Building the Digital Road: Climate Services for 300 Million Small-Scale Producers

Digital climate advisory services (DCAS), such as this project in Ghana, are a proven way to help build resilience in the agricultural sector.

DCAS refer to the provision of climate-related information to farmers via digital tools and platforms. They can include online portals, mobile applications as well as more traditional, digitally-enabled services like radio and interactive voice response systems, according to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development.

Throughout 2020, the Global Commission on Adaptation and its partners worked on an assessment of the investment needed to scale up such services in order to reach 300 million small-scale agricultural producers globally, as well as outline the principles that should govern these investments to ensure equity, scalability and positive impact.

The International Research Institute for Climate and Society is a co-author of the assessment, called a Blueprint, along with the World Food Program, the World Resources Institute, the Global Center on Adaptation, and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development.

The Blueprint, to be published in Spring 2021, will be discussed in an anchor event on agriculture and food security during the Climate Adaptation Summit on January 25 and 26. The event, hosted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, brings together key leaders to commit to new actions and drive forward global efforts in agriculture, food security and climate change. To register for the summit and this event, please see here:

https://www.cas2021.com

The information graphic below gives more details about the Blueprint for Investment in Digital Climate Advisory Services.