Call summary :

Mercy Corps Ventures’ Humanitarian Venture Lab has launched the world’s first-of-its-kind Anticipatory Action Accelerator. This initiative, building on recent Anticipatory Action (AA) pilots completed in Kenya and Nepal, will partner with startups, NGOs, and more to usher in a new era of humanitarian aid, leveraging innovations in tech such as climate data analytics, AI/ML, and crypto payment rails.

Our goals are:
1/ In the immediate term, identify promising Anticipatory Action solutions and fund their implementation to better prepare climate-vulnerable people for the effects of climate change.
2/ Across a portfolio of pilots, build the evidence base on how Anticipatory Action can represent a more responsive, efficient and just future for humanitarian aid.
3/ Scale up Anticipatory Action programs around the world and crowd-in new capital to this solution.

The Challenge

Nearly 300 million people around the world require humanitarian assistance. In 2023, USD 223.7 billion was allocated for aid, comparable to the annual GDPs of New Zealand, Portugal, and Qatar. However, 99% of this aid is issued reactively, delivered only after negative impacts have already been experienced. This means that only 1% of humanitarian aid is currently spent on proactively reducing and managing risks.

Yet more than half of all humanitarian crises are predictable, with 20% being highly predictable. Research shows that Anticipatory action (aid delivered before disaster strikes) is 7x more cost-effective than traditional humanitarian aid.

How can we design a humanitarian aid system that can preemptively identify crises and reduce the negative impact of shock events, allowing climate-vulnerable people to build resilience?

The Solution

A new generation of innovative technology solutions are reshaping our ability to adapt and respond to our changing climate. Remote sensing, high-fidelity satellite data, digital currencies and wallets, and advanced climate analytics and AI are all new tools that can improve humanitarian aid delivery in markets affected by conflict and climate change. Building responsible solutions to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations is critical to ensure that we close the technology gap.

Anticipatory Action takes the combined power of the above technologies to transform humanitarian aid. Crunching data with the help of predictive analytics, experts are able to pre-emptively identify disasters. Leveraging digital currencies, wallets and payment rails, funders can swiftly respond to crises by directly delivering aid to those most likely to be affected. This facilitates better outcomes including:

- High immediate and long-term ROI: Every dollar invested in anticipatory action results in households earning $7 in benefits and avoided losses. Over a 20-year horizon, this benefit increases up to $34, decreasing long-term recovery needs and costs
- Dignity and resilience for those impacted by crisis: By preemptively providing unconditional cash support, we respect the needs of beneficiaries and uphold their dignity of choice, allowing them to decide the best use of the funds. Additionally, anticipatory action empowers beneficiaries to plan ahead and mitigate the impacts of emergencies, rather than waiting for relief and rebuilding support in the aftermath.
- Higher program efficiency and scale: Leveraging a technology stack of remote sensing, high-fidelity satellite data, predictive analytics and innovative fintech, Anticipatory Action programs can easily replicate and scale to support the 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance around the world, as well as the 3.6 billion people whose daily lives are vulnerable to disruptive climate events. Blockchain-enabled AA can reduce transaction costs by 90%+ and transaction times by 75%+ compared to traditional methods.

About the Anticipatory Action Accelerator

The Anticipatory Action Accelerator is focused on the intersection of advanced climate analytics, crypto payments, and humanitarian aid. With our selected partners, we aim to push the boundaries to improve the lives and livelihoods of underserved users across the Global South.

The initiative seeks to partner with organizations operating in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, and Western Balkans who are piloting Anticipatory Action solutions to improve humanitarian aid delivery.

Equity-free grants of up to $100,000 will be provided to selected partners, based on the achievement of pre-agreed milestones. Alongside capital, MCV will also provide mentorship, impact measurement advisory, access to partnership opportunities, knowledge exchange, and brand ex