Ms Shoko Noda, Resident Representative, UNDP India (L), and Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT (R), at the virtual event during which the two institutions signed an MoU. Photo: P Joshi

Jan

Leveraging the synergy of two global institutions for greater development

UNDP and ICRISAT sign an MoU

Ms Shoko Noda, Resident Representative, UNDP India (L), and Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT (R), at the virtual event during
which the two institutions signed an MoU. Photo: P Joshi

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and ICRISAT recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together towards robust solutions for land restoration, biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, etc. Ms Shoko Noda, Resident Representative, UNDP India, and Dr Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT, inked the MoU on 19 January, 2022.

The key goals of cooperation between UNDP and ICRISAT are as follows:

To develop and demonstrate technology-enabled tools and innovative practices to bring more biodiversity in agriculture and promote climate resilience in food systems
To develop and mainstream climate-resilient agricultural practices to strengthen food systems through both data-driven and community-driven approaches
To develop training material and awareness modules for capacity building of different stakeholders (scientists, researchers, national and local institutes, nationalized banks, farmers etc.) on biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture and farming practices, utilization of indigenous and wild crop varieties, more efficient storage systems, robust and reliable financing mechanism for farmers etc.
To monitor and enumerate the positive impacts on biodiversity through climate-smart agricultural practices, using an integrated approach to manage landscapes to help adapt agricultural methods, livestock and crops to the ongoing human-induced climate change
To document and disseminate best practices in biodiversity conservation using climate-smart agriculture by creating a ‘Best Practices Compendium’ for building a robust network of communication and outreach to different stakeholders
To collaborate on projects in areas like climate resilience and climate-resilient agriculture, agroforestry and land restoration
To work towards maximizing positive policy impacts for climate-resilient food systems through research, analysis, policy advocacy etc.
To facilitate low-cost scalable interventions with technical partnerships using innovative approaches like data collaboratives, open innovation platforms, digital public goods, citizen’s engagement, citizen science etc., to strengthen data-driven policy making in food systems
To foster data-driven policies in food systems through research, analysis and data sharing by leveraging artificial intelligence, open data, remote sensing and geospatial data, open digital platforms, and so on
To adopt a community-centric approach for better data collection, knowledge management, and interdisciplinary research to strengthen governance and policy advocacy for positive impact on the agricultural ecosystem

The UNDP works with partners in several countries to promote sustainable development by eradication of poverty, advancement of women, good governance, etc. UNDP India specifically focuses on strategic solutions to achieve scalable impacts in the area of water governance, conservation and management.

With ICRISAT’s expertise in climate-smart agricultural technologies including development of improved crop varieties and hybrids, natural resource management, resilient food systems, prevention of land degradation etc. the partnership between UNDP and ICRISAT has tremendous potential for significant impact, especially in the drylands.

With the signing of this MoU, it is hoped that the strengths of both institutions will be leveraged so that their individual development efforts can be synergized for maximum positive impact.