As #COP29 deliberates about climate financing for developing countries, TomorrowNow.org is proud to partner with WindBorne Systems with the aim of leveraging their weather balloon data as an input to our Global Access Platform (GAP) that's going to ensure accessibility & affordability of next gen weather and climate datasets in helping farmer-facing organizations better drive impact at the last mile #WhyWeatherMatters ??#ClimateResilience for 100M smallholder #farmers by 2030.Let's go!! Kenya Meteorological Department Kartoza (Pty) Ltd Rhiza Research Regen Organics Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
??Just got back from Nairobi, visiting our first launch site in the Southern Hemisphere! Over the past few months, in collaboration with the Kenya Meteorological Department, WindBorne Systems has been launching our long-duration weather balloons to tackle the critical weather data gap in Sub-Saharan Africa. This marks the beginning of a multi-phase grant with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Alongside the Gates Foundation, TomorrowNow.org and other partners, we are joining the commitment to meet the climate adaptation needs of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, delivering localized, reliable weather data to build resilient agricultural systems. Why this matters: ??? Sparse Data = Limited Forecast Accuracy: Atmospheric and surface observations in Sub-Saharan Africa are among the lowest globally, meaning localized, reliable weather data is in short supply. ?? High-Stakes Agriculture: With a heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture rather than irrigation, smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa face significant risks to their yield with each unpredictable weather pattern ?? Funding Gap: Only 2% of global climate finance supports smallholder farmers in Africa and South Asia. To truly scale impact, we need increased funding and more efficient tech solutions. Over the next year or so, WindBorne will be demonstrating its impact in our Global Sounding Balloons and WeatherMesh model. Here’s to building a climate-adaptive future—one launch at a time. ???? #weatherdata #kenya #climatetech #climateadaptation #agriculture