The UK has provided an additional £500,000 to help communities in five Zimbabwean districts prepare for the expected effects of El Niño-related drought.
The funding will support vulnerable communities in Beitbridge, Mwenezi, Gwanda, Matobo and Masvingo, the British Embassy in Harare said.
It brings the UK’s total funding for START Ready’s anticipatory drought response in Zimbabwe to £1.27m.
The programme is expected to benefit more than 97,000 people through improved access to water, climate-smart agricultural inputs and training, livestock support and other measures to prepare for drought.
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The UK is also making up to £15m available through its Humanitarian Crisis Fund for anticipatory action in countries at risk from El Niño.
The funding will support drought-prone areas in Southern Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, as well as regions in East Africa and South America at risk of flooding.
UK Minister for Development Kirsty McNeill said early action was needed as communities faced increasingly frequent climate-related shocks.
“The climate crisis isn’t something that’s round the corner, it’s already here and people need our help right now,” McNeill said.
She said recent experience had shown that climate-related shocks could affect countries beyond their borders.
“The lesson of recent years is simple, climate shocks do not stop at national borders, whether that means extreme weather, pressure on food supplies or rising costs for families, shocks can affect all of us, wherever we live,” McNeill said.
McNeill said acting before disasters struck could reduce suffering and the cost of humanitarian responses.
“That is why acting early matters, helping people in vulnerable communities prepare before disaster strikes so we can save lives and reduce suffering. It makes financial sense to act now to prepare costs less than picking up the pieces afterwards. Using the best science, forecasting and international partnerships to get ahead of risks before they become crises is a smarter approach to resilience and security,” McNeill said.
The announcement comes as McNeill sets out her vision for a new approach to development in a speech at the New Economics Foundation.
She argued that global challenges require greater focus on “mutual interest and shared resilience”, saying health, climate, economic, human and food security were interconnected.
The UK said about 35% of humanitarian shocks could be predicted in advance, but less than 1% of global humanitarian funding currently goes towards anticipatory action.
It said early warning systems and pre-arranged funding could allow communities to prepare before disasters escalate.
Studies cited by the UK government suggest proactive drought responses in the Horn of Africa could have prevented an estimated US$2.5bn in lost incomes and assets.
Preparing before drought hits
The funding for Zimbabwe will support measures intended to protect livelihoods before the effects of drought become more severe.
These include livestock support, access to water, climate-smart agricultural inputs and training.
The UK said anticipatory action could include vaccinating livestock before drought conditions take hold, reinforcing homes ahead of floods and providing cash to farming families to buy essential supplies.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs representative Lisa Doughten said humanitarian agencies needed to move away from responding only after disasters occurred.
“In a world of increasing climate and humanitarian risks, we need to move from reacting to getting ahead of them. Anticipatory action based on credible forecasts saves lives, reduces suffering and makes every humanitarian dollar go further. Partnerships and investments like this are essential to building a faster, more cost-effective humanitarian system that puts vulnerable communities at the centre,” Doughten said.
START Network chief executive Christina Bennett said early assistance could help families protect their livelihoods.
“When we know a drought is coming, we must not wait for families to lose their crops and incomes before we act. For communities now facing the impacts of El Niño, a small investment made early can make the difference between coping and crisis,” Bennett said.
Professor Liz Stephens of the University of Reading said improvements in weather and climate forecasting provided an opportunity to prepare communities before extreme weather occurred.
“El Niño loads the dice for extreme weather in many regions of the world, and advances in weather and climate prediction mean that El Niño events can be forecast many months in advance. This gives us a lengthy window of opportunity for anticipatory action to support communities to prepare and protect themselves, rather than waiting until disaster strikes and costly emergency assistance is needed,” Stephens said.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate pattern that typically occurs every two to seven years.
The UK said the anticipated event could significantly affect rainfall and temperatures around the world because of high levels of heat in the ocean.
The World Meteorological Organisation has warned that El Niño can alter rainfall and temperature patterns and contribute to extreme weather.
The UK said it was working with the Met Office through a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office-Met Office partnership to expand access to AI-powered weather forecasting and early warning systems.
The partnership is intended to help countries predict and prepare for extreme weather.
The UK is also working with international financial institutions to increase the use of pre-arranged finance, allowing countries to access funding before or immediately after a disaster.
It said the World Bank’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Toolkit, launched in 2024, allows countries to access pre-arranged financing and redirect unused project funds when a shock occurs.
The UK is also working with multilateral development banks and the UN humanitarian system on disaster risk finance and insurance.
The UK-led Sevilla Platform for Action on Pre-arranged Finance aims to increase the proportion of pre-arranged crisis finance from 2% to 20% by 2035.
The aim is to shift the international humanitarian system from responding to disasters after they occur towards anticipating and reducing their impact.
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