The Sudan impact of early warning early action: Protecting agropastoralist livelihoods ahead of drought

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is developing innovative early warning systems to anticipate risks and intervene at the right time. The right time is often early – before a crisis becomes a humanitarian disaster. FAO’s approach is shifting from a reactive mind-set to one focused on mitigation and prevention.

When the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan experienced a dry spell in 2017 and 2018, FAO took steps early to protect the livelihoods of vulnerable agropastoralists. This study analyses the outcomes of FAO's Early Warning Early Action approach in Sudan. The outcomes complement and reinforce earlier findings in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia which demonstrated that early actions have a significant return on investment and are an effective way to address drought in Africa’s agropastoralist regions.