This session examines why anticipatory action has yet to deliver meaningful results for pastoral communities across the Greater Horn of Africa – and what needs to change. Panelists explore whether anticipatory action can become more technocratic and centralized, privileging standardization and control or whether it can evolve in ways that strengthen local institutions, accountability and relationships between communities and authorities.
It concludes with a clear call: no anticipatory action framework will deliver for pastoralists until chronic structural vulnerabilities are addressed, national governments take center stage in drought response architecture, and early warning systems are designed from the ground up.
Key messages
- Pastoralism is an anticipatory livelihood strategy: Anticipatory actions should build on the actions of communities.
- There’s a need for co-produced early warning triggers rooted in local knowledge: The disconnect between top-down forecast systems and the mobility-based realities of pastoralist livelihoods.
- Need to bridge the gap between pastoral anticipatory practices and conventional humanitarian response frameworks.
