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A large-scale model for the messy work we need
A large-scale model for the messy work we need

Like galaxies colliding, anticipatory action is now  about learning to move within irreversible change.

For years, the work revolved around evidence: if only we had better data, clearer models, the right proof, then the world would act. But the real crisis has always been relational. Communities are flooded not because we don’t understand enough, but because the institutions that must act don’t trust one another enough. Funding chains move slower than the seasons they seek to anticipate.

True preparedness flourishes where relationships are slow to grow and quick to repair. Where communities, governments, and responders build trust strong enough to share risk and power. Where funding is not granted with strings attached, but rooted in accountability that flows many ways. Only then can people closest to crisis decide and act on their own terms.

Perhaps the Magellanic Clouds offer a good metaphor. Two galaxies bound by gravity, circling one another as they move toward eventual union. The process is messy  and protracted, but in that gravitational stew, new stars are born. So, too, with anticipatory action: creation through relationship.

The 14th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action will take place from 20 to 22 October 2026, in Berlin and online. This year's platform will be held under the theme “Connecting Efforts, Strengthening Systems, Enabling Scale: Financing the future of anticipatory action.”  

Setting the scene 

Since the first Global Dialogue Platform in 2015, anticipatory action has evolved from a small number of pilot initiatives into a globally recognized approach to humanitarian action. Governments, humanitarian organizations, scientists, communities, and donors have worked together to establish systems that enable action ahead of predictable hazards and crises.   

In 2025, anticipatory action reached 9.6 million people through 146 activations in 54 countries. The number of active anticipatory action frameworks increased by 70% from 154  the year before to 262, while 57 countries are now working to institutionalize anticipatory action within national systems. The approach continues to expand beyond weather-related hazards and is increasingly embedded within government-led disaster risk management systems, humanitarian planning processes, and sectoral programs. Growing evidence continues to demonstrate that anticipatory action protects lives and livelihoods, reduces humanitarian impacts, improves cost-efficiency, and preserves people's dignity.  

At the same time, the context in which anticipatory action operates is changing rapidly. Humanitarian needs continue to rise as risks grow. Climate change, conflict, displacement, and other drivers of vulnerability are increasing the number of people exposed to shocks, while the humanitarian system remains severely underfunded. Against this backdrop, the anticipatory action community remains committed to ensuring that the approach continues to grow, reaches more people at risk, and that the systems built over the past decade can be maintained, strengthened, and expanded. What remains is to build the financing and partnerships to match the ambition.  

Scaling anticipatory action requires collective and complementary action across actors and sectors. This involves optimizing the use of existing humanitarian resources by connecting efforts, bringing in new financial sources and partnerships, and working with governments and local actors to ensure that capacities, resources, and ownership are in place to sustain anticipatory action over time.  

The 14th Global Dialogue Platform will provide a space to explore these questions: How can the anticipatory action community use available resources even more efficiently and strategically? How can we better join forces for scaling up?  What role can climate finance, development finance, international financial institutions, and the private sector play in supporting anticipatory action? And how can governments and local actors continue to strengthen and sustain effective anticipatory action within their own systems?  

Thematic focus areas  

The 14th Global Dialogue Platform aims to foster exchange, learning, and collaboration around three interconnected areas that will shape the future scale and sustainability of anticipatory action.  

1. Making the most of available resources  

Over the past decade, investments in anticipatory action have increased, but available resources do not reach the scale required for it to fully realize its potential. At the same time, constrained humanitarian resources require an even stronger focus on scope and boundary setting, prioritization, efficiency, and demonstrating impact.  

Discussions under this theme will explore how to prioritize humanitarian resources for anticipatory action to ensure they protect those most at risk. How can the anticipatory action community maximize the benefits of anticipatory action and use resources even more efficiently, including through stronger collective approaches, improved coordination, shared learning, and continued investment in evidence? What bottlenecks exist to reach the maximum number of people with the resources available, and how can they be addressed?   

Sessions will also examine how existing evidence on the impact, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of anticipatory action can support continued commitment to scaling the approach and what more evidence is needed.  

2. Connecting with new partners and sources of finance  

The scale of future anticipatory action cannot rely on humanitarian funding alone; it depends on collaboration that extends beyond traditional humanitarian actors. Increasingly, opportunities exist to embed anticipatory action more strongly within climate programming, disaster risk reduction, social protection, and development planning.  

Discussions will focus on how anticipatory action can connect with new partners, including climate finance, development actors, international financial institutions, the private sector, and initiatives supporting early warning and disaster risk financing. Participants will examine how different financing streams and partnerships can complement each other, how barriers to engagement can be addressed, and what is needed to create a stronger financing ecosystem for anticipatory action.  

As anticipatory action continues to mature, collaboration across sectors will be essential to ensure that it is not viewed solely as a humanitarian approach, but as a shared investment in resilience and risk management.  

3. Strengthening regional, national, and local systems for sustainable scale  

Over the past decade, anticipatory action has advanced significantly through the joint efforts of humanitarian organizations, governments, technical agencies, donors, and local actors. However, as anticipatory action continues to scale, attention is increasingly shifting towards how anticipatory action can become an integrated and sustainable part of national and local risk management systems, ensuring it can thrive beyond individual projects and humanitarian funding cycles.  

Across many countries, governments and regional entities are increasingly taking leadership in advancing, coordinating and implementing anticipatory action, while civil society, in particular local actors, continues to play a central role in ensuring approaches are grounded in local contexts, relevant, inclusive, and reach the most at-risk communities.   

For anticipatory action to reach a sustainable scale, it needs to be embedded within the systems and institutions responsible for managing risks. National disaster management authorities, hydrometeorological services, line ministries, regional organizations, and local administrations all have important roles to play.  Integration into existing systems is particularly important as humanitarian financing is more heavily concentrated on the most severe and protracted crises. Many countries with significant climate and disaster risks are advancing anticipatory action outside the humanitarian priority contexts, making national, regional, and local ownership, capacity, and financing critical for its continued evolution.  

Sessions under this theme will examine what is required for anticipatory action to become a sustainable part of national and local systems. Participants will explore lessons from government-led and locally driven initiatives, discuss pathways to institutionalization, and consider how capacities, financing, and decision-making can increasingly be anchored in national and local systems. There will be a particular focus on the conditions that enable anticipatory action to adapt, endure, and continue delivering results over time.   

About the event 

Global Dialogue Platforms have grown into landmark annual events that bring together up to 2,000 practitioners, scientists, local stakeholders, and policymakers from across government, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and the private sector.   

The 14th Global Dialogue Platform will be held as a hybrid event, bringing together participants in Berlin and online. Through panel discussions, creative plenary formats, ignite talks, and thematic parallel sessions, the program will foster exchange, joint learning, and innovation. In line with the spirit of the Global Dialogue Platforms, the event aims to provide space for diverse perspectives, including those of local and national actors from civil society and government, while encouraging dialogue across levels and sectors. The main language of the event is English, with simultaneous interpretation available in Arabic, French, and Spanish during the plenary sessions (to be confirmed).