With support from the Jameel Observatory, Save the Children UK has commissioned a study to better understand what anticipatory action for food crises looks like.
Save the Children has been implementing a Community Jameel funded project in Kenya and Somalia that seeks to generate robust evidence of the impact of Anticipatory Action (AA) for food crises through a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Since the project launched the ongoing and worsening food security crisis in the region has raised critical questions on how to implement anticipatory action in the middle of ongoing crises rather than before a crisis begins.
Questions faced include how to define AA in an ongoing crisis including its objective, type of activities, target group, etc., where AA meets adaptation, what are the limitations of supporting existing livelihoods through AA versus transitioning to longer-term adaptation approaches, and what are the most relevant measures of resilience to monitor?
The research will enhance our understanding of what AA looks like in a protracted food crisis. We hope it will contribute to two critical areas:
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- Inform the design of anticipatory actions in East Africa, to be implemented as a pilot in subsequent seasons
- Inform ongoing discussions and debates within the wider humanitarian and development communities, that could ultimately improve the way the sector approaches and responds to protracted food crises.
The report should be ready in June 2023.