In recognition of the need to scale up action around Climate and disaster risk reduction (DRR), the IFRC, as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, has developed a set of Ambitions to Address the Climate Crisis, articulating how collectively the IFRC’s 192 National Societies, 165,000 local branches and 14 million volunteers will make their work “climate-smart and increase climate change adaptation and DRR efforts, working with communities on the front lines of climate change.” One of the key Pillars of Action focuses on working with communities to reduce vulnerability and exposure to the impacts of climate change in both rural and urban settings by scaling-up climate-smart disaster risk reduction, early action and preparedness activities.
Through working on Early Warning Systems and Anticipatory Action, communities will be better prepared to manage forecasted weather events and new climate extremes, including by being able to access resources ahead of their impact. Example activities include:
- Scaling up community awareness, public education and school-based, formal and non-formal education programmes on DRR, Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and environmental issues to enhance understanding of present and future risks.
- Increasing nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based DRR wherever it is effective.
- Support the growth and development of strong National Societies preparedness programmes for climate-related disasters.
- Expanding and connecting community early warning systems (EWS) to national EWS to ensure action in “last mile” communities.
- Continuing to develop Early Action Protocols in more countries, and for more hazards.
- Enabling access of funds for early action from the IFRC’s Forecast based Action by the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund and support governments to create anticipatory/ forecast-based risk management mechanisms.
- Continuing to prioritize and invest in addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women, girls, older people, people with disabilities, marginalized and vulnerable groups.
These priorities are reflected in the IFRC’s Strategy 2030, and the IFRC Secretariat’s Plan and Budget for 2021-2025, which both include the climate and environmental crises as one of the five key priorities of the Red Cross and Red Crescent network. More recently, the IFRC Global Climate Resilience Programme was launched as an ambitious, multi-year programme to scale up locally led climate-smart disaster risk reduction (DRR) and adaptation efforts.
The programme aims to help people adapt their lives and livelihoods to our changing climate, protect themselves from the increasing risks of disasters caused by climate change, and become more aware of, and resilient to, current and future climate shocks. As part of Pillar 1, the development and implementation of effective community early warning systems and anticipatory action are prioritised.
For more information on IFRC work on Early Warning and Anticipatory Action see: Early warning, early action | IFRC.
