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Start Bangladesh Hub

Programme

Disaster Risk Financing

Acting before the crisis arrives. Scientific triggers release funding on forecast rather than on observed impact, so support can reach households while there is still time for it to change the outcome.

Anticipatory actionForecast-based triggersStart ReadyNational Reserve

What Disaster Risk Financing is

Most humanitarian money moves after damage is visible. DRF moves it while the forecast is still a forecast.

The logic is simple and the discipline is hard. A hazard is modelled, a threshold is agreed in advance, a plan is written before anything happens, and money is committed to that plan. When the forecast crosses the threshold, funds release automatically — no appeal, no negotiation, no waiting for images of damage.

The uncomfortable part is that this means sometimes paying out for a hazard that does not fully materialise. That is not waste; it is the cost of acting on probability. The alternative — waiting for certainty — means always arriving after the harm.

For funding released after a crisis, see Start Fund Bangladesh.

At a glance

Trigger basis
Impact-based forecasting
Financing mechanism
Start Ready
Contingency layer
National Reserve
Activations on record
3

Three pillars

What has to exist before a trigger can fire

DRF only works when all three are in place. Any one of them missing and the money either cannot release or releases into nothing.

  1. 01

    The risk model

    A hazard model with an agreed impact threshold — how much rainfall, what wind speed, which minimum temperature — built with FOREWARN Bangladesh and reviewed independently. The model defines what counts as a trigger before anyone has an interest in the answer.

  2. 02

    The contingency plan

    Written in advance with the members who will deliver it: who does what, in which unions, for how many households, with what transfer value. Because the plan already exists, activation is execution rather than design.

  3. 03

    The financing

    Money committed against the plan ahead of the season through Start Ready, so the release is automatic when the threshold is crossed. Pre-arranged finance is what turns a plan into an action.

Contingency layer

National Reserve and activation

A contingency planning mechanism targeting the most vulnerable districts for seasonal preparedness.

What the National Reserve is for

Not every risk is forecastable to a threshold, and not every district has a model. The National Reserve covers that gap: a contingency layer that targets the most vulnerable districts for seasonal preparedness — cyclone shelter maintenance, pre-positioning, early warning dissemination — rather than waiting for a trigger.

How an activation works

  • Forecast data is monitored continuously against the agreed threshold for each hazard and district.
  • When the threshold is crossed, the pre-agreed contingency plan activates and Start Ready releases funds.
  • Members deliver against the plan they wrote, in the unions they specified, to the households already identified.
  • The activation is recorded as an alert, with the same reach and timeliness reporting as a response alert.

Some DRF allocation decisions are made collectively through Start Network with representatives from different countries, because the risk being pooled is global. See Our global network of networks.

Start Ready · live

Cyclone window open · coastal districts armed

Monitoring

Contingency plans are signed and financing is committed for the pre-monsoon cyclone window across the coastal belt. Forecast monitoring is active against the agreed impact thresholds; no trigger has been crossed since Alert B091.

Readiness window
Cyclone window · Sep 2026 – Dec 2026
Figures as of
22 September 2026
Maintained by
DRF team, Hub Secretariat

Live system coverage

Districts in the system this year

Where a risk model, a signed contingency plan and committed financing are all in place.

Loading map…

Circle size shows the number of DRF activations recorded in that district.

Districts covered · 11

  • Satkhira1 act.
  • Khulna1 act.
  • Bagerhat1 act.
  • Patuakhali1 act.
  • Kurigram1 act.
  • Lalmonirhat1 act.
  • Nilphamari1 act.
  • Gaibandha1 act.
  • Rajshahi1 act.
  • Chapai Nawabganj1 act.
  • Naogaon1 act.

Anticipatory delivery

What acting early has done

Activations
3
People reached
90.5K
Funds released
£759,000
Districts
11

Placeholder figures pending Salesforce integration.

Timeliness

How early is early?

For anticipatory alerts the crisis date is the hazard's arrival, so reaching people before it shows as a short — sometimes negative — interval. That is the mechanism working.

Crisis to community reach
0days (median)From the crisis occurring to aid reaching the community.
Alert to allocation decision
1days (median)Members decide collectively. The commitment is 72 hours.
Crisis to alert raised
0days (median)How fast local members identify and escalate a crisis.

Projects

Current DRF projects

Written sections for now. Once project volume passes roughly twelve with consistent fields, these become a template with their own index.

Flood risk financing in the Jamuna and Teesta basins

Impact-based forecast triggers for riverine flooding, with contingency plans held by char-based members. The model and threshold work is under independent review.

Cyclone readiness across the coastal belt

Pre-agreed plans covering the coastal districts, combining anticipatory cash with shelter readiness and early warning dissemination in Bangla and local dialect.

Cold wave anticipatory action in the northern districts

Forecast minimum-temperature triggers releasing support to char households ahead of the coldest nights rather than after them.

Barind drought and irrigation deficit

Seasonal rainfall-deficit triggers timed to the sowing window, which is the only point at which drought support changes an outcome rather than compensating for one.

Project details to be confirmed with the DRF team

Recent activations

Latest anticipatory alerts

Full alert index

Learning & resources

Evidence, briefings and guidance

All DRF resources

What's coming up

Upcoming DRF events

All events