Climate Change and Resilience

Join AIR's growing climate change team:

Higher temperatures and more extreme weather are linked to increased conflict and increases in food insecurity. Climate change, resulting in a larger likelihood of droughts, floods, and other environmental disasters may thus have major implications resulting in negative economic consequences, especially for marginalized populations, including in various areas already suffering from humanitarian crises.

Climate shocks, such as floods and droughts, may also result in a setback in global gains towards gender equity. Massive job losses, shrinking of economies, loss of livelihoods, and weakened social protection systems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions showed how vulnerable and exposed marginalized populations are to these environmental disasters.
 

Our Work

Learn more about AIR's institution-wide commitment to generating and using evidence to build climate change resilience and create opportunities for all to thrive.

AIR’s work is closely associated with ongoing challenges related to climate change and programs to increase the resilience of marginalized populations to climate change. AIR uses climate data from multiple sources to create domain models. AIR conducts randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies to determine the impact of social protection and agriculture programs on climate resilience.

Recent examples of our work include:
 

Farmer with baobab trees in Madagascar

Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)

USAID's FEWS NET project is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on acute food insecurity around the world. AIR is supporting FEWS NET by managing a data warehouse and overseeing, maintaining, and improving the FEWS.NET website.

 

One hand handing another hand a bowl of food

Food Security Third Party Monitoring (FSTPM)

Monitoring vulnerability, food insecurity, and the impact of humanitarian response in some of the world’s most crisis prone locations, the Food Security Third Party Monitoring project provides critical, near real-time analysis to support targeting of life-saving support in some of the world’s most crisis-prone locations. 

Harvesting in Shinyanga Tanzania

 

Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato and Maternal and Infant Health Program in Tanzania

The evaluation of the Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato and Maternal and Infant Health Program in Tanzania assessed mechanisms to increase long-term adoption of biofortified, drought-resistant, vitamin A rich sweet potato varieties to improve food security in the face of climate change.

 

Coal Energy

Millennium Challenge Corporation, Kosovo Reliable Energy Landscape Project

AIR is evaluating the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Kosovo Reliable Energy Landscape project, which addresses barriers to consumer investments in energy efficiency to reduce the gap between electricity demand and supply.

Contact
Image of Thomas de Hoop

Thomas De Hoop

Managing Economist and Program Area Lead, Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition
Juan Bonilla

Juan Bonilla

Managing Economist
Related Work
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Agricultural Trade and Climate Smart Innovations (ATraCSI): A Food for Progress Intervention in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador

The World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA), ratified in 2017, proposed regulations and harmonization of standards to decrease the non-tariff-based blocks to export and trade in the North Central America Region (NCAR). Through a comprehensive approach to trade in the horticultural sector, the U.S. non-profit organization, Improving Economies ...
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Using Data to Respond to the Impacts of Climate Change

24 Oct 2022
The impacts of climate change are already affecting the health, economic well-being, and security of people across the globe. In this Q&A, Principal Economist Juan Bonilla describes AIR’s efforts to help governments and policymakers mitigate these effects and reduce the growing inequities that climate change can exacerbate. ...
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Mapping and Evidence Synthesis of Process Evaluations of Climate Adaptation in Food Production

Food security and environmental crises have become a major concern worldwide, particularly affecting vulnerable groups in the Global South. Climate change and extreme weather events undermine the effectiveness of food production interventions, creating a strong need to better understand successful approaches to climate adaptation. AIR is collaborating with the Norwegian ...
Coal Energy

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AIR is implementing a mixed methods performance evaluation to assess RELP’s implementation and impacts; that is, whether the program was implemented as planned, how well the activities and sub-activities were integrated, and what facilitated or inhibited implementation of the project. The evaluation will also use a combination of quantitative and ...
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Social, Economic, and Environmental Impact Assessment of Cotton Farming in Madhya Pradesh, India

India is the largest producer of cotton in the world. AIR and its partners conducted a social, economic, and environmental impact assessment of cotton farming in Madhya Pradesh, with the aim of better understanding the outcomes for cotton farming on the farmers and the environment.

FEWS NET Pillar 2: Management of a FEWS NET Learning and Data Hub

Created in 1985 by the USAID and the U.S. Department of State after devastating famines in East and West Africa, FEWS NET provides near real-time analysis on famine threats in more than 38 highly vulnerable countries around the world. Kimetrica, a wholly owned subsidiary of AIR, manages FEWS NET’s Data Hub, ...
One hand handing another hand a bowl of food

Food Security Third Party Monitoring

Monitoring vulnerability, food insecurity and the impact of humanitarian response in some of the world’s most crisis prone locations, the Food Security Third Party Monitoring project provides critical, near real-time analysis to support targeting of life-saving support. Using a strategic combination of local monitors and international staff, AIR is adeptly ...
AIR data collector interviews a respondent in Samburu, Kenya as part of the PREG project

Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth, Northern Kenya: Impact Evaluation Recurrent Monitoring System

USAID's Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth brought together humanitarian and development partners to build resilience among Kenya’s vulnerable pastoralist communities in the country’s arid and semi-arid lands. PREG focused on nine vulnerable and high-risk areas and works with the Government of Kenya at both national and county levels to ...
Tea farmer in Tanzania

DARPA World Modelers

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) investment in the World Modelers program created the opportunity to develop sophisticated, near real time, integrated modeling infrastructure to help policy makers quickly respond to or prevent humanitarian disasters.
Madagascar drought

Impact Evaluation of Fiavota Phase 1 Emergency and Recovery Cash Transfer in Madagascar

Due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, rainfall in southern Madagascar became so sparse that the Malagasy government declared a state of emergency in September 2016. AIR conducted an ex-post, quasi-experimental evaluation of the Fiavota cash transfer which investigated how the program affected households and children. ...