes
The research explores ways to identify, monitor and forecast droughts and their impacts, and suggests factors to consider when developing trigger models – notably with early-warning systems and seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasts. Thirdly it categorizes early actions to prepare communities and details a theory of change to guide their conceptualization. Finally, it suggests guidelines for monitoring and evaluation with, for example, new tools to address drought-related geography and timelines. A separate decision-tree document aims to guide practical discussions about forecast-based action for drought, starting with the identification of the humanitarian impacts to be tackled.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Taken with other resources and approaches (of inter alia the IFRC, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems initiative, etc.), this Handbook seeks to drive a comprehensive approach, to promote increased investment in EWS in FCV contexts, and to support local-level action by helping countries and vulnerable communities better anticipate disasters, protect vulnerable populations, and build long-term resilience to a rapidly changing climate.
Languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian
Access: Free Access
CARE: Practical Guide to Participatory Scenario Planning
Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) for seasonal climate forecast decision making is an approach to collaborative design and delivery of seasonal user-centred climate information services developed by CARE International’s Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP)
Languages: English and French
Access: Free Access
This document is designed to try and support WAHAFA partners applying for Build projects in navigating some of the complexities around Anticipatory Action (AA) for displacement and/or conflict.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
IFRC Enhanced Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment
The Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment is a long-standing approach of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement better known by its acronym ‘VCA’. It is a participatory process developed for communities to become more resilient through the assessment and analysis of the risks they face and the identification of actions to reduce these risks. EVCA stands for enhanced VCA. Improvements have been made based on an extensive review of the VCA guidance and toolkit and its application within the RCRC. This platform has been created to make the guidance, tools and other resources easily accessible to staff and volunteers. It is hoped it will support both seasoned practitioners and newcomers in the facilitatio of EVCAs.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Welthungerhilfe’s P-FIM People First Impact Method for Anticipatory Action
Much of today’s humanitarian assistance is still delivered in a top-down manner, where crisis-affected communities often have little or no say in decisions that directly affect their lives. This conventional approach tends to view communities as passive recipients rather than active agents of change. The People First Impact Method (P-FIM) offers an alternative. It is built on the belief that communities know best what matters to them and should be engaged from the start, not just as informants, but as co-creators of solutions to their issues. This briefing offers an introduction into the concept and explains how it can be applied to anticipatory action.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Start Network Locally Led Climate Risk Financing
Humanitarian actors within the Start Network membership have long observed the tension between growing humanitarian needs caused by climate disasters, and the fact that humanitarian funding is just not keeping pace. Start Ready was born out of this frustration. It was designed to be one of the practical ways that civil society can more effectively address loss and damage caused by climate change. The document explores how Start Ready works, and how it drives locally-led climate risk financing.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Christian Aid: Organisational Transformation for Locally Led Anticipatory Action
This roadmap is a starting point from which international organisations can explore how their internal operating environments can enable LLAA. It assumes the reader has an interest in working in partnership to support AA and locally led response. It is purposefully brief – with references for further exploration shared in Annex 4 – so that even the busiest humanitarian professionals might find time to engage with the content.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
WHO Heat Waves and Health Guidance on Warning-System Development
This guidance considers who is at risk from heat, outlines approaches to assessing heat stress, presents the science and methodologies associated with the development of HHWSs, overviews heat-intervention strategies which are a necessary part of any truly integrated HHWS, considers the problem of communicating heat risk and how to evaluate HHWSs and draws attention to the essential elements of summer heat plans within which HHWSs are nested.
Languages: English and French
Access: Free Access
Tools
Practical tools and methodologies designed to help humanitarian organizations implement early warning and anticipatory action across programs and operations
Toolkit for Anticipatory Action in Fragile, Conflict, and Violence Affected Settings
This toolkit is primarily aimed at practitioners involved in planning and implementing AA in FCV contexts who already understand the basic principles of AA. Users should be familiar with or have already implemented anticipatory action yet may not have designed or implemented it in contexts affected by fragility, conflict, and/or violence. This may include members of international organizations, governments, NGOs, or civil society organizations, such as implementing partners in AA interventions.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Urban Community Resilience Toolkits
The urban community resilience toolbox includes three connected and complementary toolkits to help urban communities identify their resilience priorities and design sustainable and scalable solutions together with a diverse set of partners: City-wide Resilience Assessment, Building Coalitions for Urban Resilience, and Designing Solutions for Urban Community Resilience. These toolkits are developed and tested with the Red Cross National Societies of Indonesia, Vanuatu, and Myanmar with funding support from the USAID under the Coastal Cities Resilience program.
Languages: English and Spanish
Access: Free Access
Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction Guide and Toolkit on Locally Led Anticipatory Action
The purpose of the guide is to support civil society organisations to engage with communities and other actors and structures at the local level; to play a central role in planning and establishing local mechanisms for anticipatory action and drive the process of scaling up anticipatory action. The guidance is presented to be applicable to a wide range of hazardous events. This resource outlines an overall process and the three main approaches applied in locally led anticipatory action:
- Community-led early action: Empowering local structures and community groups to plan and implement their own early actions
- Locally led early action: Early action planning by local actors using available forecasts or predictive analysis and local decision-making
- Enhanced participatory contingency planning: Engagement in localising the use of forecast-based action planning in multi-stakeholder contingency planning connected from the local to national level
Languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic
Access: Free
The INFORM Risk Index
The INFORM Risk Index is a global, open-source risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters. It can support decisions about prevention, preparedness and response. INFORM is developing a suite of quantitative, analytical products to support decision-making on humanitarian crises and disasters/ These help make decisions at different stages of the disaster management cycle, specifically climate adaptation and disaster prevention, preparedness and response.
Other risk indexes, like INFORM, are included in the Climate Risk and Impact Data guidance page.
Languages: English
Access: Free and Open-Source
Google Flood Hub and Weather Lab
The Flood Hub provides users with locally relevant flood data and flood forecasts up to 7 days in advance so they can take timely action. It is a visual, easy-to-use resource that displays local riverine flood maps and water trends and gives real-time flood forecasts and alerts based on Google’s AI models and global data sources.
The Weather Lab supports people navigate rising risks of severe weather such as extreme heat and hurricanes, with early warnings, forecasts, and alerts.
Languages: English
Access: Free
RIMES (Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System
The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) is an international and intergovernmental institution, owned and managed by its Member States, for the generation and application of early warning information. RIMES evolved from the efforts of countries in Africa and Asia, in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, to establish a regional early warning system within a multi-hazard framework for the generation and communication of early warning information, and capacity building for preparedness and response to trans-boundary hazards. RIMES was established on 30 April 2009, and was registered with the United Nations on 1 July 2009. RIMES operates from its regional early warning center located at the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology in Pathumthani, Thailand.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Weathering Risk is a multilateral initiative that offers tailored analysis and tools to understand climate and environmental security risks to human security and build sustainable peace. See the Climate Security Risk Assessment Methodology – Guide and Tools, for more information
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Catalogue of predictive models in the humanitarian sector
The Centre for Humanitarian Data has created a catalogue of predictive models with information on ‘who is doing what, where and when’. We hope that this effort will make it easier for partners to get a quick overview of the models that are available and their current state of development. I
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on acute food insecurity around the world. EWS NET informs decisions on humanitarian planning and responses in the world’s most food-insecure countries. FEWS NET draws heavily on agroclimatological analysis to monitor and construct food security scenarios in monitored countries. While food security depends on a complex variety of factors, climate and weather shocks often play a significant role in episodes of acute food insecurity.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS)
GDACS is an integrated website that includes disaster management and disaster information systems worldwide and aims at filling the information and coordination gaps in the first phase after major disasters. It provides real-time access to web based disaster information systems and related coordination tools and offers the following disaster information systems and online coordination tools:
- GDACS disaster alerts
- The Virtual OSOCC a restricted online platform for real-time information exchange and cooperation among all actors in the first phase of the disaster
- Maps and satellite imagery
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Case Studies
Real-world examples and lessons learned from applying DRR approaches in humanitarian settings
WFP: Saving lives, time and money: Evidence from anticipatory action
There is key evidence showing that anticipatory action provides a cost-effective and efficient way for life‑saving assistance that addresses humanitarian needs while strengthening resilience to predictable risks. Strong interagency coordination amplifies these benefits by improving resource allocation, reducing duplication of efforts, and fostering a more cohesive and timelier, prioritized response. The non-exhaustive list of findings outlined in this report is drawn from evidence generated by a number of organizations, reflecting broad insights and experiences from across the sector.
Languages: English
Access: Free
IFRC and CREWS: People Centred Early Warning Systems
This report by the IFRC and the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS) looks at National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (National Societies) on-going work linked to people-centred early warning systems, anticipatory action, and forecast-based financing (FbF) approaches.
It focuses on National Society initiatives in Nepal, Malawi and the Pacific and offers recommendations on the role other National Societies can play in early warning systems in their own contexts.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Anticipation Hub Lessons Learnt and Case Studies
Lessons Learnt on AA: Find key lessons learned by the Anticipatory Community over the years of implementing Early Warning and Early Action projects from around the globe
Success Stories: Here you will find brochures, fact sheets, reflections, interviews, short videos and news items showcasing how by acting early we can save lives and livelihoods.
Languages: English, French, and Spanish
Access: Free
ICRC Somalia: Ahead of the Storm
This case study highlights the ICRC’s anticipatory approach to mitigating climate-induced disasters in Somalia, a country trapped in cycles of drought and flooding exacerbated by climate change. In 2023, unprecedented floods displaced over 1.2 million people, prompting the ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) to adopt forecasting tools to pre-empt and reduce disaster impacts.
Languages: English
Access: Free
Inclusive Preparedness and Immediate Response for Cyclone REMAL 2024
The activity was implemented by the ECT-WASH project in Sarankhola sub-district, Bagherhat district, Bangladesh. Sarankhola is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the country, where access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services was critically lacking due to high salinity. The initiative aimed to address the disaster preparedness for cyclone REMAL, which struck on 26th May 2024, involving key partners such as the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP), Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, and Self-Help Groups of Persons with Disabilities
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Case Study: WFP: Zimbabwe – Forecast-Based Finance Grounded in Indigenous Climate Services (add to mapping)
This study includes an overview of indigenous knowledge system indicators for climate forecasting in these districts, as well as key recommendations on using climate-related indigenous knowledge services to support anticipatory action in Zimbabwe.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Case Study: Uganda Red Cross and Netherlands Red Cross Joint development of Early Action Protocol for Flooding in Uganda and the Climate Centre’s Feedback Loops and WhatsApp Forecasting
The Netherlands Red Cross and the Uganda Red Cross Society present a personal and interactive reflection given by the key stakeholders involved on how they experienced the process of the EAP development. The stakeholders have reflected on specific memories, moments or situations throughout the process of jointly developing the EAP.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Practical Action: Early warnings that work for everyone.
People on the frontlines of the climate crisis are writing the future of disaster preparedness by developing life-saving early warning systems (EWS). By blending high-tech and low-tech tools that work, alerts arrive faster, through trusted channels, and in languages they speak. This approach leads to slashed evacuation times and protected livelihoods. With the support of Practical Action, these communities are leading the way in turning risk into readiness, one text, radio signal, and community map at a time. When warnings are shaped by and for those most affected, resilience becomes more than a buzzword: it becomes a shared lifeline.
See also: Preventing monsoon flood disasters in Bangladesh and Nepal and boosting Flood Preparedness in West Africa through Enhanced Early Warning Systems
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Nigeria Humanitarian Response Plan 2024
The 2024 Nigeria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) aims to address the critical needs of 4.4 million people impacted by conflict in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states at a total cost of US$926.7 million. With solid risk analysis as the foundation, the humanitarian community in Nigeria has been exploring AA options since 2022 and plans to advance this approach through the 2024 HRP. This includes integrating improved readiness, anticipatory action, and early response within specified timelines for each significant risk.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Philippines: CERF AA (Anticipatory Action) Framework, 2023 Revision
The purpose of this document is to present the framework for anticipatory action (AA) in the Philippines, including the forecasting trigger (the model), the pre-agreed action plans (the delivery) and the pre-arranged financing (the money).
Languages: English
Access: Free Access
Unified Cash+ Framework of Bangladesh: for Anticipatory Action and Response
This document presents a proposal for a harmonised inter-sectoral approach to cash+ (cash and other forms of support) in anticipation of rapid onset hazard events as well as the response phase. The aim of this initial proposal is to be implemented and monitored with common monitoring and evaluation indicators used by all partners and all findings to be used in subsequent revisions of this document.
Languages: English
Access: Free Access