Anticipatory action (AA) is defined as acting ahead of a predicted hazardous event to prevent or reduce impacts on lives and livelihoods and humanitarian needs before they fully unfold. This works best when activities as well as triggers or decision-making rules are pre-agreed, and decisions are made to guarantee the fast release of pre-arranged funding. Anticipatory actions are implemented during the critical time window between a point in time when it is known that a shock is likely to occur in the near future, and the actual occurrence of the shock, or when the impacts of the shock are felt by communities.

Community engagement encompasses practices through which communities, with due consideration of intersecting gender and diversity identities, are actively informed, consulted, involved, collaborated with, and empowered, to inform the formulation, implementation of and learning from projects and programmes.  

As such, community engagement can be better leveraged across AA to improve relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and, not least, accountability. Meaningful community engagement is key to ensuring that AA systems draw on local knowledge and capacities, build trust and acceptance, ensure the representation and leadership of all, reach those who are hardest to reach, and learn from participating communities for continuous improvement.