Microsoft and the ODI have selected six organisations and collaborations – who are working to collect, share and/or use data on climate resilience and sustainability challenges – to receive support and guidance as part of our new climate resilience peer-learning network Towards the end of 2023, we published an open call in partnership with Microsoft for our new climate resilience peer-learning network. Here we share the six organisations and collaborations that have been chosen to participate in the network.
Our approach
As part of our partnership with Microsoft on its Open Data Campaign, we have been working to support organisations to stimulate open and trustworthy data sharing and collaboration, with a particular focus on enabling organisations of any size to more easily collaborate around data and realise its benefits. Facilitating learning between peers has proved a valuable mechanism towards driving more collaboration among organisations playing similar roles in how they work with, or enable others to work with, data. Over the last two years, we have successfully supported two peer-learning cohorts. Our first cohort, in October 2020, consisted of six early-stage data collaborations that were working towards addressing significant societal and economic challenges across sectors including transport, health and others. Our second cohort, in October 2021, was composed of seven established organisations whose primary purpose is to steward open data that anyone can access, use, and share. With the launch of our brand new climate resilience peer-learning network, we have shifted focus from organisations and collaborations that play similar roles in how they work with data, to those which aim to address similar real-world challenges that have a wide ranging impact, with a particular focus on the global south. This third peer-learning network will provide climate-focused organisations with the opportunity to learn from data experts and from each other to more effectively address the challenges they face through a better understanding of relevant data topics. The successful participants will also be supported by established organisations with expertise in the field of water resilience and the built environment, such as our partner organisation Arup and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Introducing our new cohort
Women Income Network (WIN)
Women Income Network (WIN) is a community-based organisation founded in August 2020 to provide a more profitable and safe alternative revenue stream for financially vulnerable rural women working in stone quarries, a sustainable and affordable protein feed for animal farmers, and an eco-friendly bio-waste recycling system, all through maggot farming. The initiative is located in Kalagala, Luwero district, about 35 kilometres from Uganda’s capital city. The team provide training programs on maggot farming, parent stock of maggots to rural women’s groups (program participants) in stone quarries and establish maggot cultivation shelters to support rural women initiate maggot farming as an income generating activity.
DataKind
DataKind brings high-impact organisations together with leading data scientists to use data science in the service of humanity. From one-hour events to year-long engagements, they have designed programs that enable data scientists and social changemakers to address tough humanitarian challenges together. Their work helps organisations develop evidence-based decision making, increase efficiency, and enhance their data literacy. It also introduces data scientists to the Data-for-Good movement and shows them how valuable their skills can be.
Gender and Environment Data Alliance (GEDA)
GEDA is a co-convened programme between the Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). GEDA helps connect the dots among gender-environment data – data related to the environment that is disaggregated by gender, and reflects gender issues in both its content and its methodologies – and gets this knowledge and information into the hands of decision makers and data users working to advance climate resilience and transformative environmental policy. The Alliance also seeks to explore the current landscape of data and data methodologies to then expand the scope of available information. This includes elevating traditional and Indigenous knowledge, as well as data collected through feminist participatory action research, and advocating for such data to be included in official statistical systems.
PlanAdapt
PlanAdapt is an independent global network-based organisation that provides knowledge services in support of effective, economically just and socially inclusive climate change adaptation and climate risk management around the world, with a particular focus on the Global South. PlanAdapt provides research findings, advisory services, and learning support with a focus on mutual respect and support, inclusivity, and collective wisdom. The team incorporates these values internally in the way they collaborate, share values and income, and make organisational decisions.
The International Centre of Expertise in Montreal on Artificial Intelligence (CEIMIA)
The International Centre of Expertise in Montreal on Artificial Intelligence (CEIMIA) was created to play a leading role internationally by supporting activities and projects in the Global Partnership for AI (GPAI). GPAI is a multi-stakeholder initiative which aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.
Built around a shared commitment to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence, GPAI brings together engaged minds and expertise from science, industry, civil society, governments, international organisations and academia to foster international cooperation.
South African Cities Network
The South African Cities Network is an established network of South African cities and partners that encourages the exchange of information, experience and best practices on urban development and city management. The network is both a source of information for leadership of South Africa’s largest cities and a catalyst for debate. The team aims to support South African cities and partners to:
- become learning and adaptive institutions through knowledge, co-creation, dissemination and application
- advocate for the urban agenda by enabling cities to have a voice and
- strengthen partnerships with cities and existing partners and form new strategic partnerships
Get involved
As part of our plans for the network, we will be developing resources and sharing guidance on a range of topics, such as data value, data infrastructure, data ecosystems and sustainable, responsible and participatory data stewardship. Our aim is to make these openly available, so that others can benefit from peer-learning exchanges taking place too. If you would be interested in receiving these resources as they become available, please get in touch.