The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk & Resilience (MRR) at UC Davis develops and tests financial and market innovations that take the most promising agricultural tools for families in developing economies from the lab to the field.
Why we’re supporting the Resilience Hub
The Innovation Lab at UC Davis was established by USAID to develop and test ways to promote resilience and empower rural families, communities and markets to share in inclusive agricultural growth. This mission strongly overlaps with the goals of the COP Resilience Hub. Our involvement is a way to join a powerful network of individuals and organisations who can pool knowledge and resources to expand the reach and impact of development efforts on behalf of rural families around the globe.
Our work to promote resilience
At the centre of our research programme is an effort to build evidence on which approaches to building rural resilience truly work. We fund randomised field trials led by leading researchers in development economics and related fields that test ways to strengthen markets, promote resilience-building technologies like stress-tolerant seeds and agricultural index insurance, and even improve our ability to measure resilience among rural families.
We are also focused on testing ways to generate what we call Resilience+, which is possible when rural families have tools to manage their weather-related risk and subsequently increase their investments in improved seeds, fertilizers or other ways to generate a higher income.
Evidence from high quality, peer reviewed research provides the most viable roadmap for implementing programmes and policies that strengthen rural families’ livelihoods and resilience to an increasing risk of shocks. We prioritise translating and sharing our research to make this evidence broadly accessible. We integrate the results from our research into a coherent and effective voice about priorities and options for governments, NGOs and others working to reduce poverty and increase resilience worldwide.
Our hopes for COP26
Glasgow is an opportunity to build broader awareness of the many challenges and risks rural families face due to climate change. It’s also an opportunity to share the many solutions that international investments in high-quality research have made possible.
Over just the past decade, advances in agricultural and financial technologies have yielded a number of proven ways to build rural families’ resilience. While many of these approaches are continuing to scale and expand, there is still work to do. Ultimate success requires all stakeholders to play a role. International donor organizations, national governments, and the local private sector can work together to make resilience a reality for all rural families.
Website: https://basis.ucdavis.edu/