Using climate knowledge to improve food security and combat hunger

ACToday, the first Columbia World Project, aims to combat hunger in six countries that are particularly dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to the effects of climate change and fluctuations: Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Senegal and Vietnam.

The project achieves this by building systems to ensure that meteorological agencies in those countries can produce the most accurate climate information and that individuals and institutions in the agricultural sector have access to that knowledge—and can use it to grow more food to feed more people.

A young Ethiopian man sows the field before the plow. (Jacquelyn Turner, IRI)

A young Ethiopian man sows the field before the plow. (Jacquelyn Turner, IRI)

The project focuses on ensuring that relevant forecasts make it into the hands of farmers who can use them to predict both extreme weather that could damage agriculture, as well as favorable conditions that could lead to good harvests.

The ACToday team of researchers from Columbia Climate School’s International Research Institute for Climate & Society (IRI) brings expertise in climate science, nutrition and sustainable development. The team works in partnership with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security (CCAFS), the World Food Programme, the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Bank and others.

A bean sample from the harvest in Colombia (Jacquelyn Turner, IRI)

A bean sample from the harvest in Colombia (Jacquelyn Turner, IRI)

Tools developed by ACToday are directly enabling the World Food Programme to reach its target of ensuring that one million smallholder farmers have affordable insurance by 2022. ACToday has held more than 110 trainings in six countries, reaching over 2,150 participants since the project began in 2017. The trainings have helped stakeholders in ACToday countries develop climate forecasts and mapping tools and to use these tools for more effective national food security planning and policy.

In Partnership With:

• CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security (CCAFS)
• Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Inter-American Development Bank
• World Food Programme