Rural communities are often at the frontline of climate variability and change, and climate services can enable these communities to make better farming decisions. Climate services provide farmers access to climate information, translated into actionable advice, that, together with financial services, empower them to adopt climate-smart practices to manage risks, build resilience, and improve their lives and livelihoods. This has been the focus of the decade-long collaboration between the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Earth Institute, Columbia Universiy and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS).

This partnership has enabled advances in climate services and decision support tools for smallholder agriculture in the developing world that neither IRI nor CCAFS could have achieved independently.

Join us for a special opportunity to discuss what has been accomplished through the partnership as well as how emerging IRI and CCAFS activities could help raise ambition and accelerate action for enhanced resilience and adaptation across the world.

Presentations from 1:30 to 4:30 PM, with reception to follow.

Welcoming Remarks: Kenneth Prewitt, Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs and Special Advisor to the President, Columbia University

Setting the scene:

Presentation: Converging insecurities (food, water, energy) amplified by climate - Implications for knowledge, innovation systems and policy
Speaker: Andrew Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

Presentation: What has the partnership achieved that neither the agricultural nor the climate research communities could have achieved independently?
Speakers: Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Head of Global Policy Research, CCAFS and James Hansen, Senior Research Scientist, IRI

Presentation: What opportunities are emerging for agricultural and climate science to transform the livelihoods of smallholder farmers?
Speakers: Phillip Thornton, Flagship Leader, CCAFS and Lisa Goddard, Director, IRI

Panel Discussion: What are the emerging opportunities for climate services to transform rural livelihoods?

Moderator: Ruben G. Echeverría, Director General, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Speakers:

Paul Desanker, Manager, National Adaptation Plans and Policy Adaptation Programme, United Nations Climate Change Secretariat
Brian Keating, Executive Director, Agriculture Food & Health, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)
Gernot Laganda, Chief, Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes, World Food Programme
Arame Tall, Senior Climate Change Specialist, World Bank Group

Wrap Up: Walter Baethgen, Senior Research Scientist, IRI

Reception to follow