Early Warning & Anticipatory Action Resource Hub
IFRC NETWORK
Early Warning & Anticipatory Action Tools and Resources Compendium
A guide to tools, methodologies and other resources to support and advance the IFRC network’s work in early warning and anticipatory action.
About this compendium
Early warning systems and anticipatory action are among the most effective measures to save lives, protect livelihoods, and reduce the costs of disasters. They are also critical for reducing disaster risk and adapting to the impacts of climate change. Yet, despite their proven value, significant global gaps remain — particularly in ensuring that early warnings lead to timely and effective action. National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (RCRC NS) can play a critical role in addressing these gaps by helping to strengthen early warning (EW) and anticipatory action (AA) systems with and for at-risk communities.
This compendium brings together tested tools, guidance, and methodologies developed across the RCRC Network. It shows how these resources connect to the four pillars of effective EWS — risk knowledge, monitoring and forecasting, dissemination and communication, and preparedness to respond — providing a practical foundation for strengthening early warning and anticipatory action.
Who is it for?
The compendium is designed primarily for RCRC National Societies seeking to strengthen or expand their work on EW and AA.
It is also valuable for partners, including governments, NGOs, and technical agencies, who wish to better understand and integrate RCRC tools and approaches into their own work.
Why was it developed?
The compendium was created as a practical reference for the IFRC Network and partners.
By curating existing tools and approaches in one place, it helps connect users to adaptable resources, identify entry points for EW and AA programming, prevent duplication, and promote a comprehensive approach across the four EWS pillars.
What does it offer?
The compendium is designed to help users quickly identify and apply relevant tools based on their operational context. Each entry includes a brief description and indicates which EWS pillar(s) it supports, making it easier to select resources aligned with specific needs.
It features a wide range of methodologies, guidance, reports, and digital tools. Click here to learn more about the types of tools and resources included.
IFRC Network’s role in Early Warning and Anticipatory Action
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is a global leader in advancing people-centered early warning and anticipatory action. With 191 National Societies, 197,000 local branches, and over 16 million volunteers, the IFRC network bridges the gap between communities and national systems, ensuring people are equipped to act. National RCRC Societies are uniquely positioned to link governments and communities, leveraging their auxiliary role to authorities and their long-term grassroots presence.
Building on decades of experience and feedback from communities and governments, the IFRC Network’s key objectives in EW and AA are to:
- Ensure early warning and anticipatory action are effectively embedded within national and local disaster risk management (DRM) systems.
- Ensure early warnings reach everyone and are trusted, understandable and actionable for all.
- Ensure early warning leads to anticipatory action.
- Promote people-centered approaches that prioritize the most vulnerable.
For a comprehensive overview of IFRC’s role and approach to EW & AA, read this brochure.
Key RCRC Framing Documents on EW & AA:
IFRC and Early Warnings for All (EW4All) Initiative
Launched in 2022, Early Warnings for All (EW4All) the UN, governments, civil society and partners to ensure universal protection through people‑centered, multi‑hazard early warning systems.
IFRC is the global lead for Pillar 4 – Preparedness to respond to warnings, working to ensure that communities and local governments have the knowledge, capacity, and resources to act when warnings arrive. In addition, IFRC actively contributes to Pillar 1: Disaster Risk Knowledge and Pillar 3: Warning Dissemination and Communication — helping ensure that community-level risk assessments feed into national systems and that warnings are delivered through trusted, accessible channels.
Tools and resources overview
A wide range of digital and analogue tools, methodologies, and guidance materials have been developed within the RCRC Network to support early warning and anticipatory action. Most tools and resources in this compendium fall into these four categories — see the resource type description below to learn more.
A wide range of digital and analogue tools, methodologies, and guidance materials have been developed within the RCRC Network to support early warning and anticipatory action. Most tools and resources in this compendium fall into these four categories — see the resource type description below to learn more.
Four Pillars of effective EWS
The following sections present tools and resources organized around the four pillars of early warning systems. Click on each title to learn more and see how each resource supports different aspects of EWS.
Disaster Risk Knowledge
Collecting data and undertaking risk assessments to increase knowledge on hazards and vulnerabilities and trends.
Relevant RCRC tools and resources:
Detection, observations, monitoring, analysis and forecasting of hazards
Developing hazard monitoring and early warning services.
Relevant RCRC tools and resources:
Warning dissemination and communication
Communicating risk information to all those who need it.
Relevant RCRC tools and resources:
Preparedness to respond to warnings
Ensuring communities and governments have the knowledge and means to act on early warnings.
Relevant RCRC tools and resources:
Cross-cutting
Foundational elements that support and strengthen all four pillars of an EWS
Community Engagement and Accountability
Ensuring EWS are rooted in local participation, empowering communities to co-create solutions that reduce vulnerability and improve response capacities
Relevant RCRC tools and resources:
Effective Governance and Institutional Arrangements
Establishing legal, policy, and coordination frameworks to enable effective EWS from national to local levels.
Relevant RCRC tools and resources:
Tools and resources directory
Browse the cards below to see all the resources. The pillar icons show where each tool fits in EWS and which pillars it supports, and the tag at the top shows the tool type. Click Learn More for a brief overview and guidance on how the tool can be applied across EWS pillars.
While most resources are for direct use by National Societies, the compendium also includes tools meant to be implemented by other actors (e.g., governments), where the RCRC plays a key role through advocacy, technical support, and coordination.
Methodology
Enhanced Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (EVCA)
A participatory approach that helps communities map risks, identify capacities, and plan actions for resilience.
Overview
The Enhanced Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (EVCA) is a long-standing standardized methodology for community risk mapping. EVCAs guide volunteers to gather data on hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities, producing risk profiles and maps. These serve as the “foundation” for community-based DRR, including community EWS, and response capacity planning.
To complement EVCA, the Communication Landscape Analysis Tool for EWS was developed. This tool can be used alongside the EVCA process to better understand a community’s information ecosystem to improve dissemination of alerts. For more details, please refer to the Warning Dissemination tab under Use Across EWS below.
Use Across EWS
Using EVCA, National RCRC Societies can support communities to conduct risk assessments that improve risk knowledge and inform development of action plans. EVCA fosters great risk awareness and self-empowerment within communities. The EVCA Guide offers tested strategies and practical tools to help communities better understand hazards and vulnerabilities.
Early warning considerations can be integrated into the EVCA process. The Communication Landscape Analysis Tool and accompanying Focus Group Discussion Guide, developed as EVCA supplements, help map trusted communication channels and sources within a community. By analyzing communication flows, barriers, and diverse needs, EVCA strengthens dissemination approaches to ensure warnings are inclusive and reach all community members.
The EVCA process extends beyond vulnerability assessment and risk reduction planning. It also helps build response capabilities within communities. Through the contingency planning involved in the EVCA, communities can prepare to respond to priority hazards, and also prepare to respond to warnings before they materialize (ensuring contingency plans include provisions for anticipatory action). The EVCA guide includes methods to identify existing response capacity gaps and develop basic contingency plans to address them.
Developing community-based early warning systems is frequently identified as a priority activity in community action plans that emerge from the EVCA process. For further guidance on this topic, please refer to the Community Early Warning Systems (CEWS) guidance principles.
Guidance
Tools & Templates
Training Materials
Case Studies:
-
Dominica Building Resilience Through Community Early Warning Systems – How EVCA was used to design and strengthen community EWS.
- Digital Tools for EVCA: General overview and applications in Lebanon, Nigeria, Philippines, and Colombia.
Additional References
- IFRC Risk Assessment and Planning page for more information on IFRC work around community risk assessments and resilience planning.
Methodology
Climate Risk Assessment (CRA)
Structured process to assess current and future climate risks at national and sub-national levels.
Overview
The National Climate Risk Assessment (CRA) is the first step of the IFRC Climate Action Journey — an integrated approach to scaling up climate action and advancing locally led adaptation. It provides National Societies with a structured process to analyze climate hazards, vulnerabilities, and exposure, offering a comprehensive overview of historical, current, and projected climate risks and their humanitarian implications and sectoral impacts at national and sub-national levels.
The CRA establishes the evidence base for all the consecutive Climate Action Journey work and can be used for any broader programming to integrate climate risks, helping position National Societies as trusted partners in national and community climate and resilience action.
Use Across EWS
The CRA consolidates climate data, sectoral impacts, and vulnerabilities into a coherent national and sub-national risk picture. It enables National Societies to identify priority hazards and future projections, understand how risks affect different groups, regions, and sectors, and set priorities for future climate-related work, which often include early warning and anticipatory action.
In addition, CRA outputs can feed into climate profiles and storymaps strengthening awareness, inform national dialogue, and support resource mobilization. As climate change drives more frequent and intense weather events, EW and AA become critical components to reduce the impact of climate-related disasters and a comprehensive CRA can support identifying context specific approaches.
Guidance
- Guide to climate-smart programmes and humanitarian operations (CSPO) – Annex 1 for recommendations on writing and data sources and Annex 2 for sector impacts
CRA Story Maps:
- Africa: Malawi, Nigeria
- Asia-Pacific: Pakistan, Maldives
- Latin America & Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Uruguay, Paraguay
- Europe: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Communication Materials
Digital Tool
Global Risk Watch – IFRC GO
A risk data analysis tool to understand estimated hazard impacts and exposure.
Overview
The Risk Watch tool, hosted on the IFRC GO platform, provides information on the modeled impact of forecasted or detected natural hazards (e.g., floods, storms, droughts, wildfires, earthquakes) globally. It helps predict the number of people exposed to imminent and seasonal hazards and assesses each country's overall risk for specific hazards.
Risk Watch visualizes curated disaster risk data to support decision-making and improve situational awareness during crises. It draws on open-source data from IFRC, National Societies, and partners, including governments, academia, UN agencies, the private sector, and other international organizations. The tool informs operational planning and response by providing potential impact estimates for forecasted events. It also enables risk comparisons between countries throughout the year to guide resource allocation for disaster risk reduction (DRR), anticipatory action, and climate adaptation.
Use Across EWS
As a repository of risk data and metrics from reliable sources, Risk Watch supports risk analysis by providing real-time, seasonal, and historical hazard information to identify high-risk areas and estimate population exposure.
The Imminent tab highlights forecasted events and their potential impacts, while the Seasonal tab shows expected risks in a given country and month, such as estimated displacement figures. These analyses strengthen risk knowledge to guide planning, resource allocation, and preparedness and anticipatory action efforts.
Guidance / Manual
Collaborating with national climate and weather agencies: a guide to getting started
Guidance for strengthening collaboration between RCRC actors and meteorological services to co-produce forecasts.
Overview
This guidance document provides practical recommendations for strengthening collaboration between Red Cross Red Crescent actors and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs). It outlines approaches for co-producing forecasts, building institutional partnerships, improving forecast relevance for humanitarian action, and ensuring that scientific forecasts are better linked to preparedness and early action efforts.
Use Across EWS
The guidance supports closer collaboration between humanitarian actors and meteorological agencies to co-produce forecasts that combine scientific hazard data with vulnerability and exposure information. It helps ensure that forecasts are designed to meet operational needs, with appropriate lead times, geographic focus, and actionable thresholds. The document also promotes joint forecast verification and feedback mechanisms to strengthen forecast accuracy and trust, and encourages data sharing and real-time coordination to enhance monitoring capacities.
Digital Tool
Impact Based Forecasting Portal (IBF Portal)
A digital decision-support platform that combines hazard forecasts with exposure and vulnerability data to predict likely impacts and trigger early actions.
Overview
The Impact-Based Forecasting Portal is a decision-support platform that helps disaster managers prepare for and respond to hazards before they strike. It combines weather and hydrological forecasts with local data on population and infrastructure to show not just what hazard is coming, but who will be affected, where, and when. The portal answers four critical questions for anticipatory action: When should we act? Where will the impact be greatest? Which areas should we prioritize? And what level of action is needed?
By providing impact estimates at sub-national level (down to district or municipality), the IBF portal enables National Societies and their government partners to target early actions where they matter most. Users can set customized alert thresholds — low, medium, and high — for multiple hazards, allowing graduated responses that match the severity of forecasted events rather than relying on single activation triggers.
Use Across EWS
The IBF portal consolidates exposure data, such as population distribution, health facilities, schools, and other critical infrastructure, with historical hazard information. This enables users to understand which areas and communities face the greatest risk and to identify patterns across seasons and events. The portal also supports scenario planning, allowing users to model potential impacts from events of different magnitudes for training and contingency planning.
The portal integrates forecasts from multiple sources, including global models like GloFAS, and where available, national meteorological services. It translates these forecasts into estimated impacts at local administrative levels, giving disaster managers actionable information with lead time to mobilize resources and coordinate with partners.
The IBF portal supports day-to-day operational planning, not just single activations or EAP monitoring. Its multi-threshold alert system helps National Societies track developing situations across hazard seasons, coordinate readiness activities, and align early actions with existing Early Action Protocols or government Standard Operating Procedures. The platform also documents alerts for future accountability and learning.
Guidance
- Impact-based Forecasting (IBF) for Early Action Guide – Comprehensive guide to IBF from Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and UK Met Office
Case Studies
- Philippines: Impact Based Forecasting for Typhoons
- Uganda: Together For Localised Humanitarian Action
- Zambia: Early Action Protocols in Practice
- Philippines: IBF Dengue Portal
Communications Materials
Guidance & Key Messages
Public Awareness and Public Education (PAPE) for DRR
Actionable safety messages that support preparedness efforts and help act on early warnings.
Overview
Public awareness and education are essential components of disaster risk reduction and EWS, helping individuals and communities understand hazards, recognize warning signals, and take protective actions. They cover a broad range of activities — from campaigns and school programs to community outreach — that strengthen preparedness and support early action.
Within this wider effort, Public Awareness and Public Education (PAPE) key messages and accompanying guide provide standardized, action-oriented guidance for many hazards. Developed by IFRC and Save the Children with input from global experts, PAPE offers clear, evidence-based content that can be adapted by National Societies and partners to local contexts. These messages promote consistent safety practices, inform awareness campaigns, and serve as a foundation for alerts and early warning communications.
The IFRC network has a long history in helping frame relevant warning messages for different audiences, using the PAPE messages on what protective actions to take, and strengthening the link between community and national EWS. National RCRC Societies can further localize PAPE messages in collaboration with governments, academia, civil society, and other partners, ensuring relevance, trust, and wide adoption.
Use Across EWS
PAPE messages offer clear safety guidance that can accompany emergency alerts. When adapted and contextualized, PAPE messages can be uploaded to the IFRC National Society Preparedness Message Platform and then accessed by media and alerting agencies to disseminate with early warning alerts. This ensures clear and actionable guidance on preparing for and responding to disasters reaches the public efficiently.
Important note: For messages to have credibility and strong impact in communities, they need to be adapted to local hazards, culture and contexts. Harmonizing messages across all disaster risk reduction organizations and institutions is also important to ensure consistency and credibility of information. RCRC National Societies, in partnership with local stakeholders, play a central role in this process of adoption and adaptation of key messages at the national level. Explore PAPE guidance on message adaptation and the online course to learn more.
Undertaking public awareness and education campaigns ensures people understand risks, know what to expect from warnings, and take the right actions in response. The broader Public Awareness and Public Education (PAPE) Guide supports the design of such campaigns, using PAPE key messages as core content for school programs, outreach events, and media initiatives.
By equipping communities with practical knowledge before hazards strike, these campaigns strengthen preparedness and ensure communities are prepared to act when warnings arrive.
Guidance & Reference
- Public Awareness and public education for DRR: Key message
- Public Awareness and public education for DRR: A guide
Training
- Localization of key PAPE messages eLearning course
- Caribbean Disaster Risk Management (CADRIM) PAPE E-Library
Examples of Localized Messages
Digital Tool
WhatNow – IFRC National Society Preparedness Messages Platform
A repository of locally adapted early action messages that help make alerts more actionable.
Overview
Formerly known as the WhatNow platform, the IFRC National Societies Preparedness Messages Platform is a digital repository of PAPE messages. It hosts a curated library of ready-to-use, multi-hazard preparedness and early action messages. These messages are adapted by RCRC National Societies in coordination with government partners and technical experts to ensure local relevance and consistency (see section above). Once adapted and agreed, they are uploaded to the platform by National Societies, providing a centralized and trusted source of actionable guidance.
Being structured in early warning lead times (imminent event, warning (24 - 48h), and anticipated (3 - 5 days) as well as longer time horizons, the messages can support early warning, preparedness and resilience building communications. An API allows government and media partners to access the messages with National Society attribution and distribute them through digital and non-digital communication channels, including through early warning alerts.
Use Across EWS
As a repository of standardized, evidence-based messaging, the platform streamlines alert dissemination across channels. National Societies use it to centralize early action guidance based on PAPE messages, while partners, including global actors like Google and national or local media, can access these messages through the platform’s open API and integrate them into emergency alert systems.
By integrating these messages with emergency alerts on their platforms, partners ensure that communities receive consistent and reliable safety information through various communication channels.
Toolkit
Training
- Localization of Key PAPE Messages eLearning Course (includes Module 3 on the WhatNow Service)
Communications Materials
Digital Tool
IFRC Alert Hub
A free aggregator of official multi-hazard alerts issued worldwide, providing timely and reliable access to warnings.
Overview
The IFRC Alert Hub is a free online platform that aggregates published Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alerts from official alerting agencies worldwide, providing open access to multi-hazard alerts at national and, where applicable, local levels. The platform centralizes emergency alerts for the use of rebroadcasters such as online media, Google, weather apps, alerting apps and humanitarian actors, helping deliver timely, reliable warnings to at-risk communities.
The IFRC leverages the Alert Hub to integrate hazard alerts into the IFRC data ecosystem to inform situational awareness and operational decision-making. The tool was developed as part of broader IFRC Alert Hub initiative, which promotes CAP adoption and encourages National RCRC to collaborate with national authorities for its implementation.
Use Across EWS
The IFRC Alert Hub increases access to alerts by consolidating feeds globally and making them available for redistribution across diverse media platforms. By offering free and easy access, it ensures that National Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Societies, as well as other organizations, can disseminate trusted, reliable, secure, and precise early warning messages. This includes news organizations, telecommunications providers, other humanitarian actors, and so on.
Users can access alerts as soon as they are issued by official authorities in their country and rebroadcast them to inform the public about impending disasters. The subscription feature allows users to receive alerts from selected countries directly via email.
Technical Resources
Case Studies
Methodology
Preparedness for Effective Response (PER) Approach
A structured approach to strengthen National Societies' preparedness capacities to ensure timely and effective humanitarian assistance.
Overview
The Preparedness for Effective Response (PER) Approach provides a structured framework to assess and strengthen a National Society’s preparedness and response capacity. At its core is the PER Mechanism, which outlines the key functions, capacities, tools, and processes needed for effective disaster and crisis response. It fosters a shared understanding and language around preparedness across the IFRC network.
Drawing on decades of Red Cross Red Crescent experience, PER helps National Societies comprehensively examine their preparedness and response systems. It aims to empower them to innovate in disaster risk management actions, ultimately strengthening local preparedness capacities and ensuring more effective humanitarian assistance delivery.
The PER Approach aims to:
- Reinforce the role of a NS within national and local emergency management systems.
- Empower NSs to continuously adapt to changing risk landscapes and the needs of affected populations.
- Improve the quality and accountability of disaster preparedness and response, including international support from the IFRC network.
- Contribute to the coordination of the local, national and global systems.
- Continuously learn from preparedness programmes and emergency operations’ experience.
If you are from a National Society and are interested in the PER approach, contact NS.preparedness@ifrc.org
Use Across EWS
The PER Mechanism includes components and benchmarks on risk monitoring systems linked to preparedness and early action. This includes the ability of National Societies to update multi-hazard risk analyses and maps, implement risk assessments at the community level using primary and secondary data, and ensure the active participation and reflection of the needs and strengths of the local population.
Risk analysis contributes to scenario planning and the development of response strategies and contingency plans. National Societies are also expected to conduct regular awareness-raising and public education on disaster crises to increase community-level understanding and knowledge of risks.
When used as a tool, the PER Mechanism can help identify the requirements to strengthen NS preparedness and readiness, ultimately enhancing response capacity. Utilizing the PER Mechanism to support needs and gaps analysis does not necessitate a lengthy process. The information it provides can help identify and prioritize actions for improving emergency response and preparedness across multiple timeframes — from immediate needs to long-term capacity building.
The optimal scope, level of detail, and outcome when employing the PER Approach will vary depending on the contextual environment (e.g., ongoing crisis, imminent disaster), available resources, and timeframe. How the analysis from the PER Mechanism is applied relates to the intended objectives and strategic priorities. Follow the links below to learn more about how to use the PER Approach:
Digital Tool
AccessRC
A secure mobile application helping National Societies deliver rapid, accountable, and scalable assistance.
Overview
AccessRC is a Red Cross Red Crescent network platform, supported by the IFRC, that enables secure registration, targeting, communication, and delivery of humanitarian assistance. It is available in 54 languages and is designed to support a wide range of assistance modalities, including cash and voucher assistance (CVA), in-kind distributions, information campaigns, and other forms of support.
In addition to assistance delivery, AccessRC provides the ability to deploy and collect survey information, including needs assessments and post-distribution monitoring, helping National Societies make evidence-based decisions and strengthen accountability to affected people. By providing a centralized, flexible, and secure system, AccessRC helps National Societies scale assistance quickly, ensure data protection, and deliver timely and appropriate support, even as people move within a country or across boarders.
Examples of Use:
- Lithuanian Red Cross – used AccessRC to conduct rapid checks during evacuations.
- Bulgarian Red Cross – used it for distributing food parcels, hygiene kits, and cash assistance.
- Romanian Red Cross – applied it to deliver cash assistance.
- Costa Rica Red Cross – leveraged the platform for information campaigns.
- Peruvian Red Cross – used it for both needs assessments and cash distributions.
Use Across EWS
Provides channels to communicate directly with participants, ensuring early warning messages are linked to clear, tangible assistance actions. This strengthens trust and connects risk information with rapid support mechanisms.
Serves as a ready-to-use delivery and case management mechanism that National Societies can activate once triggers are met, enabling rapid, predictable, and accountable early actions across multiple assistance modalities. The integrated assessment and monitoring functions ensure preparedness and learning are embedded throughout the response cycle.
Implementation guidelines, training materials, and case studies are available through IFRC and participating National Societies. More details at https://accessrc.org/
Guidance
Forecast-based Financing (FbF) Practitioners Manual
A practical guide that helps National Societies design, operationalize, and implement Forecast-based Financing systems and Early Action Protocols.
Overview
Forecast-based Financing (FbF) is currently the primary Red Cross Red Crescent anticipatory action methodology, enabling National Societies to access humanitarian funding for early action based on forecast information combined with risk and impact analysis. When a predetermined trigger threshold is reached, funds are automatically allocated to support rapid implementation of early actions before a disaster strikes. The core instrument for this is the Early Action Protocol (EAP), which clearly sets out when and where to act, what actions will be taken, and who is responsible.
The Forecast-based Financing Practitioners Manual is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to designing and implementing FbF systems and developing EAPs. It takes users through the full FbF programme cycle — from initial scoping and stakeholder engagement to early action selection, trigger development, activation planning, budgeting, simulations, MEAL, and EAP submission.
Structured as a “journey,” the manual offers clear chapters, toolboxes, and quizzes to support practical application, with extensive operational guidance on setting up programme architecture, preparing activation systems, coordinating decision-making, and ensuring the readiness required to implement anticipatory actions effectively and safely.
Use Across EWS
EAPs for FbF enable National Societies to implement anticipatory action through the anticipatory pillar of the IFRC DREF. With approved EAPs in place, National Societies can access pre-agreed financing immediately when triggers activate, allowing them to carry out early actions before disaster strikes. The FbF manual serves as the essential roadmap for developing these EAPs and establishing robust FbF systems, guiding National Societies through the technical, operational, and institutional requirements needed to successfully implement anticipatory action.
While the IFRC DREF is the primary funding mechanism for RCRC anticipatory action, other options exist — see the Pre-Financing Anticipatory Action Guide for additional funding sources.
Funding mechanism
Anticipatory Pillar of the IFRC-DREF
A dedicated funding mechanism that enables Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to take actions before disasters strike.
Overview
To support the implementation of anticipatory actions, the Anticipatory Pillar of the IFRC DREF enables National Societies to access pre-agreed funding for early actions based on forecast-based triggers. Through Early Action Protocols (EAPs), National Societies develop plans that outline specific actions to be taken once forecast thresholds are reached, aiming to reduce the humanitarian impacts of predictable hazards. Once approved, these protocols allow for the timely release of funds ahead of disasters, supporting early preparedness and protective actions before the onset of an event.
The Anticipatory Pillar of the IFRC-DREF is managed by the IFRC Secretariat as a central fund. Any National Societies can develop an EAP and simplified EAP (sEAP) and apply to access funding from the DREF.
Use Across EWS
Often funding is needed to carry out early actions and respond to early warnings. The anticipatory pillar of the DREF provides access to such funding in advance, allowing National Societies to act before disasters happen. Once forecast triggers are reached, funds are rapidly released to support measures such as evacuations, relief distributions, or public health actions, reducing the impacts before a crisis fully unfolds.
Guidance
Pre-Financing Anticipatory Action: Guide for National Societies
Step-by-step guidance for National Societies on designing pre-financing strategies to enable timely anticipatory action.
Overview
The Pre-Financing Anticipatory Action Guide provides practical guidance for National Societies on how to design and implement financial preparedness strategies to secure funds ahead of forecasted hazards. There are a variety of ways National Societies can pre-finance funding for early action and response operations, and this Guide offers step-by-step advice on establishing pre-financing mechanisms that can enable faster, more predictable funding for anticipatory action.
The guide supports finance, logistics, and program teams in identifying funding sources, designing financial triggers, and aligning pre-financing arrangements with operational early action plans.
Use Across EWS
Pre-financing is often essential for enabling timely and effective early action by allowing National Societies to mobilize resources quickly when they are most needed. With the help of this Guide, National Societies can explore a range of financing options, assess which solutions fit their anticipatory action programs, and start designing their pre-financing strategy. Depending on the scale and scope of their programs, National Societies may need to establish multiple financing arrangements to meet their operational needs.
Guidance
Anticipatory Action Simulation Exercise Toolkit and Facilitator Manual
Practical guidance to plan, run, and evaluate simulation exercises that test and strengthen anticipatory action (AA) systems.
Overview
The Anticipatory Action Simulation Exercise Toolkit and Facilitator Manual compile proven practices and provide tools for countries and organizations implementing AA to conduct effective simulations or table-top exercises. SimEx enables practitioners to explore challenges and decisions involved in activating AA before a disaster occurs.
The toolkit covers the full exercise lifecycle — planning, scenario development, implementation, and evaluation — so governments and partners can test approaches, learn from real-time decision-making, and refine implementation modalities. By simulating activation, users can refine protocols, improve coordination, and strengthen AA readiness, including in contexts where a real activation has not yet occurred.
Use Across EWS
Simulation Exercise (SimExes) is a cost-effective way to test AA systems and identify gaps. It provides a safe environment to apply knowledge, test trigger and coordination procedures, and practice time-critical decisions, with room to make mistakes and learn. Exercises encourage stakeholder engagement, foster collaboration, and build a shared understanding of AA processes within the specific context of a developing protocol. Because every country, region, and community differs, SimEx offers an engaging forum to connect community, provincial, and national actors and partners to refine processes and tailor them to local needs, so stakeholders know what to do and how to act when warnings are issued.
Exercises focus on resolving issues that may arise during preparedness and activation, such as coordination mechanisms, resource allocation, communication strategies, and roles and responsibilities. They help refine protocols and provide governments and partners with a clear view of the process, especially where a real activation has not yet occurred in the country or locality of focus.
Report
Strengthening National Disaster Risk Management Systems through integration of anticipatory action
An IFRC report on how governments can institutionalize anticipatory action, and how humanitarian actors, including RCRC National Societies, can support this process.
Overview
Scaling and sustaining anticipatory action depends on government ownership. The Strengthening National Disaster Risk Management Systems through integration of anticipatory action report explores how anticipatory approaches are being integrated into national disaster risk management systems, drawing on global trends and concrete examples with two deep-dive case studies from Nepal and Madagascar. It highlights emerging examples of government leadership, common barriers to integration, and the roles RCRC National Societies and partners can play in enabling this shift.
The report identifies practical entry points – legal, operational, financial, and forecasting – for embedding anticipatory action into existing systems, and offers actionable recommendations for governments and humanitarian actors.
Use Across EWS
National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as auxiliaries to public authorities, are uniquely positioned to support governments in translating early warnings into early action. Their deep community presence and access to international best practice enable them to bridge national systems with local needs.
Throughout the report, National Societies will find concrete recommendations, case studies, and examples of how they can engage in and support the institutionalization of anticipatory action, ensuring it is community-driven and is designed with and for communities.
Cross-Cutting
Community Engagement and Accountability
Effective early warning systems (EWS) must be grounded in a people-centered approach that reflects the knowledge, capacities, and priorities of at-risk communities. Rather than treating these groups as passive recipients of information, people-centered systems engage them as co-creators and decision-makers, strengthening their ability to act on early warnings.
Community engagement should be integrated throughout the design, implementation, and evaluation of EWS, including anticipatory and responsive actions that safeguard individuals and the broader community. To ensure inclusivity, accessibility, and actionability, people-centered principles must be embedded across all four pillars of EWS. While many resources listed under each pillar reflect people-centered approaches, those included in this section are featured here because they span across all four pillars. Placing them in this section highlights their cross-cutting role.
Methodology
Community Early Warning Systems (CEWS)
Guidance and materials to design and establish people-centered EWS with direct community participation and ownership.
Overview
Community Early Warning Systems (CEWS) offer a model for designing people-centered EWS through direct participation and engagement of at-risk communities. Developed by or with — not just for — communities, CEWS provide locally led ways to gather and interpret risk information, monitor hazards, and disseminate clear, actionable alerts that reduce disaster risk. Locally led and implemented, CEWS can fill gaps in national systems by providing community-driven solutions rooted in participation and ownership.
As trusted community partners, National Societies can support the establishment of CEWS by equipping at-risk communities with the knowledge, skills, and tools to monitor hazards and take anticipatory action, particularly in remote, underserved, or marginalized areas. Key resources include:
- CEWS Guiding Principles is a Strategic Document that builds a strong foundation and inspires readers to ask the right questions, explore a wider perspective, develop better programming and scale up RCRC initiatives.
- CEWS Training Toolkit is an operational document that contains a Training of Trainers material with ready-to-adapt and run modules and a roster of trainers. It is flexible and adaptable for every new context, using highly participatory methods.
The CEWS Training Toolkit is currently being revised and an updated version will be shared as soon as it is ready.
Use Across EWS
Risk knowledge is built through systematic assessments of hazards and vulnerabilities, best developed directly with affected communities. Participatory tools such as hazard mapping and community assessments help build local risk awareness. The IFRC CEWS Guide (p. 51) includes guidance on integrating Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (VCAs) into CEWS to strengthen community risk knowledge and improve early warning effectiveness.
Communities can actively monitor hazards such as floods, droughts, landslides, and conflict. Indigenous knowledge and local practices often offer experiential indicators that communities observe and act upon. Blending these with technical data can create early warning systems where communities monitor hazards and respond well before official warnings are issued. The IFRC CEWS Guide (p. 55) offers examples and recommendations for community-led monitoring.
While governments are responsible for issuing public warnings, National RCRC Societies and other community groups play a vital role in making this information accessible to community members. These groups can act as intermediaries, translating and disseminating technical information in formats that are easy for communities to understand and use. The IFRC CEWS Guide (see p. 67) outlines key considerations for developing effective community-based systems for warning dissemination.
Building community response capacity ensures that warnings trigger timely actions. Preparedness activities should start well before warnings are issued, as warnings alone have limited impact without readiness to act. The IFRC CEWS Guide (p. 61) includes exercises and activities for National Societies to strengthen community response capacity.
Methodology
Community Trust Index (CTI) for Early Warning Systems
Evidence-based methodology to measure and track community trust in early warnings and the actors who deliver them.
Overview
The Community Trust Index, developed by the IFRC Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) team, is an evidence-based tool to measure and track the levels of trust that communities have in Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and other humanitarian actors. The Index supports efforts to strengthen trust and, in turn, improve the effectiveness of humanitarian programs.
Use Across EWS
Trust in warnings and their source is critical for people to understand, believe, and act on early warnings. The Community Trust Index for Early Warning Systems is a practical tool to assess how much communities trust early warning messages and the actors behind them. It measures both the perceived accuracy (competence) and fairness (values and ethics) of warnings, helping National Societies and partners identify trusted communication channels, messengers, and gaps in system credibility. By integrating community feedback, the Index helps design more effective, people-centered early warning systems that promote timely action and strengthen disaster preparedness.
Effective Governance and Institutional Arrangements
Effective governance plays a critical role in enabling successful early warning systems by establishing the necessary frameworks and structures. Good governance is strongly linked to higher preparedness levels: 95 out of 101 countries reporting multi-hazard early warning systems also have national disaster risk reduction strategies. Countries with more comprehensive strategies typically demonstrate.
As auxiliaries to public authorities, National RCRC Societies can support the strengthening of disaster risk governance and advocate for integrating early warning and anticipatory action into disaster risk management laws, policies, operational plans, and funding mechanisms.
Guidance
The Checklist on Law and Disaster Preparedness and Response
Practical checklist to support establishment of legal frameworks for effective multi-hazard EWS.
Overview
IFRC Disaster Law is a program of the IFRC which aims to save lives and keep communities safe through more effective disaster laws, policies, and plans. IFRC Disaster Law works with National RCRC Societies and governments to strengthen disaster risk governance through the development and implementation of disaster- and emergency-related instruments. It offers extensive resources on strengthening the governance and legal foundations for disaster risk reduction, preparedness, and response.
More specifically, IFRC’s Checklist on Law and Disaster Preparedness and Response supports governments, National Societies and other stakeholders with technical assistance for the strengthening of legal frameworks relating to disaster preparedness and response, including early warning early action. The Checklist includes support for establishing legal frameworks for an effective multi-hazard early warning system.
Use Across EWS
Early action starts with strong legal frameworks. Mandating early action in laws, policies, and plans helps ensure it happens. Drawing on the Checklist, the Legal frameworks for early warning early action brief explains how these instruments can specify what actions are taken, when they are triggered, who is responsible, and how IFRC Disaster Law can support governments to strengthen legal frameworks for early action.
Case Studies
- Integrating early warning early action within disaster law in Africa
- Integrating early warning early action within disaster legislation in Asia Pacific
Training materials
- Introduction to Disaster Preparedness and Response Law
- Strengthening the Auxiliary Role through Law and Policy
- Law and Disaster Risk Reduction
Communications materials
Guidance
The Checklist & Handbook on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction
A practical guide to help governments and stakeholders strengthen legal frameworks for DRM across all sectors and levels.
Overview
The Checklist on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction is a practical tool for lawmakers, implementers, and partners to assess whether national and local laws enable effective DRR. It looks beyond core disaster risk management (DRM) acts to include sectoral laws and regulations, such as land-use planning, building, environment, and natural-resource management, that shape risk and resilience. The Checklist supports structured legal reviews and helps align national frameworks with international standards, especially the Sendai Framework.
A companion resource, the Handbook on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction, offers step-by-step, practical guidance on how to apply the Checklist in different country contexts. While the approach should be tailored to national needs, the Handbook outlines common process steps, roles, and considerations to strengthen laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements for DRR.
Use Across EWS
Strong legal frameworks are essential for enabling coordinated, inclusive, and timely early warning systems. The Checklist supports governments and partners, including National Societies, in identifying legal gaps and opportunities to strengthen mandates, clarify institutional roles, and ensure early warning systems are backed by enforceable laws and policies.
It includes guidance on legal provisions for early warning procedures, DRR education and awareness-raising, and the inclusion of vulnerable groups, along with other components that are critical to effective early warning and anticipatory action.
Publication
Case Studies
- Law and Policies that Protect the Most Vulnerable against Climate-Related Disaster Risks: Findings and Lessons Learned from Pacific Island Countries
- Addressing Specific Vulnerabilities through Integrated Climate and Disaster Risk Governance - Lessons from the Philippines
- Integrating CCA and DRR Laws and Policies towards a Climate-Resilient Development: Lessons from the Commonwealth of Dominica
- Law and Policies that Protect the Most Vulnerable against Climate-Related Disaster Risks: Findings and Lessons Learned from Kenya
Brief
From Alert to Action: Legal and Policy Frameworks for Early Warning Early Action
Overview
From Alert to Action: Legal and Policy Frameworks for Early Warning Early Action distills the core elements of disaster risk governance that enable Early Warning Early Action (EWEA): clear mandates, coordinated SOPs, accessible communication requirements, pre-arranged financing, and accountability to at-risk communities. It explains what needs to be in place in laws, policies, strategies, and plans so roles, triggers, and resources are defined before a hazard strikes, making early action timely, inclusive, and scalable.
Use Across EWS
This brief can inform EWEA work by guiding policymakers, practitioners, and advocates in assessing and strengthening legal and policy frameworks that support timely, coordinated, and inclusive action. It offers practical insights for integrating EWEA into broader disaster risk governance and supports efforts to operationalize the Early Warnings for All initiative at the policy level.
Network of Expertise
The IFRC network features several specialized knowledge hubs, reference centers, and initiatives that advance early warning and anticipatory action. Each offers tools, technical expertise, and evidence-based guidance to strengthen this work globally. Visit their websites to explore resources and learn more the about network's EWAA work.