New method of aid delivery aims to send assistance before disasters strike

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• John Yang:

  On Monday, the first Africa climate summit begins in Kenya with the goal of better preparing the continent for climate disasters. When disaster does strike foreign countries, international aid organizations and individuals often send aid. But what if that helped preceded the disaster? Ali Rogin is back with a look at a new method of delivering aid that uses technology to help predict the greatest need.

• Ali Rogin:

  The concept of anticipatory action isn't completely new, but it's something that has been gaining traction within the humanitarian community in the last few years.

  The basic idea is that instead of waiting to deliver cash and resources to communities after predictable disasters, organizations get ahead of them. That way the people affected are better equipped to deal with the aftermath.

  The International Rescue Committee a humanitarian organization recently tested this theory in flood prone areas of northeastern Nigeria.

  To discuss the results I'm joined by IRC Nigeria director Babatunde Ojei. Tunde, thanks so much for joining us.

  How did this pilot program work?

• Babatunde Ojei. Tunde, International Rescue Committee:

  Thank you very much, Ali. So the project was actually, as a result of us realizing that the flooding in Nigeria was getting to a level where there was a need to actually work with communities, and to see how they could actually be better prepared for flooding, which is resulting from climate change. And also in terms of making sure that we also provided them with some information.

  So fortunately, we, Google provided us with resources. And we worked with the International Food Policy Research Institute to initiate this project, which was targeting 1,450 smallholder farmers in Adamawa state where we had 725 of this 1,450 household farmers. They were the ones that got resources, three, the flooding, and the other group, which was more like the control, were provided resources, posts, the flooding.

  We worked with the National Meteorological Institute to provide us with data and information that could actually help us to know what the flood regimes were. So those were the triggers that helped us to know when we were able to provide the cash to the farmers.

  We have been able to establish that providing anticipatory cash to farmers was a better option, because it reduced the chances of them adopting some negative coping strategies. And then we worked with government agencies that naturally will provide weather information and forecasts. But now we've made those information available to farmers for them to make decisions that enable them to actually reduce the shock that would have come from the flooding that came.

• Ali Rogin:

  And so when the floods came, what were some of the differences that you saw in terms of the responses from households who had received the money before the flooding versus those who received the money after the flooding?

• Babatunde Ojei:

  The vulnerability of the group that got the cash, prior to the flooding was highly reduced. And then they were able to actually be better prepared for the flooding, because one was they had the cash in hand. And secondly was that they had the meteorological information in hand.

  So some of them were able to actually invest in some productive activities that could also support them, for example, like some of them, were able to buy things that help them with early harvest of their cropping, some of them were able to raise the level of their bands where they keep their food produce. We also saw some of them being able to buy some other food items to prepare for the shock.

  However, for the group that were provided the cash post the flooding, so it's more like trying to survive the shock, more than being able to prepare for it. So there was a huge difference between both. And for us, it's really convincing that anticipatory supports makes a lot of sense, especially in some of these communities where we work.

• Ali Rogin:

  We're seeing more and more extreme weather events around the world. Do you believe that anticipatory action is going to become more of the norm in terms of how humanitarian aid is distributed?

• Babatunde Ojei:

  I believe so. Two things here. One is not just providing the cash, but also providing them the information and also using traditional structures, existing structures and traditional practices, because you could give money, but if you didn't have early warning systems in place that could actually have an impact.

  The fact that they had that information they had the means to be able to better prepare for it shows clearly that this is really a positive way to actually support communities that are in the line of some of these climate related disasters.

  One of the things we realized from our study was that beyond the disaster, the flooding, some of them still had some available resources from what was given to them to be able to also continue even after the flooding to continue to provide for their families, to continue to actually maintain a good level of living.

  So for us, I think it's really the way to go rather than the usual, you know, providing the assistance after the disaster has happened.

• Ali Rogin:

  Babatunde Ojei, Nigeria Director for the International Rescue Committee. Thank you so much for joining us.

• Babatunde Ojei:

  Thank you very much to you.

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