Scaling Up Early Action Beyond 2025: A Call for Sustained Commitment and Collective Action

News
18 October, 2024
Author name:
Lorraine.youds
Wiston House
Wiston House Watercolour, 04.10.2024, with thanks to Kamal Kishore

In October 2024, a diverse group of REAP Partners met to reflect on our achievements and our persistent challenges in scaling early action. We worked hard to build consensus on how we can collaborate in the future to realise the ambitious vision of making people safer from disasters. We agreed on a direction of travel that involves creating space for open and honest dialogue across sectors, building out and delivering targeted learning, integrating early action into national systems, and being led at every step of the way by country needs.

We can be proud of the last five years. Early action has moved from a niche approach to one central to many organizations’ work. Somalia, REAP’s newest Board member, demonstrated its impact on protecting lives and reducing suffering during the 2022 El Niño event and has integrated early warning and early action into its national transformation plan. However, more must still be done to protect people, including in fragile and conflict-affected settings, and to safeguard livelihoods. During the event, floods in Kathmandu resulted in more than 200 people losing their lives, despite the great work done by Nepal to embed early warning systems and early action. 

Participants in 'Scaling up early action beyond 2025' at Wilton Park's Wiston House deliberate on the key issues facing the early warning and early action community.

A collective commitment to protect lives and livelihoods

The discussions brought to light the critical tension between balancing long-term systemic change with the immediate, existential risks facing climate-vulnerable communities. While we work to reshape systems for early warning and early action, the urgency to protect lives in the short term must remain a priority. We need to work coherently to achieve both our short-term and long-term aims. Countries, civil society, international organizations, and the private sector must now rally together, with each stakeholder playing their part in achieving scalable, people-centred early action.

Our achievements in early action: A transformative journey

Somalia has shown us what successful national-level leadership looks like, but they are not the only ones to demonstrate success:

  • International agencies have become better at delivering early warnings and assistance—such as cash transfers—to people before crises hit. The benefits are clear: reduced humanitarian costs and lower stress for affected communities. Although the evidence supporting early action is growing, we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

  • Civil society organizations have played a critical role, ensuring that early action systems are designed by and for the people they serve—especially the most marginalized. By working closely with local communities, these organizations have helped transform early warnings into meaningful action.

  • The UN Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All initiative has further cemented early action as a global priority. This political commitment has provided much-needed momentum and resources to scale our efforts.

World café discussions explored different value-add roles REAP might play in the future early warning and early action ecosystem.

Persistent barriers

Building on successes must happen alongside addressing persistent issues. We identified clear concerns during the discussions:

  • Scaling early action can’t rely on technology or a one-size-fits-all approach. Digital solutions often miss the people who need them the most. We must focus on the ‘first mile’—ensuring that marginalized communities are included from the start through participatory and co-designed approaches. When early warnings are tailored to their needs, real action can follow.

  • The current financial system wasn’t built for the ‘no regrets’ spending early action requires. We need funding structures that support initial investments and the long-term maintenance of vital infrastructure and capacities. Sustained financial support is essential to keeping communities safe in the long run.

  • Poor coordination often leads to duplicated efforts or fragmented approaches, which wastes limited time and resources. National governments know their needs better than anyone else, and those needs must guide and lead international efforts. We need stronger, more integrated partnerships to avoid working in silos and ensure every action is impactful.

  • Early action is too often seen as a standalone solution. To scale it effectively, it must be woven into broader national policies and systems, working hand-in-hand with ministries, civil society, and the private sector.

To tackle these challenges, we need bold, coordinated action—and we need it now. By working together, we can break through these roadblocks and create systems that protect everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

Charting a path for scalable early action

REAP Partners have agreed that the Partnership must play a crucial role in connecting and facilitating action across the entire early warning and early action value chain. 

REAP’s future strategy will focus on:

  • Systemic approaches: Supporting broad, interconnected approaches that go beyond just technical solutions, ensuring that early action becomes a natural part of national systems and policies.

  • Neutral broker: Continuing its role as a neutral space for frank and open dialogue, helping partners overcome challenges and find solutions to scaling early action.

  • Learning and innovation: Promoting good practices, spotlighting innovative solutions, and identifying gaps in knowledge that need addressing. REAP will act as a central hub for aggregating and sharing lessons learned, helping countries stay ahead of the curve.

  • Country-led focus: Strengthening REAP’s relevance by ensuring it’s led by regional and national needs, and by investing more in partnerships with governments on the ground.

End notes:

Transparency is key to the success of our collective endeavour. All the information gathered to date is available on the Notion site, and further information on the strategy will be included in due course.