Jameel Observatory early warning system showcased by US and UAE governments at climate change summit in Washington, DC
The Jameel Observatory Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network (Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet), a new project launched by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Community Jameel, has been selected as an innovation sprint at the 2023 summit of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (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.
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will empower communities worldwide, specifically within 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 launching collaborations across the public and private sectors, as well as civil society.
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will initially pilot in Bangladesh and Sudan, working with local partners BRAC, a leading international nonprofit headquartered in Bangladesh, and the Agricultural Research Corporation-Sudan, the principal agricultural research arm of the Sudanese government, and with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. 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 emphasise 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’s activities and timeline will be reevaluated as the team monitors the ongoing situation in Sudan.
Using local climate insights, communities will be empowered to adapt proactively to climate change by optimally planning their agricultural activities, targeting emergent economic opportunities and proactively managing risks from climate change. Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet seeks to bridge the gap between the knowledge about climate change created at research centres such as MIT and the local farming communities that are adapting to the impacts of climate change. By effectively informing and engaging local communities, we seek to enable farmers to sustainably increase their agricultural productivity and income.
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 partnering with MIT, BRAC, the Agricultural Research Corporation-Sudan and J-PAL 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 firsthand how locally-led climate adaptation helps protect lives and livelihoods. BRAC is proud to partner with Community Jameel and MIT to empower vulnerable communities to proactively adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet was launched at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh as part of the Jameel Observatory, an international collaboration launched in 2021 that 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 as well as those impacts of climate change and variability which threaten human and environmental well-being. 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 local as well as scientific knowledge to prepare and act in anticipation of environmental shocks.
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.