The communities of fishers and farmers in Siaya, Western Kenya are increasingly affected by climate-related risks such as floods and droughts. The Kenya Red Cross Society and the Norwegian Red Cross have carried out pilot efforts in Siaya to integrate short term humanitarian responses to disasters with long term goals of strengthening the population’s resilience to climatechange. In this brief, we report on ongoing research investigating how and under what conditions such preventive humanitarian approaches can support climate change adaptation, and identify lessons that may inform future work by the Red Cross and other humanitarian actors. Our preliminary findings indicate that these humanitarian approaches hold significant potential for climate change adaptation, but also that challenges remain: at local levels in ensuring that interventions respond to factors causing vulnerability to climate risks, and at programme level in improving planning, reporting and funding practices to become more flexible in the face of changing needs.