A CU Boulder co-led program committed to ending humanitarian drought emergencies in the Horn of Africa has gained support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and NASA and recognition from leading nonprofits.
The Drought Resilience Impact Platform, or DRIP, combines the technical leadership from within the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and across campus with water security actions taken by the Millennium Water Alliance, national governments, and local communities in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
DRIP will monitor water security in these three countries, create actionable drought forecasts, and incentivize water system operations to ensure that when rains fail, water access is secure and costly drought emergencies are prevented.
The program was recognized as an inaugural member of the Million Lives Club, which recognizes positive impact on at least a million people living on less than $5 a day. It was also honored as one of the 100 top-scoring finalists in a challenging vetting process from the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition and at the 2020 San Francisco Design Week, with a first-place finish in the Internet of Things category.