From Warning to Action
Anticipatory Manifesto
A full day dedicated to Early Warning Systems and Anticipatory Action convened by REAP partners: CREWS, UNDRR, the Anticipation Hub and GFDRR
Come to Abu Dhabi with an idea, leave with an agenda.
We know more about risk than ever before. We can increasingly see hazards coming. We have better forecasts, stronger climate information, expanding early warning systems, new anticipatory action approaches and growing evidence that acting before a hazard can protect lives, livelihoods, public finances and prosperity. The Early Warnings for All initiative has elevated the political momentum.
And yet, too often, knowing earlier does not mean acting earlier.
The next frontier for early warning systems and anticipatory action is therefore not only technical, it is political, institutional, and financial.
We want to make Early Warning AND early action UNAVOIDABLE
Imagine government officials and decision makers leaving UR Abu Dhabi with more than new contacts and interesting ideas. Imagine them returning home inspired, saying:
- "Someone else has already changed the law."
- "Another government has already put anticipatory action into its budget."
- "A regional institution has already created a common framework that countries can adopt."
- "A Ministry of Finance has already made the fiscal case."
- "A social protection system is already scaling before drought impacts peak."
We Believe
We Want In Every Session
Who We Want In The Room
Government officials must be at the centre of this conversation, but system change requires a combination of people. We want Ministry representatives, senior government officials and finance officials alongside hydrometeorological experts and anticipatory action practitioners. Climate negotiators alongside social protection experts. Parliamentarians alongside scientists. Development banks alongside civil society. Regional organizations alongside private sector.
A day to spark the next generation of early warning and early action change
The spirit of this day is creating a space designed to inspire, challenge conventional formats, connect disciplines and explore what can be replicated and scaled.We are looking for ideas that can move systems
We invite proposals that help answer one or more of these questions:
- How do we make early warning, early action (EWEA) a whole-of-government priority, with clear mandates, responsibilities and accountability?
- How can EWEA become part of climate adaptation, including National Adaptation Plans and adaptation investment plans?
- How can Ministries of Finance make early action funding predictable, including through budgets, contingency mechanisms and fiscal risk management?
- How can social protection systems trigger early action before shocks become crises?
- How can climate funds, multilateral development banks and donors finance national EWEA systems rather than fragmented projects?
- How can regional organizations accelerate policy convergence, allowing countries to learn from and reinforce one another?
- What must the post-2030 international architecture change so that EWEA becomes a core function of resilient societies?
Be creative with the format
A story of reform does not always need a slide deck:
- A negotiation between a Finance Ministry and a disaster management agency over releasing anticipatory finance.
- A parliamentary hearing asking why warnings did not translate into action.
- A policy clinic where one government brings a real institutional problem and other countries help solve it.
- A role-play in which civil society must convince a politician about the importance of institutionalizing EWEA.
