Community disaster preparedness in fragile contexts: Lessons for the next shock

On October 13, the international community marks the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. For families living in fragile and conflict-affected countries, community disaster preparedness is not an abstract idea. It is a matter of survival, especially for children. A flood, drought, or earthquake that might be manageable elsewhere can push already vulnerable communities into famine and displacement, destroying livelihoods, homes, and the schools and services that children depend on to grow up in safety.

At least 240 million people are expected to require humanitarian assistance in 2026, with many living in places where conflict and climate shocks compound one another. In these fragile contexts, waiting for a disaster to strike before responding is no longer sufficient. Preparing before it strikes is essential.

Through the Nexus Accelerator Fund (NAF), World Vision Canada supports Disaster Risk Reduction programming across 11 fragile contexts. NAF works alongside communities, local partners, and national authorities to reduce hazard exposure, strengthen early warning systems, protect livelihoods, and put in place the finance, structures, and skills that families need to act before a crisis. At its centre is a simple aim: to safeguard the well-being of children and their families in the world’s most difficult places. A recent mid-term review of the portfolio identified three examples that illustrate what this work looks like in practice.

Finance in place before the flood: South Sudan

Warnings alone cannot prevent losses if funding arrives too late. Traditional humanitarian financing can take months to mobilize once a shock is confirmed, by which point the losses are already sunk.

In South Sudan, World Vision addressed this directly by establishing a National Emergency Preparedness Fund that converts an early warning into disbursed funds within roughly one week. Between the fund’s creation and mid-term, three emergency requests were approved, USD 134,000 was disbursed against a planned USD 130,000, and 97,938 people were reached with flood and cholera response efforts. In Aweil, an anticipatory action protocol was activated during a real flood, moving communities to protect assets before the full impact was felt.

When the response starts with neighbours: Venezuela

In the first hours after a disaster, local people are often the first to respond. Roads may be blocked, communications disrupted, and international agencies still mobilizing. Neighbours pull survivors from rubble, community volunteers organize shelter, and trained residents manage the initial triage. Investing in this local capacity is one of the most direct ways to save lives when a shock arrives.

In Venezuela, World Vision has supported the training of community Disaster Risk Management Brigades, groups of trained volunteers embedded in the communities where they live. When devastating earthquakes struck the country in June 2026, these Brigades were positioned to serve as the first organized response in affected communities, coordinating early assessments and working alongside families in the immediate aftermath before broader relief could arrive.

Adapting before the drought: Somalia

Not all disasters arrive suddenly. In much of the Horn of Africa, the most damaging shock is drought. This slow-onset crisis can unfold over months or years, quietly draining livelihoods long before it reaches international headlines. Preparation for slow-onset shocks looks different from preparation for a flood or an earthquake. It requires adapting how communities produce food, manage water, and share information about a changing climate, well before the next dry season arrives.

In Somalia, World Vision supported communities to adopt climate-smart agriculture, irrigation technologies, and climate information systems that help farmers plant, water, and harvest with greater accuracy. Knowledge of climate-smart agriculture practices rose from 5 per cent at baseline to 67 per cent at mid-term, one of the largest knowledge gains documented across the 11 NAF countries.

What makes community disaster preparedness work

Together, these three examples show that Disaster Risk Reduction works when preparation is put in place before a shock rather than after, when it is led by communities themselves rather than delivered to them, and when it is supported by finance, training, and information that reach people in a form they can actually use to shape what happens next.

On this International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, we recognize that in fragile contexts, preparing for disasters is inseparable from protecting the well-being of children and families. When communities have the knowledge, systems and resources to act early, children stay in school, families keep their livelihoods, and recovery begins with a stronger footing. Disaster Risk Reduction is not a peripheral activity in the world’s most fragile places. It is an essential investment in the safety, resilience and future of children living there.