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Agriculture

Zimbabwe Shifts from Disaster Response to Anticipatory Action through EU-Funded Project

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Zimbabwe is making significant strides in transitioning from reactive to proactive disaster risk management, with the support of the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the World Food Programme (WFP). A two-year ECHO-funded project, implemented between 2023 and 2025, aimed to enhance institutional systems and community capacities to prepare for and respond to climate-induced hazards, particularly in the wake of the 2023-2024 El Niño-induced drought, the worst in over four decades. The project established harmonized multi-stakeholder frameworks, developed and tested impact-based forecasting triggers, and scaled up disaster risk financing analysis, contributing to more coordinated and timely early warning and anticipatory responses.

Key Takeaways:

  • The project established the Anticipatory Action Community of Practice (CoP), a collaborative platform that brings together government departments, humanitarian organizations, and technical agencies to strengthen multi-sectoral coordination.
  • Through the CoP, Zimbabwe has institutionalized anticipatory action subcommittees at national, provincial, and district levels, linking local decision-making to national systems.
  • The project's key achievements include the establishment of the national Anticipatory Action Roadmap, flood simulation exercises (SIMEX), and impact forecasting models, which are now serving as templates for broader disaster risk management in the region.
  • The project reinforced the importance of pre-arranged financing to enable faster response, with Zimbabwe's anticipatory action frameworks built around pre-agreed triggers and activities delivering faster and smarter support.
  • Patrice Talla, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa, emphasized that Anticipatory Action is not merely a humanitarian tool, but a transformative model of governance, which has laid critical foundations for national systems that enable timely and life-saving interventions during the 2023-2024 El Niño drought.
  • The project demonstrated that with the right partnerships, financing, and community engagement, Zimbabwe can move from crisis response to long-term resilience.

Statistics:

  • The El Niño-induced drought in 2023-2024 was the worst in over four decades.
  • The project supported the Government of Zimbabwe in launching a US$3.3 billion appeal, with US$2 billion for emergency response and US$1.3 billion for resilience-building.
  • At the peak of the drought crisis, 33 percent of the funds raised came from UN agencies.
  • The project established anticipatory action subcommittees at national, provincial, and district levels, linking local decision-making to national systems.

Sources:

  • M2 PressWIRE - "Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Partners enhance Zimbabwe’s resilience through European Union (EU)-Funded Anticipatory Action project"
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Regional Office for Africa
  • European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO)
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
  • World Food Programme (WFP)

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