There’s evidence that the intensity and frequency of climate-driven natural disasters and conflicts is increasing. Natural disasters now occur nearly five times as often as 40 years ago. The impact on local economies, on peoples’ livelihoods and lives has similarly grown. In some of the worst-hit places, it can seem unrelenting. One drought will follow another, every time stripping away at the limited assets of poor and vulnerable people, robbing them of their self-reliance and wounding their humanity and dignity. Globally, expanding needs, competing priorities and limited resources mean that new tools are essential to make interventions as wise and effective as possible, to ensure that the impacts of crises are limited before they can grow into even more costly humanitarian disasters.

Carefully-timed support also protects and empowers people the most, giving them the confidence to keep going or to resume their livelihoods. Investing in early action means FAO can help shelter longer-term development gains and increase resilience.

Working with national governments and humanitarian, development andscientific partners, FAO’s Early Warning Early Action approach monitors risk information systems and translates warnings into anticipatory actions.This study analyses the outcomes of early actions implemented in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia in 2017, evaluating how effective they were in mitigating the impact of severe drought on vulnerable pastoralist livelihoods and quantifying the benefits generated through acting early.