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This paper provides a technical overview of the collaborative process through which the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Fijian Government set up innovative structures to provide cash assistance ahead of anticipated cyclones.
In November 2023, before the start of the annual cyclone season in the South Pacific, the United Nations and Fijian Government launched an innovative programme to protect at-risk populations from the impacts of approaching tropical storms. The Fiji Anticipatory Action (AA)
Framework enables the national government and WFP (along with other UN partners) to provide vulnerable people with assistance before a cyclone hits—reducing storm-related costs and suffering while protecting hard-won development gains.
The Fiji AA Framework1 broadly resembles other global AA initiatives—with pre-committed finance being released to implement a specific action plan based on pre-agreed forecast triggers (in this case, cash transfers to people combined with community early warning messages ahead of a tropical cyclone event). However, the Fiji AA Framework also represents a major milestone in the integration of AA and social protection. Through close collaboration with the Fijian Government and other relevant stakeholders, WFP has developed a firstof-its-kind system where 100 percent of WFP’s anticipatory cash assistance will be channelled through the country’s existing social protection infrastructure. By building on the country’s disaster risk management capacities and leveraging the government’s existing social protection infrastructure, the initiative promotes local ownership—firmly placing the Fijian Government and people in the driver’s seat of proactive disaster mitigation.
Unlike other AA cash programmes, the system developed by WFP and their ministry counterparts in Fiji specifies conditions under which WFP guarantees the government’s own anticipatory cash payouts. By enabling the Fijian Government to release contingency funds through the existing social protection infrastructure, timeframes for sending money to people are faster and administrative burdens are minimised.
WFP then reimburses the government for these anticipatory payments based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)2.
The AA Framework outlines triggers3 that—once reached—mean the Fijian Government can immediately authorize its Department of Social Protection to transfer anticipatory cash assistance to up to 15,000 households (75,000 people) to support their various needs. These households can then decide how they prioritize their spending—to cover evacuation costs, protect homes and assets, or for the purchase of food and medicine. By targeting people already registered in existing social protection systems and working with existing government-contracted financial service providers (FSPs) that are capable of processing transactions swiftly, the government can send the most vulnerable people their cash within 24 hours of the trigger activation.
While the system developed in Fiji cannot be replicated everywhere, it can serve as a blueprint for integrating anticipatory action into a country’s social protection infrastructure— especially in contexts with similar characteristics. This case study paper outlines the enabling contextual factors, key processes, and other considerations that went into setting up the Fiji AA Framework with a view to sharing lessons and potentially informing similar initiatives in other places.