Anticipatory disaster management
The project Resilience Building through Multi-Stakeholder Engagement in Anticipatory Action for Climate-Induced Disasters (REBUMAA) aims to advance research on the forecast-based financing approach and establish best practices for future implementation. Awarded 5.8 million euros in funding, REBUMAA is a 3.5-year project taking place in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. Together with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Prof. Dr. Geiger and his team co-lead REBUMAA and have partnered with the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), Abomey-Calavi University (Benin), and WASCAL (Togo), as well as the national Red Cross Societies in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.
This project is part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) initiative co-funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). CLARE is a five-year, CAD 120 million initiative that aims to enable inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards for people across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
Forecast-based financing aims to enable access to humanitarian funding for early action based on in-depth forecast information and risk analysis. Initial studies have found that it can be cost-effective compared to traditional emergency response measures and significantly increases communities’ resilience to climate change-induced disasters. Knowledge gaps in how to manage, coordinate, and implement anticipatory action effectively across distinct levels of involved stakeholders have surfaced. This project will address these gaps to inform and improve future forecast-based financing.
The intended users of this research include stakeholders in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo who are involved in implementing an early-action protocol, including national governments, regional and local governments, village leaders, and community members, with an emphasis on the inclusion of women. Worldwide, floods are the disasters that cause the highest number of casualties and destroy livelihoods, i.e. damage houses, ruin fields, and destroy crops. By utilizing climate technology to predict when floods will occur and at what magnitude, the implementation of anticipatory action measures can prevent unnecessary loss of life and build the resilience of vulnerable communities.
For more information on the REBUMAA project, check out the official project website found here:
CLARE
REBUMAA
IDRC
