Anticipatory Action Community of Practice Middle East and North Africa Region

Overview

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, countries and populations are increasingly vulnerable to more frequent hazards and risks. The region continues to experience conflicts, internal displacement and cross-border population movement, as well as climate change, rapid urbanization and unplanned development practices that increase the risks and vulnerabilities. The impacts of these are further exacerbated by challenges including recurrent flooding, heat waves, cold waves and drought. As the impacts of climate change become increasingly complex, frequent and severe, the role of humanitarian actors in reducing risk in the MENA region has become even more critical. 

While still nascent in the MENA region, anticipatory action is increasingly being used as a way to act earlier in the face of predictable risks. Many actors are beginning to implement this approach and regional coordination and collaboration are increasingly needed to support these efforts, as partners engage with national governments, societies, institutions and local actors. 

The objective of the Anticipatory Action Community of Practice MENA Region is to provide a space for technical and advocacy coordination, collaboration, learning, exchange and capacity-strengthening on anticipatory action and acting earlier ahead of disasters in the region. It brings together key actors in the region to work together and ensure that efforts to scale up anticipatory action are effective and coordinated. It also provides a platform for participating organizations and entities to actively support the development of regional evidence and learning through successful case studies, best practices and lessons learned, among other learning outputs, to ensure the integration of anticipatory action approaches, tools and practices at the regional and national levels.

Topics covered

• Anticipatory action
• Forecast-based action/financing
• Early warning early action

Specific objectives

1. Advocacy, evidence and positioning for anticipatory action: the community of practice supports collaboration and coordination on policy positioning and advocacy, and leverages evidence at the regional level to mainstream and scale up anticipatory action.
2. Knowledge exchange and technical excellence for anticipatory action: the community of practice supports knowledge-sharing and exchange on anticipatory action, and identifies and acts upon opportunities to enhance technical capacities in the region; this may include the development of tools and materials to strengthen capacity on anticipatory action in the region.

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