Blog

As USAID is accelerating its efforts to meet the urgency of global climate change, INVEST is providing support through activities focused on encouraging the flow of private capital toward climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation. A closer look at three activities — Power Africa in Kenya, ThirdWay Africa Rural Development Corporation in Southern Africa, and USAID Colombia’s Energy for Peace program — demonstrates how USAID is working with the private sector to scale and speed climate actions that result in climate benefits that are equitably shared.

• 05/05/2022
• Robin Young, Carolanne Chanik

Senegalese youth are repairing degraded mangrove forests. In the process, they are empowering fishing communities to safeguard their own livelihoods ─ and fight climate change.

• 04/13/2022
• Winrock International

FEWS NET is the global gold standard for food insecurity early warning.

• 03/31/2022
• Kiersten Johnson, James P. Verdin

Global coffee demand is expected to triple by 2050, raising pressure on forests and other habitats in the tropical regions where it is grown as farmers look for new land to cultivate.

• 02/24/2022
• Aaron Brownell

During 2020 and 2021, a multiyear La Niña event, strengthened by climate change, has helped produce an exceptional three-season drought. As the region enters a long dry season, temperatures of the land’s surface are well-above normal and vegetation is desiccated.

• 02/11/2022
• Kiersten Johnson

To better support the livelihoods of farming communities and their resilience, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance is supporting a project called Standards for Supporting Agricultural Livelihoods in Emergencies (SEADS) to develop evidence-based practice standards for humanitarian agencies that provide crop-related assistance in emergencies. This support can include providing seeds and fertilizer, offering tools and training support, or rebuilding damaged infrastructure, such as irrigation schemes, but all with an emphasis on market-based delivery mechanisms.

• 02/10/2022
• Tedi Rabold

Climatelinks had a big year in 2021! More than 284,000 people used the site, visiting from more than 220 countries around the globe. In December 2021, we outlined the top 5 photos, blogs, and resources of the year, as well as blogs and resources that you may have missed.

• 01/18/2022
• Sophie Schrader

To break down the silos that prevent joint climate action, USAID partnered with a global corporate, Barry Callebaut, to convene key buyers – peers – in the coconut industry. The result was the industry’s first global Sustainable Coconut Charter, which aims to improve farmer livelihoods, lessen the carbon footprint of coconuts and boost supply to meet rising global demand.

• 01/04/2022
• Angela Hogg

Rice production accounts for a significant portion of many Asian countries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and Vietnam is one of the world’s largest rice producers. To meet the targets set out in its nationally determined contribution (NDC) and to maintain transparency in national communications (NC), Vietnam assesses the spatial variation of emissions across its rice-producing regions.

• 12/30/2021
• Sadie Shelton

Through Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s initiative to end hunger, and with support from USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Aisha and other farmers on Zanzibar’s Unguja Island are learning to better cope with the effects of climate change on agriculture.

• 12/23/2021
• Catherine Njuguna, USAID

To help farmers better manage risk, Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation partnered with four organizations and private sector businesses — Farm Africa and Root Capital, Neumann Gruppe GmbH, and Oikocredit — to launch innovative risk management initiatives that enable smallholder coffee farmers to reap more rewards and face less risk as they cultivate this high-value crop.

• 12/21/2021
• Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation

The Climatelinks Resources Library grew by more than 160 documents in 2021, covering a broad range of topics from climate action in education to projected health impacts caused by climate change. Here are some resources you may have missed.

• 12/14/2021
• Sophie Schrader

Since its inception in 2019, the Climatelinks photo gallery has grown to host more than 400 images of climate and development across 54 countries. Through community submissions and annual photo contests, the photo gallery has matured into a resource for the entire Climatelinks community. Images found in the photo gallery are available for viewing, download, and use by the Climatelinks community (with proper credit).

• 12/07/2021
• Stephan Hardeman

The U.S. Government’s Feed the Future program is making climate change a central objective of their strategy. Global food security is under stress from increasingly intense and frequent heat waves, droughts, heavy rains, and major storms, according to the new report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

• 11/30/2021
• Tedi Rabold

The agriculture sector across the globe not only feeds the world’s population but it also provides nearly 27 percent of worldwide employment. Yet the sector faces significant sustainability challenges: it is estimated to contribute more than one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions through a combination of agricultural activities and land use changes, and it consumes, on average, 70 percent of the world’s freshwater resources.

• 11/18/2021
• Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security