Sri Lanka’s government convenes the first meeting of the National Anticipatory Action Working Group

Anticipatory action initiatives are growing rapidly in Sri Lanka. To ensure these are well coordinated and receive the necessary technical guidance, the Disaster Management Centre, which leads disaster-risk-management efforts in the country, established the National Anticipatory Action Working Group.

The working group held its first meeting on 4 March 2025. During the meeting, Major General (Retd.) Udaya Herath, director general of the Disaster Management Centre, highlighted the importance of a common understanding of anticipatory action among all actors, including governmental and humanitarian agencies. He also noted the importance of aligning initiatives with the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, declarations from the annual United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conferences (CoPs), the country’s National Disaster Management Plan and the government’s ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ policy initiatives.  

Coordinating anticipatory action in Sri Lanka

The working group comprises government agencies, UN and intergovernmental organizations, research institutions, as well as international and local non-governmental organizations. The Disaster Management Centre will serve as the chair of its secretariat, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) acting as the facilitating agency for the secretariat.

This group’s responsibilities are to:

• coordinate all anticipatory action efforts in Sri Lanka
• guide implementing agencies in developing localized trigger thresholds, and approve these once developed
• guide the agencies when making triggering decisions
• approve the anticipatory action frameworks (protocols) that are developed for different hazards.

During the meeting, the working group members agreed to develop a national framework, roadmap and minimum technical standards for anticipatory action, including a common approach to developing anticipatory action frameworks. They will also oversee any related reports. These activities will help to mainstream anticipatory action within the national disaster management system, and ensure all activities are in line with Sri Lanka’s National Disaster Management Plan.

Sharing responsibilities across three sub-groups

To divide responsibilities according to expertise, the working group proposed having three sub-groups:  

1. Forecasting and triggers
2. Anticipatory action operationalization, learning and evidence
3. Coordination, policy, financing and institutionalization.

During the inaugural meeting, the working group set out the need to define the hazards for which anticipatory action can be effective, and to develop a common approach for determining the threshold (trigger) levels for these. To enable this, four hazard-based groups were established under the forecasting and trigger sub-group:

• Floods: the Irrigation Department will be the lead agency and the World Food Programme the coordinating agency.
• Landslides: National Building Research Organization (lead) and World Vision (coordinating).
• Drought: Department of Meteorology (lead) and International Water Management Institute (coordinating).
• Health, including animal health: Ministry of Health/Department of Animal Production and Health (leads) and Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (coordinating).

The other sub-groups will be managed by the secretariat for the time being.