With humanitarian crises intensifying and aid budgets shrinking, aid actors are increasingly starting to turn to so-called anticipatory approaches, or ways of acting ahead of crises to mitigate their worst risks. On 12 March 2026, the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (EiE Hub) and the Global Education Cluster (GEC) co-organised an event to showcase how the education sector is increasingly embracing anticipatory approaches, and what lessons can be drawn from interventions around the globe. The event was held in Geneva during the Humanitarian Network and Partnerships Week.
MacKenzie Monserez, Deputy Coordinator of the Global Education Cluster, opened the event by reflecting on how much has happened on Anticipatory Action (AA) in the education in emergencies sector over the past years. Last year, at a similar event at HNPW, the organisers had struggled to find concrete examples of AA and EiE – something that definitely was not a problem for this year’s session, with multiple partners and clusters to choose from. “This quick expansion in just a couple of years is truly astounding. As of today, over half of contexts with activated education clusters have some sort of inter-agency work on anticipatory action – and those are just the examples that we know about,” she said.
Jeremy Wetterwald, Senior Climate Advisor from Education Cannot Wait, listed three things needed to “crack” anticipatory action: data, risk assessments and operational plans. With significant advances in each field in recent years, anticipatory approaches have been able to make real headway – reflected in global progress on mitigating the worst effects of disasters. “We often forget that over the past 20 years, the disaster mortality ratio – that is, the number of people dying in disasters – has halved. This shows that investments in disaster risk reduction do pay off.”
Varvara*, 14, then spoke remotely from Dnipro, Ukraine, where she is a member of the School Safety Committee that has worked to improve access to education for students amid the ongoing conflict: “It has meant that I could support the mental well-being of student, including by improving a shelter we often have to go to amid drone attack or air raids.”
Emilia Sorrentino from Plan International presented the work of the GEC’s Learning Task Team, which works to ensure that education is a priority from the onset of acute emergencies. This includes a “Learning from Day 1” tool, to guide how to best support children’s learning and wellbeing across different phases of a crisis. “The earlier we can ensure learning, the more we can prevent learning loss. The sooner children go back to learning, the sooner they will be able to enroll in accelerated education and other non-formal education program, and later being reintegrated into formal education systems.”
The event then turned to concrete examples of anticipatory approaches from four national coordinators of different country-level Education Clusters:
- Andreia Soares, discussed how acting ahead of floods in 2026 in Mozambique – which affected some 200,000 students – had ensured a degree of learning continuity.
- Nahoum Koné showed how the cluster in Mali had ensured that education was included a multisectoral contingency plan to mitigate the impact of recurring crisis, including due to displacement and floods.
- Rathika V. Satheeswaran showcased how a new initiative in disaster risk reduction and anticipatory action had allowed children to keep learning in the flood-prone region of Gambella.
- Shar Taimoor and Ehsan Ullan presented the AA framework they have developed in Pakistan, which was triggered ahead of devastating floods last year.
Following an interactive session that highlighted a range of other country examples, Anfal Saqib, Education Specialist with Education Cannot Wait (ECW), concluded the event by focusing on how ECW’s approach has shifted in recent years: “We’re focusing much more on crisis readiness – that is, how preparation, contingency planning and anticipatory action can all come together, alongside funding for multi-year support.”
In 2025, the EiE Hub launched its annual flagship report on why it is so important for humanitarian actors to act ahead of crises to ensure learning continuity: Acting Ahead to Protect Education Investments – Why the need for proactive approaches to crises is more urgent than ever.
