Gendered Epistemologies and Situated Knowledges: Reframing Risk, Vulnerability, and Resilience in Anticipatory Action

Objective

Anticipatory action (AA) refers to a set of forecast-based humanitarian measures designed to mitigate the impacts of crises before they fully materialize. Over the past decade, AA has gained significant interest among humanitarian actors and has been increasingly promoted as a more dignified and cost-effective alternative to traditional emergency response. Despite its potential, recent research shows persistent challenges, including reliance on technical-scientific frameworks that may not reflect local realities, unreliable data, algorithmic biases, and existing conflicts which complicate interventions. These issues can reinforce structural inequalities and limit the effectiveness of AA interventions. While recent research has provided significant insights, there remains a gap in understanding how AA accounts for gender-specific vulnerabilities, risks, and resilience. This study addresses this gap with three objectives: to critically analyze how AA constitutes gendered understandings of vulnerability, risk, and resilience; to foreground women’s perspectives on what makes them vulnerable, at risk, and resilient; and to inform the design of AA strategies that are contextually grounded and responsive to affected women’s lived experiences. The project employs a multi-sited and qualitative design. It combines participatory workshops with women in selected intervention sites to facilitate articulation of embodied experiences often overlooked in dominant discourses. The expected outcomes of this research include two peer-reviewed academic publications, one podcast, one short video, one international conference presentation, and one webinar with stakeholders. This project aims to produce innovative research while improving the researcher’s career prospects in both academic and non-academic sectors through teaching experience, open-access publishing, training in conflict research, and the development of other skills and networks relevant to both academia and policy.