Perspective: Pre-disaster aidCoping with Climate Change with Forecast-Based Aid
Traditionally, disaster victims have received assistance after trouble hits. If a region is flooded, say, people in the area may get aid to rebuild. But a new approach to humanitarian giving is flipping the script and offering help in advance of disaster, using in-depth weather forecasting and risk analysis to predict future victims.
Traditionally, disaster victims have received assistance after trouble hits. If a region is flooded, say, people in the area may get aid to rebuild. But a new approach to humanitarian giving is flipping the script and offering help in advance of disaster, using in-depth weather forecasting and risk analysis to predict future victims.
Ephrat Livni writes in Quartz that the method, called forecast-based financing, has been developed by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement with partners since 2007. The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre has taken the scientific lead (pdf), mapping out which predictive tools are needed, the weather thresholds that must be reached to trigger automatic assistance, and who will benefit from aid. The method was most recently used by the government of Bangladesh to help 25,000 people in the flood-prone Kurigram district.
Vulnerable populations received aid money via their mobile phones ahead of extreme flooding this month, Reuters reports. The assistance allows potential victims to escape danger before disaster strikes and to stock up on supplies while waiting for the extreme weather to pass and their lives to resume.
