Bellagio Center Opens Applications for 2025 Convenings

Debarati Guha-Sapir and Ben Zaitchik of Johns Hopkins University partnered with leading public data holders – such as Columbia Earth Institute, NASA, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the UN Office For Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – to launch MERGE, a global consortium to streamline humanitarian data and response to climate-related disasters with a goal to build awareness and evidence-based policies on the human impact of climate disasters. The convening allowed attendees to develop shared governance, strategy, and data-sharing agreements. Since convening, the team has begun to prototype this new tool to help leading humanitarian response agencies and local governments better understand the impact of past disasters, see the real-time impacts of ongoing ones, and predict the impacts of future ones.

Better Cotton led the effort to support the standardization of ‘sustainable cotton,’ which led to a cross-industry framework, more ecological farming practices, and fairer payment for growers. The team, led by CEO Alan McClay, brought together clothing brands, growers, purchasers, and textile industry representatives to define a new industry standard for sustainable farming’ through collective buy-in towards a governance model. Since the convening, the team has launched a pilot to provide financial incentives to farmers to integrate agroforestry best practices, leading to increased farmer income while sequestering carbon.

Lisa Davis, Special Adviser on Gender Persecution to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Law Professor at the City University of New York School of Law, organized a Bellagio Center convening to discuss accountability for gender persecution. The convening led to the call for Principles on Gender Persecution to serve as a model for the international community as well as gender persecution protection in human rights mechanisms. Since the convening, and on the basis of these principles, the team has begun the process of engaging stakeholders across four continents to engage in discussions on the content for the principles and recommendations for human rights treaty bodies.

The African Union Commission, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), together with leading food safety experts from across the continent, convened to ensure informal food markets are supported and represented in African Union policies. The convening led to a set of principles for African governments to establish a legal framework that ensures the recognition and inclusion of informal food sector actors in Africa’s food system as part of the Africa Union’s finalization of the Food Safety Strategy for Africa plan.