This report examines how climate risk insurance (CRI) can be strategically linked with anticipatory action (AA) to enable faster, more predictable and cost-effective disaster risk financing. Drawing on insights from insurance experts and humanitarian actors and emerging practice across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, it explores how forecast-triggered, pre-arranged finance can support action before disaster impacts peak. The report examines emerging approaches including dual-trigger insurance, layered risk financing, forecast-calibrated products and insured emergency funds, and identifies the enabling conditions required for effective integration. These include robust data and trigger design, institutional readiness, local capacity and ownership, sustainable financing and alignment with national policy and regulatory frameworks. It also highlights persistent challenges, including basis risk, operational payout delays, affordability and tensions between actuarial precision and the flexibility required for anticipatory action. The report concludes by identifying opportunities for moving anticipatory insurance from pilots towards sustainable and scalable disaster risk management systems.
