Leaders are often called on to respond to urgent needs, from issues arising in day-to-day operations to emergencies ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic to natural disasters. While it’s undeniably vital work, we must do more to recognize and prioritize prevention.

What: Prevention As A Paradigm
Preventative measures can have a truly transformative impact by addressing social challenges before they become crises. By investing in prevention, we can reduce suffering, increase well-being and create sustainable change.

While some excellent nonprofit organizations focus exclusively on prevention, it is a mindset many organizations can incorporate. It involves a better understanding of the root causes of the issues we seek to address. It can require us to look beyond the traditional boundaries of our programs. Effectively addressing hunger, for example, requires more than providing food. We need to understand the ways hunger is connected to issues such as gender inequality, conflict and the climate crisis.

A prevention-oriented approach also benefits from making greater investments in research and data analysis to proactively identify risks and develop targeted interventions. As a case in point, each year, we treat millions of children for malnutrition, and the vast majority of the time, they are able to make a full recovery. Yet, we have long wanted to know what happens after they leave our treatment centers and how we can prevent them from becoming malnourished again.

It’s not an idle question, since the answer can help us design programs that can significantly improve children’s health and promote efficiency by reducing the costs associated with relapse. In other words, prevention pays off.

How: A Spectrum Of Approaches
Prevention programs aren’t all the same. Some stop an issue from arising in the first place and others are interventions designed to prevent a problem from happening again. Both cases require us to think and work both near- and long-term.

When disasters destroy infrastructure, when violence forces thousands to flee or when drought disrupts food production, our sector must respond with food, cash and other basic necessities. These efforts can also be designed to create a more lasting impact.

Read the full article about prevention approach to social impact by Charles E. Owubah at Forbes.