Collaborative Solutions: Funding the UNCCD COP16 Flagship Initiative for Food Security and Sustainable Development and its Implications for the UN Summit of the Future
HYBRID EVENT (virtual and in-person in New York with limited space)
Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Location: Cure, 345 Park Ave South (25th and 26th streets), New York, NY 10010
Event Description
The Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture, chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Michael Kremer and hosted at the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, in partnership with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND), and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) are co-hosting this one-day milestone event to promote a five-year flagship initiative to position for scale innovations to address the causes and consequences of desertification, land degradation in African countries.
The Development Innovation Lab, along with its partners, is committed to continue working to promote evidence-based, cost-effective, and scalable innovations in the most vulnerable areas of the world.
Following a two-day workshop held in Riyadh in early June, this is a milestone event leading up to UNCCD COP16 taking place in Riyadh December 2-13. It is envisaged to announce the flagship initiative during the opening session of the COP where Professor Kremer will deliver a keynote. A first tranche of selected projects is envisaged to be announced on Agri-Food Systems Day (December 5). Additional engagement is also envisaged for Science, Technology and Innovation Day (December 9). A briefing and reception on the flagship is also foreseen for World Food Day (October 16) in Rome.
AGFUND and BADEA have made considerable funding available for the flagship initiative. It is expected that additional members of the Arab Coordination Group will join the initiative and make additional funding available. Other donors, such as governments, the private sector, and philanthropies are invited to join the initiative as well. There is no formal process involved for that, i.e. donors may do so by informing the Innovation Commission, AGFUND and BADEA.
Hosted at the University of Chicago, as part of the Development Innovation Lab, the Innovation Commission promotes innovations with the potential to address challenges at the intersection of climate change, food security, and agriculture. The Commission identifies innovations with rigorous evidence of impact and cost-effectiveness, as well as early-stage innovations with high expected returns, and generates recommendations to transition innovations to scale. It also examines the role of meta-innovations: mechanisms to encourage innovation development and scaling, such as open, tiered, evidence-based social innovation funds, and Advance Market Commitments.
The Commission brings together an independent and high-level group, including former heads of state and cabinet ministers, and leaders of international organizations and civil society. The Commission is chaired by Michael Kremer, co-recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2019. Professor Kremer helped establish USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures, and his work on Advance Market Commitments was instrumental in the adoption of this approach as a tool for promoting private sector participation in the development of health innovations for low- and middle-income countries.
