Rooted in local leadership, powered by global solidarity: strengthening anticipatory action across the IFRC Network

The report examines the transition from 'localized' to 'locally led' anticipatory action within the IFRC Network. It identifies that while the network's global reach and National Societies are significant strengths, progress is hindered by political factors, centralized decision-making, and donor risk aversion. The document argues that scaling locally led action requires navigating trade-offs between global standardization and local autonomy, advocating for more flexible, long-term funding and the integration of indigenous knowledge into technical forecasting models.

• Scaling locally led anticipatory action involves structural trade-offs where the need for global simplicity, standardization, and coordination often constrains local autonomy and diversity.
• Barriers to local leadership are primarily political rather than technical, as donors prioritize accountability, efficiency, and scalability over local autonomy due to institutional limits on risk tolerance.
• Decision-making in the IFRC Network remains top-down and centralized, creating a gap between those who design and fund protocols (National Society headquarters and IFRC) and those who implement them (branches and volunteers).
• Funding for anticipatory action is severely limited, with less than 1% of humanitarian funding available as of 2021, and 'fuel money' for activation estimated at only 0.2% of overall humanitarian funding as of 2024.
• The IFRC-DREF provides a critical mechanism for localized action by giving 191 National Societies direct access to pre-arranged financing based on Early Action Protocols (EAPs) or Simplified Early Action Protocols (sEAPs).
• Effective implementation requires integrating indigenous and tacit knowledge with science-based forecasting, as formal models may miss critical local insights.
• In Indonesia, the Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI) has successfully integrated anticipatory action into local governance, using village-level decrees to ensure the sustainability and self-funding of standard operating protocols.
• Donors are encouraged to move beyond short project cycles toward multi-year, flexible funding and to explore the 'humanitarian-development-climate nexus' to unlock new finance sources, such as climate adaptation funds.

APA

Harris, K., Williamson, K., & Klein, R. J. (2025). Rooted in local leadership, powered by global solidarity: strengthening anticipatory action across the IFRC Network. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/local-leadership-anticipatory-action-ifrc-sei2025-56.pdf

Chicago

Harris, Katy, Kate Williamson, and Richard J.T. Klein. Rooted in local leadership, powered by global solidarity: strengthening anticipatory action across the IFRC Network. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2025. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/local-leadership-anticipatory-action-ifrc-sei2025-56.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Harris |first1=Katy |last2=Williamson |first2=Kate |last3=Klein |first3=Richard J.T. |title=Rooted in local leadership, powered by global solidarity: strengthening anticipatory action across the IFRC Network |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=November 2025 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/local-leadership-anticipatory-action-ifrc-sei2025-56.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{harris2025rooted, author = {Harris, Katy and Williamson, Kate and Klein, Richard J.T.}, title = {{Rooted in local leadership, powered by global solidarity: strengthening anticipatory action across the IFRC Network}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/local-leadership-anticipatory-action-ifrc-sei2025-56.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }