It’s not every day that big players from the public sector agree on a plan of action for resilient development with private-sector heavyweights.
Yet, that is exactly what happened under the glass curtain of the of the light-filled atrium of the United States Institute of Peace building in Washington DC, when representatives from the U.S. and UK Governments, the American Red Cross, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, Google, the Skoll Global Threats Fund and Esri, decided to work together on an innovative partnership structure.
The partnership’s objective is to identify the most effective means to create and provide, for the public good, climate data that is timely and useful, as well as tools and services that are driven by needs and demands identified by end-users.
The partners will leverage resources and expertise to collectively solve complex challenges that are beyond the capacity of any single organization working alone. The value provided or leveraged to support and implement the first phase of this partnership should amount to more than US$34 million.
Announcing the intent to collaborate is the first step. Step two – to develop and apply scalable, comprehensive, and integrative climate resilient services by the end of 2016- will take place in at least three different sub-regions of the world. In South America the partnership will first focus on the Andean region, starting in Colombia.
Colombia is highly vulnerable to climate change and has been affected by more intense and frequent natural disasters in the last years. A recent study estimated a 70% reduction in the savannah ecosystem by 2050; and the models indicate that the agricultural sector will lose an average of 23.74% over production in the baseline scenario. Colombia’s interest on the partnership was confirmed by the presence of the Vice-Minister of Environment, Pablo Vieira, at the launch on the 9th of June.
The next upcoming set of potential sub-regions includes the Caribbean, where countries would benefit from integrated resilient infrastructure planning given that the loss of habitat for fish due to coastal degradation and pollution are the main concern.
This partnership’s scope is in line with the IDB’s priorities. The focus on strengthening climate data availability and its use in the region is an ongoing effort. The success of this partnership can only benefit from the inclusive and complementary work of a multi-sectorial development agenda promoted by the IDB and its member countries.
For more information
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- Fact sheet
- IDB project #CO-G1002 : Adaptation to Climate Impacts in Water Regulation and Supply
- IDB project #RG-T1821 : Climate Change and Biodiversity Information in the Tropical Andes
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