The official launch of Anticipation Hub took place at the Asia-Pacific Dialogue Platform (Asia DP) for Forecast-based Financing (FbF) from 17-19 November 2020.
While the event was held online due to COVID-19, the discussions were nevertheless lively and participation was at an all-time high. More than 50 sessions were held on different topics and "Speed Dating" gave the participants the chance to interact on a one-to-one basis.
FOREWARN Bangladesh led the coordination of the Asian DP as part of Start Fund Bangladesh. Throughout the three-day event, a wide range of interactive discussions were held on topics such as: learning from activations, implementation in the COVID-19 context, collaboration and scaling up, and institutionalisation.
FOREWARN members from Bangladesh and the Philippines led the session on Anticipation and Health, where experts and practitioners from different countries came forward to share their anticipation work in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. FOREWARN and Start Network members also presented their work on Anticipatory Early Action. CARE Bangladesh, RIMES, Islamic Relief, and Social and Economic Enhancement Programme (SEEP) shared their experiences of anticipation/early action in different contexts in Bangladesh.
In the closing ceremony, Start Network's Head of Crisis Anticipation and Risk Financing, Emily Montier, talked about Start Network's experience in anticipatory action.
“System changes cannot happen alone or via one organisation. At Start Network, we have been working together for 10 years and have learned that collaboration is hard, but we need to ensure that we are part of greater collaboration, together with governments, civil society, UN, NGOs, ICRC," she said.
"These Dialogue Platforms are one place where we can collaborate, where we can share together what went wrong, not just the successes, and learn from them; where we can ensure that our efforts result in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts."