Anticipatory Action
Acting on the forecast rather than waiting for the damage. When a hazard can be seen coming, help that arrives before it lands protects more people — and costs less — than help that arrives after.
Acting ahead of the hazard
Floods, heatwaves and drought rarely arrive unannounced. Forecasts and early-warning systems give days or weeks of notice, and anticipatory action uses that window: assistance is released on the strength of the forecast, reaching people before the hazard does, instead of after the loss has been counted.
How it works
Anticipatory action depends on the decisions being made in advance, while there is still time to make them calmly.
A trigger — the forecast threshold that sets the plan in motion
A plan agreed beforehand: who acts, where, and what reaches households first
Finance arranged ahead of the season, so funds are not being raised while the window closes
Early warning that reaches at-risk households in the language they use
Roles settled with district authorities and local partners before the hazard season
A review after every activation — including when the forecast did not verify
The flooded Indus, 28 August 2022. NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Why the window matters
The days between a credible forecast and a hazard arriving are the cheapest days to act in. Livestock can be moved, harvests brought in, documents and assets lifted above expected flood levels, and cash delivered while markets still function. Once the water is there, the same protection costs far more to deliver and reaches fewer people.
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