📋 Tender Overview
Chad is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change, facing numerous economic, social, health, and food security challenges. Climate-related hazards significantly disrupt agriculture – the primary livelihood for two-thirds of the country’s working population. These disruptions impact income and contribute to the acute food insecurity experienced by 2.9 million people across Chad in 2024. Given this context, many humanitarian organisations are investing in anticipatory action programs to address and reduce the consequences of droughts and floods.
As climate shocks become more frequent and devastating and as forecasting improves, the need to shift from reactive, post-crisis management to anticipatory risk management is clear. Anticipatory action is increasingly considered a faster, more efficient, and more dignified form of humanitarian response. It is comprised of a series of measures taken in response to a pre-defined trigger, making it possible to deliver assistance before a shock occurs. Proponents argue that giving people the means to act before crisis strikes saves lives and livelihoods, while reducing suffering and losses.
At-risk populations are the first to act ahead of crises, and often have systems in place to protect their homes, neighbourhoods, and communities. However, their voices and priorities are often underrepresented in the design, implementation, and evaluation of anticipatory action programs, limiting their potential to reduce and address humanitarian impacts. The active participation of communities at every stage of a program is essential to ensure more efficient, accountable, and sustainable responses.
Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) has conducted numerous studies that highlight the need to improve accountability in Chad’s humanitarian response. Respondents often share that the aid they receive is inadequate because they are not listened to or involved in the programs that affect their lives.7 To support humanitarian organisations to facilitate more effective and people-centred anticipatory action programs, Ground Truth Solutions, in collaboration with the Centre de Recherche en Anthropologie et Sciences Humaines (CRASH), conducted research on community perceptions, preferences and priorities on anticipatory action in Hajder-Lamis, and developed a survey tool to allow for more large-scale and robust data collection. This work aims to support the design and revision of anticipatory action programs related to both pluvial and fluvial floods.
Our findings highlight the existence of community-based anticipatory action systems rooted in traditional knowledge, and the strength of mutual aid and solidarity. Communities who are regularly affected by floods in Hajder-Lamis acknowledge the benefits of anticipatory action programs, but advocate for assistance that strengthens their existing systems, takes into account their knowledge and experience, and is sustainable over time.
