26 Jun 2022

German FFO publishes review on its approach to anticipatory action

In April, the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) published a review on its approach to anticipatory humanitarian action. Subject of the review is the strategic policy objective of Germany’s foreign ministry to make the humanitarian system more anticipatory. The report assesses GFFO’s role and activities in promoting and supporting the development of anticipatory action approaches, identifies areas for improvement and provides policy recommendation for the GFFO, but also the AA community at large where and how to to bring anticipatory action to scale.

To address gaps the research team suggest, amongst other,

  • a “lighter” and faster process to developing Standard Op-erating Procedures (SOPs), Early Action Protocols (EAPs) or Anticipatory Action Frameworks, including by amending already-existing frameworks;
  • greater investments in improving the reliability of early warning systems with agreed-upon thresholds and trigger mechanisms;
  • greater efforts to strengthen existing structures through dedicated funding for local capacity building and in line with the goal to support the Grand Bargain’s locali-zation, rather than inventing new structures;
  • Systematically integrate AA into existing national DRR and development funding strategies;
  • Linking AA to existing national DRM activities taking better into account local opportunities and limitations

The report also suggests the GFFO should explore a closer collaboration with climate and development actors and foster new partnerships at the local,national and international level to capitalize on different actors’ strength.

In recent years, the GFFO has become one of the main actors and donors in this field. In 2022 it made ‘Anticipatory Action’ a core topic of its G7 presidency and committed to allocating at least 5 % of its humanitarian funding to anticipatory action by 2023 and more specifically to double its contributions in 2022, and to allocate € 100 million in 2023.

The full report can be read here.