Anticipate crises and invest according to risk: analytical paper on WHS self-reporting on Agenda for Humanity transformation 4B and 5B

Two years in, World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) stakeholders have made important strategic and operational shifts to better anticipate and plan for crises and increased investments in analyzing and planning to reduce disaster risks. A significant amount of these shifts have been made by Member States.

This paper examines the second self-reports submitted by stakeholders, including governments, UN agencies, international organizations and civil society on commitments made at the WHS, relating to two of the transformations; 4B - Anticipate Crises and 5B - Invest According to Risk.

The reports point to several positive trends, including increased efforts to strengthen the evidence base around effective disaster preparedness and mitigation, improvements in risk informed decision-making tools and procedures, increased advocacy, particularly around key global platforms and events, growth of investments in disaster risk reduction measures and greater efforts to operationalize concrete multi-stakeholder action at the country level. 

Despite good practice and positive trends, key challenges remain to fully realize the potential of early action to truly contribute to ending need and reducing risk and vulnerability over the long term. Lack of sufficient funding continues to hinder early action, risk and resilience programming while improved support and incentives are needed to improve coordination, partnering and joint planning and programming at the country level.