Formerly called the Dialogue Platform on Forecast-based Financing, the Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action began as a bi-annual global workshop in 2015 organized by the German Red Cross in collaboration with the IFRC and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate with funding from the German Federal Foreign Office. The Dialogue Platforms provide an interactive, engaging space for the anticipatory action community to share knowledge, best practices and lessons learned to bring about a fundamental change within the humanitarian system: from reaction to anticipation.
Participants from the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, , governments, NGOs, academia and the private sector come together to discuss how to drive anticipatory action forward; increase the reach of this approach; improve its quality; engage new stakeholders in its implementation and development; and to determine the next steps as we collectively scale up anticipatory across science, policy, and practice.
Between 2017 and 2024, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Start Network, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Welthungerhilfe joined as organizing partners. This is replicated at the annual Regional Dialogue Platforms on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action in the Americas, Africa, Asia Pacific and Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where regional and national partners also join the organizing committee for each event.
Signalling stronger commitments from governmental organizations to integrate anticipatory action into regional and national policies and frameworks, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa / IGAD Climate Prediction Centre (ICPAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Coordination Centre for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC) and Nepal´s Ministry of Home Affairs´ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) committed to co-host / co-organize the Regional Dialogue Platforms in Asia Pacific, Africa and Americas in 2023.
As of September 2024, there have been 29 Global and Regional Dialogue Platforms on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action (plus many more now taking place on a national level):
- 11 Global
- 6 Asia Pacific
- 6 Africa
- 5 Latin America and Caribbean
- 1 Middle East and North Africa (first edition: 2024)
In 2023, the Regional and Global Dialogues Platform brought together more than 3,500 participants from at least 140 countries.
About the Anticipation Hub
Building on the experience of the Dialogue Platform, commitments to scale up anticipatory action and the increased demand for more collaboration and guidance on the topic, the Anticipation Hub was launched in December 2020 as an initiative of the IFRC, the German Red Cross and the Climate Centre to provide a more permanent space for learning and exchange beyond the annual Dialogue Platforms. Since its launch, the Hub has acted as the host and convenor of the Dialogue Platforms.
The mission of the Anticipation Hub is to facilitate 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 Anticipation Hub aims to support practitioners, scientists, and policymakers, to do more anticipatory action, do it better and do it together, to jointly embed a culture of anticipatory action inside and beyond the humanitarian sector.
The Anticipation Hub´s governance is currently supported by a director-level Steering Committee composed of GRC, IFRC, Climate Centre. Its Advisory Group is co-chaired by FAO and the Start Network with membership across humanitarian agencies, government, and universities. The workplan of the Anticipation Hub is implemented by 31 Coordination Team members with a wide range of expertise from climate science to cash located in 15 countries. As of August 2024, the Hub has brought together 137 partners across the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, UN, governments, NGOs, academia and network initiatives from more than 45 countries.
Aligned with the Anticipation Hub´s 2021-2024 Strategy, the Dialogue Platform embraces the following values:
- Embracing a people-centred approach
- Creating shared ownership and inclusiveness
- Promoting and encouraging diversity
- Bridging knowledge across science, policy and practice
- Stimulating creative and interactive exchange
- Ensuring accountability
