Humanitarian Brief: Anticipatory Action

  • Year: 2026

  • Publication type: Thematic analysis and method support

Summary

As humanitarian needs continue to increase while global humanitarian funding decreases, the case for Anticipatory Action (AA) has emerged as a way to both ethically and cost-effectively address needs ahead of climate and non-climate induced crises. The humanitarian scope is limited as to what, where and when humanitarians should contribute to the broader anticipatory agenda, given pressed budgets for today’s acute needs and respective comparative advantages of development, peace and climate aid.

This brief focuses on Sida´s humanitarian approach to AA outlining how Sida will work with partners in support of AA which is principled, complementary, research based and locally led. Priority is given to operational anticipatory action through fuel funding (what) in high severity contexts (where), closer to peak crisis impact (when). While taking a humanitarian departure in this brief, a nexus broad approach is outlined for collective efforts towards improved resilience among the most at-risk and crisis exposed populations around the world.

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  • Topic: Environment and climate

  • Geographic area: Global

  • Language: English