TomorrowNow Leads Breakout Session on Promoting Investment in Next Gen Weather Innovations at #AIM4C in Washington D.C.
TomorrowNow promoted investment in #ClimateSmartAg and #FoodSystems innovation at #AIM4C in Washington D.C. & led a breakout session about accelerating the adoption of next gen weather innovations.
Nairobi, Kenya – TomorrowNow.org was honored to showcase the #AIM4C innovation sprint that we are leading to reach 100M smallholders with next gen weather intelligence at the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington D.C. May 8-10, 2023.
In November 2022, TomorrowNow & partners launched an innovation spirit at COP27 to empower 20M farmers with next-gen weather intelligence in 5 years – with a commitment to scale impact to reach 100M farmers by 2030 in order to unlock $7B+ in direct on-farm value for #ZeroHunger.
At the #AIM4C event in Washington D.C., we led a panel discussion to work out ways in which we are going to transform lives by leveraging partnerships in ensuring that our weather solutions reach those who can most benefit – the farmers.
We were honored to lead a breakout session in partnership with so many brilliant partners including Tomorrow.io, Digital Green, KALRO, COMET MetEd, One Acre Fund & Salient who are helping us promote more investments in weather innovations that are going to improve food security & enable farm-level prosperity.
This session convened innovators from across the public, private and NGO sectors including space, sea & soil weather innovators, agronomists, farmer-facing organizations, philanthropists, as well as government agencies.
Our aim was to share learnings and insights on the opportunities of next generation technologies for weather forecasting and early warning systems.
We also showcased key examples of partnerships emerging around the world that are ensuring the value generated from next-gen investments reach farmers and the food systems ecosystem in a timely and efficient manner.
Together, through the session, participants (including worked through the challenges, opportunities and future partnerships necessary to reach 600M smallholder farmers with next-gen weather intelligence within our lifetimes.
Here were some key takeaways from #AIM4C and our breakout session on next gen weather innovations:
Innovation matters – We need new weather innovations to improve the quality and access of best in class agri-weather data – historical, short-term & seasonal. There are transformational weather innovations that are being invested in now. We must ensure value reaches farmers!
Community matters – By leveraging the power of community, we can together connect weather data to ag-advisories & scalable downstream farmer-facing channels + apply innovative approaches to allow for uptake and on-farm adoption of best practices.
Philanthropy and private partnership – We need new funding vehicles to ensure rapid access to philanthropy for short term action and longer term global access models with private sector for affordable long-term access.
Convening partners around a shared vision – We are excited to see so many great partners in our innovation sprint. By working together, we can enable tight feedback loops among partners & farmers (upstream & downstream) and leverage the best of what all partners have and learn from each other for the benefit of farmers!
Our Executive Director Georgina Campbell Flatter also participated at the women in #agriculture #AIM4C breakfast & connected with so many inspiring women innovators as part of our commitment to ensure that no one is left behind as we generate solutions to help communities adapt to climate change.
While reflecting on the outcomes from the #AIM4C event, Flatter asserted that as much as our innovation sprint is very bold, it’s absolutely POSSIBLE through partnership with stakeholders who understand the value of weather forecasts (for their operations and farmers) and are willing to trail blaze with us.
The statement echoed the true words of #AIM4C co-host U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, “Partnerships will help us advance climate-smart agriculture & food systems innovation”
About AIM4C
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) is a global initiative that unites participants in support of a common GOAL: to significantly increase investment in and support for climate-smart-agriculture and food systems innovation over five years (2021-2025) to address global hunger, food security, and climate change.
Led by the United States of America (U.S.) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), AIM for Climate has united 42 governments and more than 235 non-governmental partners since it was launched at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26).
The innovation sprint “Climate Resilience For African Farmers Through Next Generation Weather Intelligence” is led by TomorrowNow.org, Tomorrow.io and partners including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mercy Corps Agri Fin, CGIAR, KALRO, One Acre Fund, Salient Predictions, UCAR, ILRI, and Excellence in agronomy.
We are pioneering an Africa-first innovation spirit to empower 20 million smallholder farmers over five years with next-gen location-based timely agri-weather services.
Together, we are building on established activities in East Africa, including efforts funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to leverage $80 million in private sector investment and $20 million in transformative philanthropy to connect governments and local agricultural value chain partners with next-gen weather intelligence and lay the foundations for rapid scale and sustainability.
