BRAC and Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet project begin partnership

The Jameel Observatory Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network (CREWSnet), a new project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Community Jameel, a global organisation to advance science and learning for communities to thrive, will partner with BRAC to pilot innovative climate-adaptive technologies in the southwest region of Bangladesh.

The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet project was selected in an innovation sprint at the 2023 summit of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C), a joint initiatives of the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will initially pilot in Bangladesh and Sudan, working with local partners BRAC and the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) - Sudan, main agricultural research arm of the Sudanese government, and with MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the global research centre working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

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 collaborating with MIT, BRAC, and the Agricultural Research Corporation - Sudan 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.”

Beginning in southwestern Bangladesh, the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet will integrate next-generation climate forecasting, predictive analytics, new technologies, and financial instruments.

The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, one of MIT’s five Climate Grand Challenges flagship projects, aims to empower communities worldwide, specifically in 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 by launching collaborations across the public and private sectors and civil society.

The Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet was launched at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh as part of the Jameel Observatory.