Local government led anticipatory action: lessons from Mali and Uganda

This study engaged with local government staff in two communes in Mopti Region, Mali and two districts in Karamoja in Uganda. After identifying with staff the occasions when they had taken proactive action in response to the warning or threat of a crisis, repeated conversations were used to create a detailed timeline of what was known when and what actions were taken.

The conversations also investigated where warnings came from, what strategies were adopted and how they were supported. The examples that local authority staff gave included floods, droughts, a locust plague and epidemics of human and livestock diseases . The study looked only at the perspectives and thinking of local authorities on forward-looking action: their successes and the opinions of assisted populations was largely beyond its scope.