Start Ready: Providing anticipatory support to communities before disasters strike

Situated in Southeast Asia, the Philippines sits astride the Western Pacific Ocean’s typhoon belt as well as the Ring of Fire – a string of active volcanoes and earthquake epicentres. Nearly 60% of the country’s area is vulnerable to tropical cyclones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Of the average of 20 tropical cyclones that occur each year, five are destructive, taking lives, damaging livelihoods and causing high rates of displacement. With a large proportion of the population living in coastal zones, tropical cyclones are thus particularly likely to lead to humanitarian disaster.

Compounding this vulnerability, the country’s traditional model for emergency response is out of date and reactive by design. Centralised decision-making costs precious time and often excludes local expertise and leadership. Funding is subject to political will and media headlines, leaving many crises overlooked and underfunded. When funding is provided, it often arrives weeks or months after people’s lives have been lost or irreversibly destabilised, and the emergency response can be duplicative.

According to an analysis by Start Network, although 55% of humanitarian crises are predictable, only 1% of humanitarian funding is given in anticipation of their occurrence. Launched at COP26, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, Start Ready is an innovative financial mechanism developed by Start Network that draws on best practices from the insurance and financial sectors and on recent advances in climate science to protect people from climate-related crises before they strike. It helps communities, humanitarian actors and local governments to better prepare for crises by:

• Using science and data to model and quantify risks in advance in places where Start Network operates
• Fostering collaboration among governments, NGOs and local leaders to plan and agree in advance specific activities to support communities for when the model is activated, and a crisis is predicted
• Pre-positioning funds according to pre-agreed protocols for release, so that when activation conditions are met, funding is rapidly released

In this project, Start Ready is putting procedures in place to ensure fast transfer of funds that enable communities in the Philippines found to be at risk of tropical cyclones (and secondary hazards) to take preventative measures based on advance contingency plans. Supported activities include risk assessments, awareness-raising, evacuation plans, flood defences and healthcare provision.

Focusing on the most vulnerable and climate-affected areas Cagayan, Eastern Samar and Surigao del Norte, the project aims to:

1. Build and strengthen the Start Ready system in the Philippines by enabling communities at risk of tropical cyclones to make advance contingency plans and by supporting them to prepare before and respond during and after tropical cyclones to meet people’s needs and to protect livelihoods and infrastructure.
2. Pre-position and release funding for community-level emergency action through Start Ready when risk models “activate”.

Expected impacts include timelier crisis response and mitigation actions, reduced harm in at-risk communities, effective, locally driven and relevant crisis management and maximisation of coverage through Start Ready.

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