Mesures prises:
The British Red Cross (BRC) is pleased to report on actions taken to implement the commitments of this pledge.
BRC’s international strategy: Early Action was embedded as a core element of our International Strategy 2019-2024. It is a core part of our disaster management focus area, both at programme level (focus on improved weather forecast and reducing impacts of hunger crisis) and policy level (focus on scale up and partnerships). BRC is also an active member of the IFRC Validation committee that reviews Early Action Protocols (EAPs) to become eligible to access pre-agreed funding for forecast based action from the IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF). In 2023 alone, BRC supported the validation of 15 EAPs.
BRC programmes that contribute to REAP’s targets: BRC has implemented a number of programmes supporting National Societies to strengthen early warning systems and anticipatory action, including:
Forecast based Financing (FbF) and Preparedness Programme in Southern Africa and Sahel that supported NS in Eswatini, Namibia, Niger and Mauritania with developing drought Early Action Protocols and related operational preparedness especially preparedness for cash assistance.
Kenya Strengthening Anticipatory Action project that supported the capacity of county government institutions, partners and communities along the Tana and Athi River basins in Garissa, Kilifi and Tana River Counties on disaster preparedness through integrating Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) in DRM policies and bills and developing Flood Early Warning Communication (FEWC) to the public.
Kenya’s Innovative Approaches to Disaster Preparedness supported Kenya RC with the development of EAPs on drought and floods. The drought EAP had a test activation in 2022/23 which showed great benefits to communities and the flood EAP was activated in Nov 2023 as part of the El Nino anticipatory action.
In the Sahel, under the Sahel livelihood program, BRC has supported NS to strengthen community based surveillance systems on food insecurity as part of the regional Cadre Harmonise system.
Engagement with FCDO to advance REAP: BRC has developed a strong relationship with FCDO’s climate and environment directorate providing a risk management expert secondee to FCDO’s adaptation and resilience team, starting in September 2021. Highlights of this collaboration include:
Within FCDO the secondee oversees the REAP partnership, and has ensured continued support in policy calls, notably for people-centred early action, and funding to the Secretariat which enabled continuity of efforts and strengthening of the partnership.
The secondee also provided advice to FCDO in their engagement with the Early Warning for All Initiative and supporting REAP in its endeavours to ensure this initiative considers the full value chain of early warning systems from observation to early actions with communities. The Movement has also been advocating for this and is now leading the preparedness pillar of this initiative.
Wider policy engagement that relates to REAP’s targets:
In collaboration with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC), BRC climate & migration policy advisors wrote an article on climate, anticipatory action and displacement for the 84th edition of the Humanitarian Exchange with ODI, showing the potential for anticipatory action in fragile and conflict settings, that is currently underfunded and under researched. https://odihpn.org/publication/anticipatory-action-to-build-displaced-populations-resilience-at-the-intersection-of-climate-change-conflict-and-displacement/
BRC facilitated funding from FCDO to RCCC and IFRC to provide technical support to 7 countries with the integration of disaster and climate laws, policies and plans (countries: St Lucia, Panama, Cape Verde, Malawi, Uganda, Fiji, Philippines). 5 case studies on countries where work was already underway, and these were featured in events at COP26. These supported REAP in getting closer to achieving Target 1, which aims to have 50 countries integrated crisis/disaster risk management and climate adaptation laws, policies and plans reviewed by 2025.
BRC also worked with the IFRC and London Business School on a research project on climate risk and resilience, focusing on insurance. This culminated in the organisation and convening of a roundtable discussing the findings on risk insurance with key stakeholders in the humanitarian and insurance sectors in London.
BRC also supported the IFRC in organising the Humanitarian Finance Forum’s DREF event in October 2023, a day-long summit that brought together leaders and decision-makers from across governments, multilaterals, civil society, and the private sector, to collaboratively explore the critical role of insurance markets to help address climate and humanitarian crises.
Progress towards the indicators and resource plan of the pledge
The REAP Secretariat is established and able to report on progress to its governing board
REAP has become well-established and has come to perform a key function in the EWEA policy space through its 5-team secretariat, partners, working groups and governing board. It has supported the UN-led Early Warning for All Initiative, worked with partners to convene key stakeholders to explore the potential for linking early action and social protection, financing for early action and developed the evidence base for EWEA through case studies, its annual State of Play reports and other thematic reports to move forward the EWEA agenda.
Working with the UAE COP28 Presidency team, the UK and Samoa, REAP launched the Getting Ahead of Disasters Charter. The Charter has over 40 endorsers, with states being the largest group. The secretariat is working with the partnership on implementation. The partnership has grown significantly, with nearly 80 partners, however, it still struggles to engage countries most impacted by climate change and regional/national level organisations.
Nearly £1m has been committed to help establish the REAP Secretariat and maintain its functioning until March 2021. FCDO extended its funding to the Secretariat to 2025 to ensure continuity of efforts, and this funding is channelled through the BRC. Total funding allocated by the FCDO to REAP since its inception and up to 2025 is £6.4m. This covers the costs of the Secretariat team and their advocacy work and the implementation of Early Warning and Early Action projects.
Number of communities where community-led early warning systems are established or improved.
BRC has supported NS with Community Early Warning System (CEWS) training as part of community action plans under community-based disaster risk reduction and resilience programs including in Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Yemen. BRC has also supported NS with strengthening community-based surveillance on food insecurity including in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Eswatini, covering over 1.8m people. A highlight was the CEWS training for 12 communities in Nigeria in the summer of 2022 just in time to support Nigeria RC branches and communities in Lagos and Imo to better monitor and communicate early warnings ahead of the Aug/Sept 2022 floods and supported the branches and communities with their contingency planning and response through BRC funded crisis modifiers. Based on the feedback from BRC and Nigeria RC from the trainings conducted, IFRC is now updating the IFRC CEWS guidance and training to link CEWS better to national level EWS and simplify the training for communities and branch volunteers. The revised material will be tested with community and branch volunteers under the Nigeria programme expansion in Nigeria in Delta state in 2024.
Number of early action plans/protocols developed outlining clear triggers for action and appropriate early actions.
Since 2019, BRC supported 7 National Societies with developing 8 Early Action Protocols: 1) Mongolia Dud (approved and first EAP to ever officially trigger under IFRC DREF AA pillar in 2020), 2) Indonesia flood (in progress),3) Kenya Flood (approved in 2021 and triggered in Nov 2023), 4) Kenya drought (tested in 2022/23 and approved in 2023), 5) Eswatini drought (approved in Dec 2023), 6) Namibia drought (in progress), 7) Niger drought (activation in Zinder in 2022, scale up tested in 2023 and under validation in 2024), 8) Mauritania drought (under development), covering over 320,800 people. British Red Cross has also been an active member of the IFRC Validation Committee for Anticipatory Action, supporting the review and technical validation of 7 EAPs in 2022 and 15 EAPs in 2023. Since 2023, British Red Cross also working in consortium with the IFRC, Climate Centre and WFP under the WISER MENA programme to support humanitarian actors in Syria, Yemen and Iraq with developing early action plans that address the needs of internally displaced populations (IDPs) and refugees, and to advocate for a more anticipatory action approach in areas of fragility and conflict. BRC has also been funding a research study by the Climate Centre on anticipatory action for climate sensitive diseases in East Africa to inform the feasibility of developing EAPs for epidemic outbreaks such as cholera.
£2m per annum has been committed to support IFRC’s DREF, including forecast-based action and the development of Early Action Protocols. FCDO and BRC have substantially increased their commitment to IFRC’s DREF including the Anticipatory Action Pillar of the DREF which is now part of the same fund. In 2023, the total contribution to the DREF was GBP 2,689,880 (CHF 2.9m) which also includes the instrumental role of BRC and FCDO in the development of DREF insurance mechanisms product and funding the premium for the insurance. FCDO and BRC are committed to annual contributions to the DREF of GBP 1.9m (CHF 2.1m) in 2024. BRC is committed to contribute 10% of its Disaster Fund to the DREF.
In addition, BRC and FCDO also collaborated to support NS with the development of Early Action Protocols so they can access the Forecast-based Action by the DREF (FbA by the DREF) funding. FCDO had committed funding for the BRC led Forecast based Financing and Preparedness programme in Southern Africa and the Sahel to support NS with the development of EAPs on drought. However, due to financial pressures in the UK, the funding was reduced from GBP 2m (for Sept 2020-Aug 2024) to GBP 1.14m (from Sept 2020-March 2023) but BRC was able to mobilise internal funding including from its Disaster Fund to continue supporting the NS with finalising their EAPs until Aug 2024.
Challenges
Some aspects of funding to the Forecast based Financing (FbF) programme have been discontinued. BRC has been able to reallocate funds from its Disaster Fund and core funds to enable NS to complete the development of Early Action Protocols.
Staff turnover within the BRC has impacted capacity on climate policy expertise.
