Uniting for impact: Inaugural meeting of the IOM-DRC Global Working Group on Anticipatory Action for Displacement

DRC co-hosted the inaugural meeting of the Global Working Group on Anticipatory Action (AA) for Displacement, which marked a collaborative step toward transforming how the international community prepares for and responds proactively to the growing risk of forced displacement in partnership. Convened by IOM and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and hosted by the Anticaption Hub, the gathering brought together more than one hundred representatives from UN agencies, NGOs, governments, academic institutions, and independent technical experts. These diverse stakeholders united around a shared ambition: to shift displacement risk management from a reactive to a proactive model by embedding forecast-based, locally grounded approaches into humanitarian and development systems.

With more than 123 million people forcibly displaced worldwide—and projections indicating a continued upward trajectory—participants underscored that business-as-usual humanitarian approaches are no longer sufficient. Displacement driven by climate shocks, conflict, and socioeconomic fragility is often predictable. Yet anticipatory action remains underutilized, constrained by fragmented systems, conceptual ambiguity, and a lack of local ownership. The formation of this Working Group responds to these challenges by creating a dedicated space to collectively address operational, technical, and policy gaps in applying anticipatory action to displacement.