Brief Locally-led Humanitarian Action

This brief introduces early warning and anticipatory action as tools for protecting lives, livelihoods, and assets before disasters strike. In line with the current Governmental Aid Policy Framework, the Swedish Government has directed Sida to use development finance for anticipatory action as a means of making climate aid more effective. The brief serves as a resource for Sida staff, bringing together collective experiences in development-funded early warning and anticipatory action to date, and aims to inspire future investments in protecting people against preventable disasters. It complements an existing humanitarian brief on anticipatory action.

The global humanitarian situation in 2025 was characterised by a growing number of challenges: protracted armed conflicts, increasing violations of international humanitarian law and other legal frameworks intended to protect civilians, and heightened obstacles to humanitarian access. At the same time, natural disasters and deteriorating socioeconomic conditions continued to affect already vulnerable groups severely.

Considering these highly complex circumstances, Swedish humanitarian assistance remained principled, needs‑based, and flexible, delivering clear results. In 2025, Sida disbursed approximately SEK 4.6 billion in humanitarian aid, representing around 19 per cent of Sweden’s total development assistance. Support was directed to some of the most complex and severe crises, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Palestine and Sudan, guided by Sweden’s humanitarian allocation model, funding decisions are based on the severity of humanitarian needs.