The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Monday hosted the two-day 2nd National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action at its headquarters in Islamabad under the National Coordination Forum on Anticipatory Action. The event is being held from May 11 to 12, 2026, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Welthungerhilfe (WHH), Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Chairman NDMA Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik, HI(M), welcomed participants and highlighted the significance of standard disaster risk reduction frameworks and trigger-based anticipatory actions to strengthen Pakistan’s disaster resilience regime under NDMA’s Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy (NDRRS) 2025–2030. He stressed that anticipatory actions must be operationalised to reduce disaster risks and minimise both humanitarian and economic losses. He further underscored that timely preparedness, early warning dissemination, and coordinated institutional response are essential to safeguard vulnerable communities from escalating climate-induced hazards, reiterating NDMA’s commitment to a proactive and resilient disaster management system.
During the opening session, Country Director WFP Ms. Coco Ushiyama, Head of Pakistan Office German Red Cross and representative of PRCS Mr. Asif Aman Khan, Deputy Country Representative FAO Pakistan Ms. Leonor Fernandez, and Deputy Country Director Welthungerhilfe Pakistan Ms. Isabel Bogorinsky shared their perspectives, emphasising the need for stronger collaborative approaches, enhanced preparedness systems, and coordinated efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate-induced disasters and humanitarian crises in Pakistan.
The forum also witnessed the soft launch of Pakistan’s National Anticipatory Action (AA) Strategy, aimed at providing a comprehensive national framework for strengthening forecast-based early action, institutional coordination, and resilience-building against climate-induced hazards and disasters.
Anticipatory action focuses on enabling timely interventions based on scientific forecasts and risk analysis, helping reduce humanitarian and economic impacts before disasters strike. With increasing frequency and intensity of floods, heatwaves, droughts, and disease outbreaks, strengthening anticipatory systems has emerged as a national priority.
The dialogue platform provides an opportunity for stakeholders to exchange knowledge, share best practices, and review lessons learned from previous anticipatory action initiatives. Discussions are centred on improving coordination mechanisms, harmonising sectoral approaches, and institutionalising anticipatory action within Pakistan’s disaster risk management framework.
The platform also emphasises the integration of anticipatory action into national and provincial planning processes, along with exploration of sustainable financing mechanisms including public funding and climate finance. Through expert sessions, participatory discussions, and workshops, the dialogue is expected to contribute towards the development of a national roadmap for embedding anticipatory action in Pakistan’s disaster management systems.
The two-day event has brought together around 200 participants from government institutions, UN agencies, humanitarian and development organisations, international financial institutions, academia, private sector, meteorological and climate experts, and community representatives.
The platform reflects Pakistan’s broader commitment to shifting disaster management from reactive response to proactive and anticipatory action-based resilience building.