Community Learning Labs

This two-year project, which started in October 2025, is designed to enhance food security and food systems in the Greater Horn of Africa through anticipatory action (AA). It focuses on Somalia and Ethiopia, countries severely impacted by the compounding effects of climate hazards, alongside conflict-induced displacement. Through the establishment of participatory Community Learning Labs, the initiative aims to co-develop and test community-led early warning systems that integrate scientific forecasts with Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) from existing local and traditional information mechanisms ensuring that early warning systems are contextually relevant and inclusive of local expertise.

The Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), through its work in Eastern and Southern Africa, will lead the project’s research and data component, working in close collaboration with the Anticipatory Action team at the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). MMC will conduct 4Mi climate surveys with 2,000 refugees and migrants in Somalia and Ethiopia to understand how climate disasters influence mobility and food security. This data will advance regional understanding of the climate-conflict-displacement nexus and inform the AHEAD multi-hazard displacement forecast model developed and managed by DRC.

This project is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and implemented by a consortium led by the Danish Refugee Council and including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and operates in synergy with an ECHO-funded regional programme.