The Global Adaptation Institute

GAIN Prize Winners Discuss New Alliance

The Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) staff welcomes GAIN Prize winners to its Washington, D.C., office May 9 to discuss the developing partnership involving technology solutions between two of the 2012 GAIN Prize winners, Engineers Without Borders-USA, Austin Chapter, and Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING). Pictured above, from left, is GAIN Science and Technology Director Bruno Sánchez Andrade-Nuño, Daniel Aviles with PING, Laura Read with EWB, Katy Digovich with PING, GAIN Director of Communications Jamie Carson, and GAIN Vice President of Development Tim Wierzbicki.

The sound waves of the adaptation conversation are reverberating in the days following the 2012 Annual Meeting & Scientific Convening of the Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) May 9-10 as new alliances between GAIN Prize winners are created in an effort to build resilience to global challenges.

One such alliance developed from one organization’s need for a technological-based solution to track live data and another organization’s expertise in doing just that. Engineers Without Borders (EWB)-USA, Austin Chapter, works with a community in Peru to help it adjust to changing precipitation patterns by increasing the availability of reliable irrigation water through reuse of wastewater from a nearby wastewater treatment plant. Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING), has created a case-reporting app accessed via smartphone to drastically improve disease reporting in Botswana.

After meeting, the two innovative groups determined that with a few programming tweaks, the app could be easily morphed into a remote diagnosis tool for smart phones to report data for management of the wastewater facility in Peru.

With this technology sharing agreement, PING will utilize its expertise in data management to help EWB improve the maintenance of its Climate Adaptation in Mountain Basins in the Andean Region (CAMBIAR) initiative. PING will seek to leverage an in-kind donation from corporate partners to achieve these goals.

“The maintenance and monitoring of treatment systems is imperative to its operational success. PING technology provides an innovative and lightweight solution through which local community members and engineering professionals collectively can maintain and operate a treatment system,” said Fernando Salas, EWB-USA.  

“At GAIN, we are excited to see new adaptation alliances that arising from the Annual Meeting conversations,” said Dr. Bruno Sánchez Andrade-Nuño, GAIN Director of Science & Technology. “We commend these two organizations for their innovative efforts.”

In its inaugural year, the 2012 GAIN Prize was awarded to four organizations – EWB-USA, Austin Chapter; MEDA; PING; and Ushahidi – which are working on the ground in developing countries. The GAIN Prize is a recognition and monetary award for work in adaptation to urbanization, population growth, climate change and other global challenges. Visit the GAIN Prize website at gain.org/prize for more information. 

Adaptation is Essential: Global Decision Makers Prioritize Urgent Need to Build Resilience

From left, Claudia McMurray, Senior Counselor at The Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit; Frank Nutter, President at the Reinsurance Association of America; and Dr. Raj Rajan, RD&E Vice President, Global Sustainability Technical Leader at Ecolab, participate in the Managing Risk and Responding to Change panel May 10.

The Annual Meeting & Scientific Convening of the Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) centered on one theme – the urgent need to adapt to the changing global climate requires pragmatic solutions with the private sector leading the effort.

GAIN Founding CEO Dr. Juan Jose Daboub, former Managing Director at the World Bank, noted that even five years ago, the topic of adaptation wasn’t being discussed. Now, with the backing of credible data from scientists around the world and the increase in quantity and cadence of natural events, we need to invest in order to prepare for these global challenges.

Climate Adaptation in Mountain Basins in the Andean Region (CAMBIAR)

EWB-AUS Tackles Peruvian Adaptation Challenges

From left, former President of Spain José María Aznar; GAIN Founding CEO Juan José Daboub; Elliott Gall, EWB-Austin Chapter; and Laura Read, EWB-Austin Chapter

The Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) honored four organizations leading adaptation efforts on the ground in its inaugural awarding of the GAIN Prize.  Four groups – Engineers Without Borders-USA, Austin Chapter; MEDA; Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING); and Ushahidi received the 2012 GAIN Prize. We are honored to introduce you to Engineers Without Borders-USA, Austin Chapter.

The GAIN Prizes are the first given to recognize those organizations and entrepreneurs that are working on innovative projects and successfully tested technologies that will help the most vulnerable adapt to the changing global climate, GAIN’s founding mission. These Prizes, which were awarded at the GAIN Annual Reception May 9, honor the shoulder-to-shoulder work with communities through a monetary award and recognition to promote continued development of innovative adaptation solutions.

Climate Adaptation in Mountain Basins in the Andean Region (CAMBIAR)

Communities around the world are affected by a changing climate – with the poorest communities burdened by a disproportionate impact. While concerted worldwide effort to mitigate carbon emissions and climate change on a global scale stalls, many poor communities are left with limited options to respond to climate variations. Migration to cities from rural communities, for example, has further stressed aging urban infrastructure. As a result, billions of people around the world lack the tools, knowledge and infrastructure to access the resources they need to survive. Never has it been so crucial to combine both mitigation and adaptation strategies within the global climate change agenda.

The Greater Austin chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-AUS), through its Climate Adaptation in Mountain Basins in the Andean Region (CAMBIAR) program has partnered with impoverished, rural communities in the Ancash region of Peru to address imminent, water-related adaptation issues. The high population density along Peru’s western coast where water resources are scarce makes those Peruvians extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Only 2 percent of the country’s water resources are stored in a location where 70 percent of the population resides [1]. 

Of the 187 countries with vulnerability rankings in the GAIN Index, Peru is 103 on the list [2] . In Ancash, millions of agrarian villagers in rural communities in the upper tributaries of the Santa River valley must deal with shifting seasonal precipitation patterns and altered tropical glacial melt. These phenomena impact local availability of water in terms of quantity and quality; reduce potable sources; and decreases crop yields for farmers and ranchers who struggle to maintain adequate irrigation supplies.

Twenty-five municipal districts in the Ancash region have proactively formed the Tres Cuencas Commonwealth, an organization that addresses water and climate issues within the three watersheds (cuencas) that feed the region. In establishing themselves as a nationally recognized entity, the Commonwealth has initiated steps at the local and national levels to tackle its water challenges. However, the Commonwealth also lacks the financial and technical resources to develop strategies to address these community-scale water issues.  Therefore, the priority of the CAMBIAR program is to help communities in the Commonwealth adapt to climate change, specifically focused on water-related challenges, through community driven collaboration and engineering.

EWB-AUS and The Mountain Institute (TMI), an international NGO, have partnered to implement new technologies and conservation practices that address water and climate issues in the Commonwealth. EWB-AUS contributes to these projects by: 1) providing technical support for communities to further assess and prioritize their needs, 2) collaborating with communities to design and implement sustainable technical solutions, 3) training communities to conduct maintenance and repairs, 4) educating community members about  the system’s health and societal benefits and 5) monitoring long-term project status.

The CAMBIAR program is currently helping Huasta, a municipal district within the Commonwealth, implement a water reuse and irrigation project that will increase water availability while reducing the presence of harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites in the community’s watershed. The Huasta project goals are to renovate an existing wastewater treatment plant while reclaiming the effluent for use as irrigation water on a community pastureland. Improvements to irrigation practices and infrastructure, such as closed-channel pipes and furrow irrigation, will help reduce reliance on existing, unpredictable surface water resources.

The CAMBIAR program has completed an initial assessment in Huasta through relationship building with key community members, characterizing the state of the wastewater treatment plant and gathering data to design conveyance and irrigation infrastructure. EWB-AUS will return to the community in summer 2012 to formalize operational responsibilities and complete the renovation of the treatment plant. Through pilot projects like these, the CAMBIAR program will build local adaptation capacity, community resilience to changes in the environment and promote a sustainable model for technical, community-based development projects.

Please visit gain.org to track EWB-AUS’s progress and read other innovative adaptation solutions taking place around the world. Visit the GAIN Index website at index.gain.org.

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Photo 1. The wastewater treatment plant in Huasta

Photo 2. The CAMBIAR program signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commonwealth

GAIN Prizes honor adaptation leaders

Innovative examples of adaptation efforts to save lives and improve livelihoods were recognized May 9 at the Annual Reception of GAIN’s 2012 Annual Meeting & Scientific Convening in Washington, D.C. The Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) awarded the first GAIN Prizes for work on adaptation at an event attended by world leaders in the public and private sector. The four GAIN Prizes, which are each a monetary and recognition award for work in adaptation to climate change, urbanization, population growth and other global challenges, are unique. 

The GAIN Prizes are the first given to recognize those organizations and entrepreneurs that are working on innovative projects and successfully tested technologies that will help the most vulnerable adapt to the changing global climate. These Prizes honor what has been done on the ground working shoulder-to-shoulder with vulnerable communities on innovative adaptation solutions. Four Prizes were distributed at a ceremony during the Annual Reception.

The inaugural GAIN Prizes highlight countries that are highly vulnerable and that are making progress, according to the GAIN Readiness Matrix.

Winners were judged on criteria including effectiveness, scalability, impact, marketability and relevance to the GAIN Index. Given that most resources to help countries and communities adapt will come from investments from the private sector, a particular emphasis was put on projects that have engaged the private sector as a partner in their work.

When the GAIN Prizes were announced at the Annual Reception, high-level participants including the former President of Spain José María Aznar; representatives from the private sector including GAIN Board of Directors Chairman and NGP Energy Capital Management CEO Ken Hersh, and others from AECOM, Baker & McKenzie, PepsiCo, Ernst & Young, Swiss Re, The World Bank and The Kresge Foundation; and prominent organizations as well as ministers of environment and commerce were in attendance. 

We are honored to announce publicly for the first time the 2012 GAIN Prizes:

Engineers Without Borders, Austin Chapter:

From left, GAIN Founding CEO Juan José Daboub; Elliott Gall, EWB-Austin Chapter; Laura Read, EWB-Austin Chapter; Fernando Salas, EWB-Austin Chapter

For their work on the Climate Adaptation in Mountain Basins in the Andean Region (CAMBIAR) project – Peru’s vulnerability in food and agriculture has actually been rising in recent years. Low irrigation levels, migration from rural to urban areas, dependence on imports, and a high degree of sensitivity to climatic changes require significant attention from entrepreneurs (often, small-scale) to create locally-based solutions to increase food security in their community.

MEDA:

From left, former President of Spain José María Aznar; GAIN Founding CEO Juan José Daboub; Katie Turner, MEDA; GAIN Board of Directors Chairman and NGP Energy Capital Management CEO Ken Hersh

For their work on the Technology Links for Improved Access and Incomes (Techno-Links) – MEDA has created an innovative program, Techno-Links, which provides rural farming families access to technology (such as drip irrigation and tilling equipment) for agricultural products. In many developing countries, inputs to agriculture are scarce, and extreme poverty and red tape prevents many businesses from getting off of the ground. Through the Techno-Links projects in Peru, thousands of small farmers will be able to create sustainable farming systems that stimulate economic growth and food security in their communities.

Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING):

From left, David Aviles, PING; former President of Spain José María Aznar; GAIN Founding CEO Juan José Daboub; Katy Digovich, PING; GAIN Board of Directors Chairman and NGP Energy Capital Management CEO Ken Hersh and Scott Merritt, PING

For their work on the Disease Surveillance & Mapping Project in Botswana – The GAIN Index shows Botswana’s high vulnerability in the healthcare sector. A lack of doctors and nurses, domestic resources and medical information can significantly worsen the effects of natural disasters and disease outbreaks. PING is doing something about it.

Ushahidi:

From left, former President of Spain José María Aznar; GAIN Founding CEO Juan José Daboub; GAIN Board of Directors Chairman and NGP Energy Capital Management CEO Ken Hersh; GAIN VP of Finance & Administration Jessica Siegel; and Nathaniel Manning, Ushahidi

For their creation of the Crowd Source Technology Platform and Tools ­–Ushahidi is a nonprofit tech company that specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. Ushahidi has created an innovative crowdsource technology and other tools to change the way information flows and how everyday citizens interface with that data.  It uploads information based on twitter or SMS messages, processes that data and translates it to a map. The Ushahidi technology has been used to help communities communicate during times of crisis, such as during floods and earthquakes as well as convey food and energy shortages.

World Leaders Ready to Help the Most Vulnerable People Adapt

GAIN 2012 Annual Meeting & Scientific Convening

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Adaptation Can’t Wait is a message that will resonate through the Global Adaptation Institute’s (GAIN) 2012 Annual Meeting & Scientific Convening in Washington, D.C., May 9-10. High-level presenters and panelists from AECOM, Baker & McKenzie, PepsiCo, Ernst & Young, Swiss Re, The World Bank, The Kresge Foundation and other prominent organizations as well as ministers of environment and commerce will partake in open dialogue on the subject of adaptation and how the private sector can create actionable solutions.

The high level of interest in this annual event speaks to GAIN’s success thus far in raising awareness of the importance of adaptation. Record insurance losses from catastrophic disasters, a continued rise in global food prices and urbanization outpacing the ability of cities to provide proper sanitation and infrastructure prove that now is the time for the public and private sectors to tackle these challenges together.  

 “I am excited about the response from leaders from around the world and their commitment to the most vulnerable people,” said GAIN’s Founding CEO and Former Managing Director of the World Bank, Dr. Juan José Daboub.

He also highlighted the dimension of the challenge in economic terms.

“Worldwide up to $100 billion USD is needed in adaptation investments every year for the next 25 years to save lives and improve livelihoods,” Dr. Daboub said. “There is an urgency to act. Practical solutions exist and can be implemented. Governments have the key to enable the environment for private sector investments. Civil society is the glue that can connect the pieces of the puzzle. And, scientists are working towards developing metrics to measure results.”

GAIN’s Chief Scientist Ian Noble will present the GAIN Index (index.gain.org) and engage participants on how this navigation tool can help the private sector prioritize adaptation investments, as well as assist governments in determining the best public policies to facilitate such investments.

The GAIN Index ranks 161 countries according to their level of vulnerability and readiness to adapt to climate change and other global challenges. Several leaders have applauded the GAIN Index including former President of Spain José María Aznar, former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo, former U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and others. 

The first day of meetings will conclude by awarding the GAIN Prize to organizations that are on the ground working shoulder-to-shoulder with vulnerable communities on innovative adaptation projects. GAIN Board of Directors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NGP Energy Capital Management Mr. Kenneth Hersh will announce the winners during the GAIN Annual Reception.

While participation in the invitation-only meeting is at maximum capacity, GAIN hopes that more will join the conversation in the future.

The world will GAIN from Adaptation, but it will take the help of those partnering in the public and private sector and also civil society to get the job done. 

Media can request interviews and more information by contacting Jamie Carson, GAIN Director of Communications, at jcarson@gain.org, or Davis Cherry, Development & Communications Associate, at dcherry@gain.org.