Community Jameel was honoured at the University of Edinburgh’s Winter graduation, being named as a University Benefactor, in recognition of its support, which enabled the creation of the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action. George Richards, Community Jameel’s Director, receives the University of Edinburgh Benefactor award on their behalf. Launched in 2021, the Jameel Observatory was created to help tackle the growing threat to people in the world’s drylands, posed by the increasing severity and frequency of climate-related disasters. It is a collaborative project, bringing together the expertise of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems and Community Jameel with international partners. George Richards, Community Jameel’s Director and a University of Edinburgh alumnus with an MA in Arabic and Persian, accepted the award on Community Jameel’s behalf. A recognised leader in cultural heritage protection, he has worked extensively around the world, including in war zones. His roles have included serving as the Special Rapporteur for Cultural Heritage to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and as a specialist assessor for the British Council's Cultural Protection Fund. Following the ceremony, George spoke with us, to discuss the work and potential impact of the Jameel Observatory, as well as his journey as an alumnus. What does receiving the University Benefactor award mean to Community Jameel? It was a great honour to accept the award on behalf of Community Jameel. It symbolises the partnership that we've established between University of Edinburgh and Community Jameel, but more specifically the amazing work of the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action, which is a collaboration between the University, Community Jameel, the International Livestock Research Institute, Save the Children UK, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT. At the very core of that work is the partnership between Community Jameel and the University of Edinburgh. This award is an amazing recognition of that relationship, but more importantly, the impact of that partnership, and what the Jameel Observatory is doing in Eastern Africa for people affected by the threat of hunger caused by climate change. How did the partnership with the University of Edinburgh come about? Community Jameel is an organisation that seeks to advance science and learning for communities to thrive. The essence of that is our collaboration with others and our support for scientific research and breakthrough discoveries in collaboration with research institutions around the world. The University of Edinburgh is a top university worldwide and among its many areas of expertise it has a particular strength in food security. I had become aware of Professor Geoff Simm, who leads the Global Academy for Agriculture and Food Systems and discovered the amazing work that the Academy has been doing for many years, with support from the British Government and others. We saw an opportunity to foster that relationship and work together to make real impact in these complex areas. A Jameel Observatory community of practice meeting The Jameel Observatory brings together partners in collaboration, is this approach effective in tackling complex issues? Yes, these partnerships are extremely important to our approach. The importance of food systems in the drylands in East Africa cannot be overstated, because of the significance of the supply of meat from livestock that are farmed by pastoralists in that region, both in Eastern Africa and beyond. Catastrophic drought and famine not only cause potential disaster for the communities themselves, but also have a knock-on effect on a truly global scale. These are communities which are on the sharp end of climate change, despite the fact that they have made minimal, if any, contribution to the causes of climate change. We saw a real need for a strengthening of the systems that will allow those communities to be resilient in the face of the changing climate, particularly through extreme weather and other shocks. In Kenya alone, there are 9 million pastoralists, so the numbers of people that we're talking about are huge. One area where you can see the benefits of a collaborative approach is with the University of Edinburgh’s strong relationship with the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya. Together, they've established a community of practice, which is a group of stakeholders that meets and communicates regularly. It comprises everybody from members of parliament in Kenya, politicians and policymakers, through to NGOs and charities, plus many other scientists. Just as importantly it also includes the pastoralists themselves. This community of practice is a vitally important bridge between the research and actually making change and having impact on the ground. I think that's one of the great strengths of what the Jameel Observatory has built over the years. Looking forward, what are Community Jameel’s aspirations and what kind of change can happen in the short term? What we want to see is the people in East Africa, in the drylands, to be able to adapt and respond to the rising threats they face. We're not interested in research for research’s sake, we want scientific discovery to underpin real impact and this is one of the reasons that we co-founded the Jameel Observatory with the University and other partners. Communities build resilience through participatory community-wide risk management and reduction plans and vulnerability assessments. Photo Samuel Derbyshire Since its launch in 2021, has there been any particular piece of research that has come from the Jameel Observatory that you feel illustrates its impact? Quite early on after the Jameel Observatory’s launch, we collaborated with Save the Children and Oxfam to produce a report called ‘Dangerous Delay 2: The Cost of Inaction’. This was published in 2022, ten years after the first report with this name, and in both cases the conclusion was that the humanitarian sector had not done enough to advance anticipatory action - that is, to deploy humanitarian aid before an impending crisis reaches full disaster. When that report was published, one person was dying of hunger every 48 seconds in the Horn of Africa - Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. That was an important report that captured the attention of policymakers, including in Britain, where there was a question asked in the House of Commons by an MP based on that report. The report reinvigorated the humanitarian sector’s focus on anticipatory reaction. You are an alumnus, gaining a First for an MA in Arabic and Persian. What led you to that degree? I’d always been fascinated by the Middle East and this was an opportunity to learn more about the region. The degree, even though it is a languages degree, sits within the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies department, which provided a really well-rounded education in everything from politics to modern and Islamic history. I was also able to do courses, for example, in the School of Divinity on Sufism, and so it was a very complete and holistic understanding of that region. This spurred me to a lifelong personal and professional interest in the protection of cultural heritage in that part of the world. I’ve worked with institutions like the British Library and the British Institute for the Study of Iraq to document at risk cultural heritage in the region. I ultimately continued that work with Art Jameel, which is now a sister organisation to Community Jameel, working not only in Saudi Arabia, but also in other countries, including Egypt and Iraq. Do you believe that your time as an Edinburgh student helped to shape your career path? Definitely, I continue to work in that region, informed by the substance of my degree, and of course, learning two languages has proven to be very useful! For students want to build a career in areas like global food security, what advice could you offer them in making a real-world impact? Early warning systems, particularly data powered early warning systems, are vital to strengthening anticipatory action. By anticipatory action, we mean taking action before a crisis becomes a full-scale disaster or emergency, and that allows us to save lives and react to a crisis far more effectively and efficiently. The University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics is very strong and across the University there is a tradition of data science, and those are vital to the future of global food security strengthening. The University provides an environment where that work can blend with that carried out by the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and specifically the Global Academy for Agriculture and Food Systems, which Professor Geoff Simm leads, and those are the perfect entry point for students into this area of work. An education framework workshop in May 2024 As an alumnus, does working with the University of Edinburgh have any special meaning to you? It is a great thrill to come back to campus and to feel like in some way that my time at the University is continuing. My relationship with the University didn’t end after four years, but stayed with me and in fact has deepened, because I'm now working with faculty and staff in departments that I had no connection with when I was an undergraduate. It has been great to discover and learn more about the University. Community Jameel is also a supporter of the arts. Can there be a commonality of purpose between the arts and science? In 2023, we partnered with the World Health Organization and New York University and an organisation called Culturunners to launch the Jameel Arts and Health Lab, which is a centre for advancing the evidence base to measurably improve people’s physical, mental and social health, through the arts. This is one way that we are integrating the arts with health and wellbeing. Earlier this year, the Jameel Arts and Health Lab and Scottish Ballet co-produced the first ever nationwide celebration of the arts and health in Scotland, called Healing Arts Scotland. It started during the Edinburgh Festival but ended up with hundreds of events all over the country, from Orkney to Glasgow and everywhere else in between. The University of Edinburgh was part of it and is conducting an evaluation of the impact of Healing Arts Scotland, taking that as a very good example of the arts and science and how they can work together. To find out more about the work of the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action, please visit their website below. Links The Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action Community Jameel The Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems Honorary graduates recognised at winter ceremonies Dangerous Delay 2: The Cost of Inaction Publication date 28 Nov, 2024