Exploring innovative tools for Anticipatory Action: Reflections from the first Food Frontiers and Security Learning session

By Ngowenani Nohayi and Ojong Enokenwa Baa

“There are a lot of different methodologies and approaches out there but they’re not always very explicit about fragility, conflict, and migration. This toolkit is excellent to help complement that.” — Jeremy Stone, Project Lead, Jahez Initiative, IWMI

 On Tuesday,18^th March, 2025, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) hosted an internal learning session to introduce the Toolkit for Anticipatory Action in Fragile, Conflict- and Violence-Affected (FCV) Settings– a timely and practical resource developed in partnership with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre  under the CGIAR’s Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration.

The session also marked the start of the Learning Series, an IWMI-led Community of Practice that is supported by the CGIAR Food Frontiers and Security Program. Building on the momentum of the Anticipatory Action Community of Practice, and in collaboration with the Anticipation Hub, the series leverages on insights from 2024 learning efforts to bridge research, practice, and policy for resilience building in FCV settings and across fragile food frontiers. While the public launch of the toolkit is scheduled for 30 April 2025, this internal session gave IWMI staff an early opportunity to engage with its content, reflect on its relevance, and identify opportunities for practical application and explore how it connects to ongoing work across diverse regions and thematic areas.

Community members collecting water as donkeys drink from the river in Dolo Ado, Somali Region. Photo credit: Decide Mabumbo (IWMI)

Why this Toolkit, and Why now?

Anticipatory Action (AA) is gaining momentum across humanitarian and climate adaptation efforts, shifting the focus from reacting to crises toward acting on risks before they unfold. Yet its application within FCV settings brings unique challenges. Many existing tools fall short in these settings, where institutional capacity is weak, trust is limited, resources are stretched, and the risks of exclusion are high. These contexts are also marked by heightened social vulnerability and limited access to resources and basic services, making it difficult to translate conventional anticipatory planning into effective action.

As Dr. Sandra Ruckstuhl, Research Group Lead – Fragility, Conflict, Livelihoods and Water (FLoW)emphasized in her opening remarks, makingwork in fragile settings demands tools that are not only technically robust, but also context-sensitive, adaptable, and grounded in the lived realities of affected communities.

The toolkit is specifically designed to meet this need. It provides a practical, step-by-step guidance to help practitioners design and implement strategies that are realistic and responsive to the demands of complex, high-risk contexts. Users are guided through each stage of the AA cycle, from risk analysis and planning to activation and post-crisis learning. The toolkit draws on practical experience across sectors and settings to offer adaptable tools that support key decision-making processes. These include crisis timelines, scenario planning, and interactive exercises tailored to the demands of fragile and conflict-affected settings.

So, what does this Toolkit actually look like in practice?

During the session, Dr. Juliane Schillinger, who was closely involved in leading the toolkit’s development, guided IWMI staff through its structure and practical use. Rather than prescribing a fixed process, the toolkit offers seven modular steps that can be adapted to different contexts and needs.

What stood out for many participants was its flexibility. It is not a rigid, one-size-fits-all template. Teams can use it in full or focus on specific components, such as creating crisis timelines or designing thresholds, depending on their context, capacity, and objectives. This adaptability makes it particularly relevant across the diverse geographies and thematic areas where IWMI works.

Cross-cutting themes like gender, protection, and displacement are integrated throughout, not treated as optional ‘add-ons’, but as essential lenses shaping the design and delivery of early action. To support hands-on learning and collaboration, the toolkit includes practical resources like workshop templates, reflection prompts, and interactive exercises. These features create space for teams to think together, plan together, and act early, encouraging more inclusive and coordinated approaches to AA.

Reflections from IWMI: Linking the Toolkit to ongoing work

One of the most insightful parts of the session came through the open discussion that followed the toolkit walkthrough. IWMI colleagues reflected on how the toolkit could meaningfully strengthen ongoing work across fragile, conflict-affected, and climate-vulnerable contexts, highlighting real opportunities to apply the toolkit in practice.

Dr. Giriraj Amarnath, Principal Researcher drew attention to the strong alignment between the toolkit and IWMI’s AWARE platform, which delivers early warning and decision-support across climate-stressed regions. “AWARE brings the data, the toolkit brings the process,” he said, highlighting their combined value for AA. He also emphasized the importance of translating forecasts into action through multiscale governance, pre-arranged financing, and socially inclusive planning, all central to the toolkit’s approach.

Stone, Project Leader of IWMI’s Jahez initiative in Jordan, welcomed the toolkit as a timely complement to his team’s work on strengthening climate resilience in refugee and host communities. He noted that existing approaches to vulnerability and context analysis in the region are often fragmented or not explicit enough about fragility, displacement, or conflict. The toolkit, he said, offers a much-needed resource for grounding AA in these realities while aligning with ongoing humanitarian and development efforts.

Other participants pointed to opportunities for using the toolkit in displacement-sensitive programming, where early action needs to consider issues like land tenure, informality, and mobility. Thematic areas such as gender and protection-spotlighted in the toolkit, were also welcomed as critical elements too often sidelined in anticipatory efforts.

There was broad consensus that IWMI’s strength in bridging science, policy, and practice across food, land, and water systems, positions it well to apply, test, and contribute to the continued advancement of the toolkit through operational partnerships. As one participant put it, “this isn’t just a guide—it’s an entry point to shape more inclusive, grounded, and forward-looking resilience programming in some of the world’s most complex environments.”

What’s next?

This internal session marked more than just a learning moment, it set the stage for practical implementation across IWMI’s portfolio.  The Toolkit is a living resource, designed to evolve through ongoing application, collaboration, and feedback. Pilot applications in current IWMI projects are already being explored to test the toolkit’s utility, and remaining gaps, in actual situations.

As part of the rollout, a joint hands-on training on the Toolkit and AWARE platform is being planned as part of the broader learning series, in partnership with the Anticipation Hub.

Feedback gathered during the Environmental Humanitarian Action Network (EHAN) annual meeting at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) has also helped shape next steps.

The Toolkit will take centre stage at a regional workshop on AA and early warning systems in FCV settings by the Anticipation Hub’s Asia-Pacific working group in Bangkok in late May 2025 and is expected to be featured at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in June 2025, with further engagements planned through upcoming Dialogue Platform

We remain committed to driving forward this conversation. As the series continues, we invite partners to help us co-create tools and solutions that can deliver early action where it is needed most.

What lessons from your context can help strengthen AA in FCV settings? Join us at the launch and be part of shaping the next steps.