On 1 December 2023, the first day of COP28, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Community Jameel co-hosted a breakfast meeting on farming and food security at Goals House in Dubai. Speakers included Fady Jameel, vice chairman, Community Jameel; Bill Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Guyo Roba, head, Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action. The discussion focused on the importance of agriculture and how its transformation is crucial to addressing climate change.
Food security is becoming one of the biggest threats to communities as the climate crisis worsens. Climate shocks are further threatening food security of even the most resilient of communities. Solutions do exist, and these systems should be built on solid data, proven research, and the traditional knowledge of pastoralists to build capacity and train the next generation of leaders to protect our food systems.
The main vector by which people suffer from climate change is by having failed crops. Now if we look back in history, we've had food crises before, and now we need a new green revolution. Agriculture features very heavily in climate mitigation, but even more heavily, you know, probably I would say the centrepiece, of climate adaptation. COP28 for the first time will give it the visibility it needs and help us all get organised to solve the problems here and help those farmers thrive even in the face of climate change.
I work with the pastoralist community which has been always innovative in the face of adversity. We had a back-to-back protracted drought crisis that put pastoralists at the centre of this crisis. And we take cognisance of that in our work in terms of building on the traditional innovations to do our own innovation. We are establishing the Academy for the Drylands, which is a hub that brings different people from different countries that are dealing with drought issues and training the future food system leaders.