From data to decisions: How countries in fragile and climate-stressed settings are using disaster data to act before disasters strike
As climate extremes intensify and crises grow more complex, humanitarian actors face a persistent challenge: how to act earlier, and more effectively, before hazardous events turn into disasters. At the 2026 Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW), UNDRR and partners explored this question through the session “DELTA Resilience: Enabling the Use of Disaster Impact Data for Risk-Informed, Inclusive and Climate-Resilient Humanitarian Action” held virtually on 5th March 2026.
The discussion highlighted how disaster data, when systematically collected and made decision-ready, can help shift early warning systems from forecasting hazards to anticipating impacts. As Loretta Hieber-Girardet, Chief of UNDRR’s Risk Knowledge Branch, noted, “People experience the consequences of events, and those consequences vary depending on where people live, their capacities, their livelihoods, and their pre-existing vulnerability.” Understanding these differentiated impacts is essential to designing early actions that protect lives and livelihoods.
Building the data foundations for anticipatory action
DELTA Resilience, the open-source disaster tracking system developed by UNDRR with UNDP and WMO, was presented as a platform designed to provide evidence for resilience building and strengthen national disaster data ecosystems, including in fragile and conflict-affected contexts where reliable and interoperable information is often limited.
By enabling the use of common data standards and interoperability, the system connects disaster impact data with information on hazardous events characteristics, as well as disaggregated data on exposure and vulnerability. This integration provides a more comprehensive understanding of disaster impacts and their socioeconomic, environmental, and human development consequences. In turn, it supports the design of triggers and early action protocols and strengthens evidence-based decision-making for the implementation and financing of prevention and risk reduction measures.
“This is not just data for the sake of data – the use cases and applications are at the core of the system,” emphasized Iria Touzon Calle from UNDRR Bonn office.
From data to early action
Speakers from Somalia, the Philippines and Syria shared how disaster impact data is already informing anticipatory action in diverse contexts.
In Somalia, drought impact data combined with vulnerability information supports the design of forecast-based triggers and early actions in a context where drought, displacement and conflict intersect. “The effectiveness of early action depends largely on the ability to use reliable drought impact data,” noted Khadar Nur Mohamed, National DRR focal point at the Somalia Disaster Management Authority.
In the Philippines, the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations showed how combining El Niño forecasts with historical drought and crop-losses data helped authorities identify high-risk farming communities and activate early actions such as irrigation support and multipurpose cash assistance. The results were measurable: improved dietary diversity, reduced negative coping strategies, and strong returns on investment. As Sandro Pantua shared from FAO evidence on anticipatory action returns of investments, “Every one dollar spent on anticipatory action resulted in up to 4.39 dollars in avoided losses.”
In Syria, DELTA Resilience is supporting the reconstruction of a national disaster data system after years without a functioning mechanism to record losses. “Until recently, Syria had no system in place to systematically capture disaster impacts, despite the occurrence of numerous events,” explained Mohamad Diab, head of Early warning department, Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management. The system now being operationalized provides an interoperable platform to consolidate disaster impact data, support the implementation of the legal framework mandating such a system, and progressively link this information with preparedness planning, early warning, and anticipatory action processes.
Understanding risks in a changing climate
Participants emphasized that historical disaster data alone is no longer sufficient in a rapidly changing climate. As hazard patterns evolve and exposure and vulnerabilities shift, past impacts must increasingly be analysed alongside forward-looking risk information.
Combining historical disaster impact data with climate projections, hazard trends and vulnerability analysis helps ensure anticipatory action systems remain reliable even as climate change alters the frequency, intensity and geographic distribution of hazards. As Irene Amuron, head of Anticipatory Action at the Red Cross, Red Crescent Climate Center noted, integrating impact data with climate risk analysis “helps create a deeper understanding of risk.”
A foundation for scaling anticipatory action
Across the discussion, one message was clear: disaster data becomes most valuable when it informs decisions. Participants highlighted the need for disaggregated, timely and interoperable data, stronger institutional coordination, and open tools that allow humanitarian, climate and disaster risk communities to work from a shared evidence base.