The Jameel Observatory Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network (Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet) and Community Jameel will partner with Brac to pilot innovative climate-adaptive technologies in the southwest region of Bangladesh.
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet project was selected as an innovation sprint at the 2023 summit of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C), a joint initiative of the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
An innovation sprint is a short period of time where one focuses on creating new ideas and solutions.
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will initially pilot in Bangladesh and Sudan, working with local partners Brac and the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) – Sudan, main agricultural research arm of the Sudanese government, and with MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the global research centre working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.
Elfatih Eltahir, HM King Bhumibol professor of Hydrology and Climate at MIT and project leader of the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, said: “As we launch Jameel-Observatory-CREWSnet, the AIM4C summit offers a great opportunity to share our plans and initial work with all those who are interested in enhancing the capacity of agricultural communities in vulnerable countries to deal with challenges of climate change.”
George Richards, director of Community Jameel, said: “Community Jameel is proud to be collaborating with MIT, Brac, and the Agricultural Research Corporation — Sudan to empower agricultural communities to adapt to the ever-growing challenges arising from climate change — challenges which, as we are seeing acutely in Sudan, are compounded by other crises. We welcome the support of the US and UAE governments in selecting the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet as an AIM4C innovation sprint.”
Dr Md Liakath Ali, director of climate change, urban development, and disaster risk management at Brac, said: “Over our five decades working alongside climate-vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, Brac has seen first-hand how locally-led climate adaptation helps protect lives and livelihoods. BRAC is proud to work with Community Jameel and MIT to empower vulnerable communities to proactively adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
Beginning in southwestern Bangladesh, the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will integrate next-generation climate forecasting, predictive analytics, new technologies, and financial instruments. In Sudan, the initiative will emphasize adopting modern technology to use a better variety of heat-resistant seeds, increasing the use of targeted fertilisers, strengthening soils through soil fertility mapping combined with data modelling, and emphasizing vertical expansion of agriculture over traditional horizontal expansion.
Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet seeks to bridge the gap between the knowledge about climate change created at research institutions such as MIT and the local farming communities that are adapting to the impacts of climate change. By effectively informing and engaging local communities, the project seeks to enable farmers to sustainably increase their agricultural productivity and income.
About Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, one of MIT’s five Climate Grand Challenges flagship projects, aims to empower communities worldwide, specifically in the agriculture sector, to adapt to climate shocks by combining state-of-the-art climate and socioeconomic forecasting techniques with technological solutions to support communities’ resilience and by launching collaborations across the public and private sectors and civil society.
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet was launched at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh as part of the Jameel Observatory. An international collaboration launched in 2021, Jameel Observatory focuses on convening researchers and practitioners who use data and technology to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change and short-term climate shocks.
The Jameel Observatory focuses on using data and evidence to prepare for and act on environmental shocks and the impacts of climate change and variability which threaten human and environmental wellbeing. With a special focus on low and middle-income countries, the Jameel Observatory works at the interface of climate, natural disasters, agricultural and food systems, and health. It emphasises the need to incorporate both local and scientific knowledge to prepare and act in anticipation of environmental shocks.
About AIM4C
AIM4C is a joint initiative of the United States and United Arab Emirates that seeks to enhance climate action by accelerating agriculture and food systems innovation and investment. Innovation sprints are selected by AIM4C to accelerate their impact following a competitive process that considers scientific excellence and financial support.
About Community Jameel
Community Jameel advances science and learning for communities to thrive. An independent, global organisation, Community Jameel was launched in 2003 to continue the tradition of philanthropy and community service established by the Jameel family of Saudi Arabia in 1945. Community Jameel supports scientists, humanitarians, technologists and creatives to understand and address pressing human challenges in areas such as climate change, health and education.
The work enabled and supported by Community Jameel has led to significant breakthroughs and achievements, including the MIT Jameel Clinic’s discovery of the new antibiotic Halicin, critical modelling of the spread of COVID-19 conducted by the Jameel Institute at Imperial College London, and a Nobel Prize-winning experimental approach to alleviating global poverty developed by the co-founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT.
About MIT Climate Grand Challenges
Launched in 2020, MIT’s Climate Grand Challenges initiative is designed to mobilise the Institute’s research community around tackling the most difficult unsolved climate problems in emissions reduction, climate adaptation and resilience, risk forecasting, carbon removal, and understanding the human impacts of climate change. MIT selected 27 teams as finalists from a field of nearly 100 initial proposals. In 2022, five teams with the most promising concepts were announced as multi-year flagship projects.
BDST: 1715 HRS, MAY 08, 2023
SMS
