Recommendations for the way forward at Mali's 1st National Dialogue on Anticipatory Action

Around 150 experts from across Mali gathered in Bamako last week for the first National Dialogue on Anticipatory Action. Joined by a global audience of online participants, they spent three days discussing how anticipatory action can help people cope with the many hazards affecting the country.

"This first edition of the National Dialogue on Anticipatory Action was a historic milestone... It reflects the shared ambition of stakeholders to see the emergence of a disaster management system that is no longer merely reactive, but resolutely proactive," said the permanent secretariat of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The event also delivered a set of concrete steps to institutionalize anticipatory action within Mali’s disaster risk management system in the coming years. These include ambitions to establish an annual emergency fund for anticipatory actions, and to strengthen the hydrometeorological services that are critical to this approach. 

The full list of recommendations is given below.

Recommendations from the 1st National Platform on Anticipatory Action in Mali

Recognising the importance of Anticipatory Actions as an innovative approach to proactive disaster risk management, and with the aim of strengthening the resilience of populations to climate, epidemiological and other crises, 

We, representatives of the Government of Mali, national structures, humanitarian organisations, civil society, the private sector and technical and financial partners, meeting in Bamako, commit to working towards the effective institutionalisation of Early Action in Mali through the following commitments: 

• Develop and ensure the implementation of fundamental texts to integrate anticipatory actions into the national disaster risk management system, including in sectoral policies; 
• Advocate for the establishment of an emergency fund as part of annual budget planning and programming exercises and establish a national budget line dedicated to anticipatory actions, enabling the State to act independently and quickly, even before the activation of partner support mechanisms; 
• Systematically integrate anticipatory actions into revisions of national strategies and action plans for sustainable development, taking into account anticipatory actions as a lever for adaptation, prevention and vulnerability reduction; 
• Strengthen the existing harmonised multisectoral PNRRC [Plateforme nationale de réduction des risques de catastrophes] framework for implementing and monitoring anticipatory actions, integrating existing disaster management mechanisms; 
• Strengthen the human, technical and financial capacities of agencies specialising in the provision of high-quality climate, hydrometeorological and hydrological services relevant to anticipatory actions; 
• Organise a biennial national platform for dialogue on anticipatory actions to assess progress, update the national roadmap validated during this first edition, promote accountability and strengthen coordination; 
• Organisations involved in anticipatory actions commit to actively participating in the national coordination mechanism, including information sharing, to ensure the coherence, complementarity and visibility of initiatives implemented as part of anticipatory actions in Mali; 
• Carry out effective national mapping of actors involved in anticipatory actions and an analysis of gaps to identify needs for operational, institutional and strategic capacity building; 
• Maintain advocacy with donors to ensure funding for anticipatory actions and establish a harmonised financial monitoring framework to create an environment conducive to the joint and coherent mobilisation of resources; 
• Establish a community engagement mechanism to improve community involvement, enabling populations to validate, understand and respond to alerts; 
• Strengthen national governance to improve the institutionalisation of anticipatory actions in Mali. 

We call on all partners to support Mali in implementing this declaration, in order to translate our commitments into concrete actions for the benefit of vulnerable populations. 

Bamako, 25 July 2025