Diaspora in Anticipatory Action: The Missing Link in Anticipatory Action

This Guidance Note explores the role of diaspora actors in anticipatory action and provides practical considerations for humanitarian and development practitioners seeking to engage diaspora communities across anticipatory action systems and processes. It aims to contribute to broader discussions on locally led and inclusive anticipatory action by highlighting opportunities, challenges and emerging practices related to diaspora engagement. 

While the note is relevant to anticipatory action more broadly, it draws extensively on learning generated through Danish Refugee Council's (DRC) Anticipatory Humanitarian Action for Displacement (AHEAD) project, a multi-country initiative operating across eight countries that seeks to strengthen anticipatory action for conflict-induced displacement through forecasting, community-based early warning systems and anticipatory interventions that help communities prepare for and mitigate displacement risks before they escalate. The inclusion of local actors, diaspora and hard-to-reach populations in anticipatory action is an explicit learning outcome of the project, providing scope for testing new modalities and practices.

 Somalia has been selected as the first operational context given its strong global diaspora network, fit with DRC programming and priorities, and strong diaspora partner capacities across target locations. This note shares what we are learning along the way. Rather than a tested model, it offers insights from our emerging practice and early learning on how diaspora actors and local actors could take part in anticipatory action alongside established actors – in early warning, financing and action – as actors in their own right. As such, it is intended to support country teams and practitioners in unpacking what this could look like in practice, from context monitoring to the design and implementation of anticipatory action plans. 

Informed by DRC's methodology on anticipatory action, this note is structured around DRC's six stages of anticipatory action system building – risk-informed analysis, early warning and triggers, anticipatory action plans, pre-arranged financing, capacity to activate, and learning and evidence – highlighting the roles of diaspora and local actors across each step.