Climate Resilience Early Warning

The Jameel Observatory Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network is creating proactive, integrated decision support tools and services that empower frontline vulnerable communities to prepare for climate impacts and minimize losses.

 Climate change is already exacting a heavy toll on vulnerable nations around the world, including Bangladesh and Sudan. Lives and livelihoods are especially at risk in Bangladesh due to extreme heatwaves, rising seas, pervasive flooding and other climate impacts, and in Sudan because of increasing temperatures and insufficient deployment of critical agricultural technologies.

Supported by Community Jameel and led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Jameel Observatory Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network (Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet)  seeks to bridge gaps between the knowledge about climate change created at research institutions such as MIT and the local communities that are adapting to the impacts of climate change. 

To enable affected populations to survive and thrive as climate impacts intensify will require a new, proactive planning and intervention strategy. Starting with a focus on southwestern Bangladesh and Sudan, but scalable to other nations across the globe, the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will combines leading-edge climate forecasting, local and regional data, and socioeconomic analysis with innovative resilience services to empower people to make and implement informed decisions about adaptation and relocation—and thereby minimize loss of life, livelihood and property.

The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will initially pilot in Bangladesh and Sudan, working with local partner BRAC, a leading international nonprofit headquartered in Bangladesh, and the Agricultural Research Corporation of Sudan, the principal agricultural research arm of the Sudanese government, and with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet in Bangladesh
Residents of Bangladesh don’t know if a recent extreme weather event is a temporary condition or portends a more permanent change, and face impossible decisions about whether to stay or move. Likewise, governments and civil society organizations are at a loss as to how best to help residents adapt to climate change in place or to prepare them to relocate.

Bangladesh has invested a significant portion of its GDP in reaction to lost homes, livelihoods and other opportunities resulting from climate extremes. While this investment has helped, such losses could be minimized through a more proactive approach that equips decision-makers with the knowledge and services they need to prepare for the effects of climate change.

Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet takes a proactive approach: projecting trends in key climate variables, their interactions and impacts; communicating and sharing new knowledge about these trends broadly to support adaptation decisions by heads of households, central and local governments, the national government, NGOs and international partners; demonstrating and experimenting with prototypes of new adaptation solutions; and evaluating the impact and effectiveness of these potential interventions.

Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet in Sudan
With an ample supply of arable land, Sudan has a large potential for agricultural production. This large potential is hindered by persistent low yields in primary cereal crops when compared to other countries. Reasons for this include slow adoption of important agricultural technologies such as the use of improved seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs. Farmers work hard but productivity remains low. Climate change will exacerbate the situation. The warmer temperatures will impact crop yields negatively, and reduce Sudan’s agricultural productivity.

We are working toward a green and prosperous East Africa, with a focus on Sudan, adapting to climate change by transforming its agricultural sector and improving crop yields. Our work emphasizes the adoption of modern technology using better seed varieties that tolerate heat, soil fertility mapping coupled with an increased use of targeted fertilizers, the creation of public-private partnerships, and a strategic preference for vertical over horizontal expansion of agriculture. Our goal is to help Sudan improve crop productivity by adopting current best practices and proactive climate-resilience adaptation strategies.

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.

Visit our main website for fuller information.

Or watch our launch video