Representatives from Latin America and the Caribbean gather to identify how anticipatory action can help solve the region’s challenges

Representatives from the humanitarian, scientific, governmental, and community sectors gathered in Cartagena, Colombia, to celebrate the 6th Regional Dialogue Platform in Latin America and the Caribbean on Anticipatory Action. This facilitated the identification of challenges and innovative solutions to strengthen resilience to disasters and crises in the region.

Taking place on 28 and 29 November 2024 under the slogan ‘Regional solutions for regional challenges’, the dialogue platform sought to consolidate synergies and share experiences, opportunities, good practices and lessons learned. It was also an opportunity to promote the integration of anticipatory action into national and regional systems for risk and emergency management systems.

Debating progress and challenges

The agenda included panels, thematic sessions and creative spaces that were designed to motivate connection and interaction. Creatively and collaboratively, this was conceptualized as giant puzzle, the pieces of which reflected the challenges and opportunities debated in the different sessions.

Among the challenges identified was the need to continue promoting the concept and foundation of anticipatory action at different levels, and to generate more evidence of its impact. The participants – 300 in Cartagena and more than 250 online – reinforced the need for greater complementarity between the different approaches within risk management.

Another challenge under discussion was the availability and flexibility of resources for anticipatory action. This was also highlighted at previous dialogue platforms; however, new opportunities were identified this time, both with humanitarian and development donors, and mainly those linked to climate finance.

Progress was shared on integration work through regional organizations such as the Coordination Center for Disaster Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic, as well as opportunities with the Andean Community - Ad Hoc Andean Committee for Disaster Prevention.

Regarding solutions, the dialogue platform highlighted the creation of technical groups for anticipatory action as an important milestone. Representatives from Civil Protection of El Salvador, the Honduran Red Cross, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Guatemala, the Colombian Red Cross and the Ecuadorian Red Cross all provided updates on their progress and explained how these technical groups align with the support of the Technical Group for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Finally, 'outside the box' initiatives were explored for anticipatory action in the face of human mobility and forced displacement associated with armed conflicts. Experiences from Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Panama demonstrated how the approach has been broadened to anticipate the humanitarian impacts in these increasingly complex contexts.

Commitments and next steps

Representatives of Colombian communities in La Guajira, Sucre and Nariño, called on the promoters of anticipatory action to ensure that the role of communities is at the centre, both in the design and implementation of anticipatory action initiatives and in future dialogue platforms.

At the same time, these representatives expressed gratitude for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s (FAO) approach to their communities, highlighting the co-management approach used in initiatives. This model, based on the joint definition of interventions, has allowed them to establish capacities that guarantee the long-term sustainability of initiatives.

As part of the focus on interactivity, Marion Ve, a Cartagena artist, facilitated a creative session in which the audience explored how their energies, symbolized by colours, are essential for networking in anticipatory action. He designed a mural with these inputs and used them to create “connect” - the word that represents the final invitation to continue connecting as a community of practice in the Americas.