Achieving True Early Action: A summary of Save the Children’s learning from 3 pilot projects to mitigate slow onset food and nutrition crises (2014-2017)

In many countries, resilience and development gains continue to be undermined by recurrent, predictable slow onset food and nutrition crises. Despite early warning signs, the humanitarian community is slow to react, only after lives and livelihoods already have been lost. In an attempt to battle this problem, Save the Children UK has been investing internal financial and technical resource toward early action. This means reacting to forecasts of a potential crisis before it has escalated to be defined as such.

This document draws on the findings of an external evaluation and internal reviews and analysis to consolidate the learnings of three Early Warning projects. The report is aimed at NGOs, donors, and governments who would like to learn how we can better institutionalize early action responses in countries that are susceptible to slow onset crises.