Responding to Climate Shocks: IRC Announces an Investment from The Coca-Cola Foundation to Expand the Anticipatory Action Model Across Africa

New York, NY, January 21, 2026 - With new funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) will be able to scale up anticipatory action responses across Africa, enabling interventions before emergencies such as floods and droughts occur, while strengthening communities' resilience and supporting their recovery.

Anticipatory action (AA) has emerged as an alternative approach to crisis response and a way to meet growing humanitarian needs driven by climate hazards. With support from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the IRC is scaling the AA work in climate-vulnerable countries across Africa, beginning with an emergency responsein Mudug, Somalia, after identifying a high probability of poor rains between October and December 2025.

Two previous consecutive seasons of poor rainfall had already devastated livelihoods, dried water sources, depleted pastures, and exhausted the coping capacities of already vulnerable agro-pastoral households. This third season of poor rain was expected to increase the malnutrition rates, so the IRC activated a contingency response to provide assistance to 800 households, reaching approximately 5,600 people.

David Miliband, President and CEO of the IRC, said:
"Anticipatory action is essential to protecting lives and livelihoods before climate shocks hit, providing early and targeted cash assistance to families in need. This collaboration with The Coca-Cola Foundation will help us scale our 'Follow the Forecasts' approach across hazard-prone contexts throughout Africa, which has already strengthened the resilience of communities caught in the vicious cycle of poverty, conflict and displacement exacerbated by climate change."

The IRC had previously deployed its anticipatory action response in this region during earlier seasons and, with support from The Coca-Cola Foundation, expanded it to additional households. This emergency response consisted of distributing multi-purpose cash to help families prepare for the disaster, allowing them to allocate spending according to their specific needs and reducing the likelihood that they would resort to coping mechanisms such as selling productive assets or pulling children out of school. The response also included nutrition components and water and sanitation services, addressing both immediate needs and early preventive measures to curb malnutrition and disease outbreaks.

Carlos Pagoaga, President of The Coca-Cola Foundation, said:
"Natural disasters are placing increasing strain on communities that are already vulnerable. The Coca-Cola Foundation has invested in early, anticipatory action to help communities prepare for climate-driven emergencies before they escalate-thus protecting livelihoods, strengthening resilience, and enabling faster recovery when disasters strike."

Informed by experience over the last three years, the IRC's "Follow the Forecasts" approach to Anticipatory Action capitalizes on recent advances in open-source, long-range, seasonal forecast technology to identify weather anomalies between four to six months in advance. The IRC then leverages its large geographical footprint to conduct rapid contingency planning within this window.

When monitoring thresholds are "triggered'" the IRC can quickly distribute cash to households in the impact area that are highly likely to be affected by the hazard. This approach helps prioritize scarce resources where there is a specific, forecasted hazard and, therefore, reduces the risk of false triggers and unspent funds.