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Anticipatory action (AA) acknowledges vulnerable people as leaders in development and agents of change in their own lives and communities. However, acting early is no guarantee that all at-risk and affected members of a community benefit equally from AA. People’s vulnerability, or their ability to cope with and recover from disasters, largely depends on social, economic, cultural, and political factors – all of which can vary within a community. The lack of active involvement of at-risk and potentially affected communities may also undermine understanding, trust of and support to any form of external assistance by targeted communities, including confidence in AA systems at the frontline of disaster and crisis risk management. Anticipatory action thus necessitates meaningful engagement to work with people and communities who are at risk, or whose practices or behaviours affect risk, and put them at the centre of AA programming.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as one of the leading operational organizations implementing anticipatory action and providing technical advice and normative guidance on corresponding approaches in the agriculture and food security sector, has embarked on a project funded by the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development with the aim to capture emerging and good practices to improve community engagement in anticipatory action. In this framework, FAO has developed a Compendium of experiences and good practices from focus countries, namely Bangladesh, Guatemala, the Niger and Zimbabwe. The purpose of this Compendium is to share knowledge that will help move towards more context‑specific, conflict-sensitive, inclusive and accountable anticipatory action programming. It is intended for stakeholders involved in anticipatory action, from the local to national and global levels.

SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS

On Community engagement: Community engagement can be conceptualized as a range of possible approaches to inform, consult, involve, collaborate with and empower communities and their members. Projects that deeply engage communities and local stakeholders establish a path of ownership, with more appropriate and relevant activities to protect the most vulnerable community members. Community engagement is instrumental in facilitating this, including the identification of hazards and appropriate actions to take, and therefore key to designing contextually relevant, conflict-sensitive, effective, efficient and impactful anticipatory actions.

On Accountability to Affected People (AAP):Community engagement intersects with AAP as people-centred approaches that seek to ensure meaningful results and outcomes for affected people, in line with their needs, priorities, vulnerabilities and capacities. While AAP is an overarching commitment, community engagement is a cross-cutting function that both places AAP at the centre and is key to fulfilling AAP. Put more succinctly: community engagement facilitates AAP.

On Gender and Inclusion:Women and girls are disproportionately affected during disasters, conflict and crises, which often exacerbate pre-existing gender inequality. An inclusive approach to AA requires a nuanced and context-specific understanding of how inequality interacts with vulnerability. This means understanding how intersecting identity dimensions, such as gender, age, nationality, socioeconomic status, displacement status, religion, physical and mental ability, are included or excluded from these systems. This is critical to tailor all aspects of AA to address specific needs, capacities and priorities.

On Knowledge and Learning:Community engagement is key to ensuring that AA systems draw on local knowledge, community feedback and local expert opinion. Local knowledge and the learning acquired by farmers from experience are critical for effective and locally-relevant early warning, and should be formalized in AA protocols. Community-based approaches (like Dimitra Clubs, Farmer Field Schools, etc.) encourage group learning and foster the sharing of local knowledge and expertise.