Komunidad shared the challenges and opportunities of a climate technology start-up company in the Philippines before an international audience as part of a series of global organization GSMA’s events commemorating London Climate Action Week.
Komunidad co-founder Allister Ayque sat as one of the panelists in GSMA’s webinar during the launch of its ClimateTech report “Emerging Trends in Climate Tech Innovations,” where the spotlight was also trained on start-ups using climate technology.
GSMA is working towards creating a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. Part of its mission is to provide grant funding and support to organizations leveraging mobile technology to solve socio-economic and climate-related challenges.
In July, GSMA launched its ClimateTech report, which explores the use of mobile and digital technologies across start-ups in low- and middle-income countries that are part of its Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation. The report also showcases the climate tech innovations of the 12 start-ups in Asia and Africa selected under GSMA’s climate grant funding round.
Komunidad has been chosen as one of the partners of the GSMA Innovation Fund, which allowed the company to launch its 18-month Resilient-Siargao Project, which completed Phase 1 this June.
As part of the launch of its ClimateTech report, GSMA opened the stage for a presentation of how frontier and digital technology can be used for climate impact in low- and middle-income countries.
Ayque shared that only half of all countries globally have access to comprehensive early warning systems, and the Philippines is one of those that contends with this lack of access to data and software that can help simplify, localize, and automate alerts.
“We at Komunidad believe that the solution is to use climate data and analytics, and our SAAS approach was able to develop the climate operations center,” he shared.
Komunidad does this by producing easy-to-use dashboards and setting up efficient alerting and automated reporting.
But Ayque stressed that what their company offers also serves to augment and complement the government’s services.
“In reality, there are gaps, and by adding local intelligence, applying modern data techniques, and building tailor fit insights suited to a specific location, community, or business, we are able to make it more powerful,” he said.
“In order to save lives, we really need to localize data. People need to understand what these datasets mean not on a scientific understanding but more on the practical means for safety, and through our visualizations, alerts, and reports, we are able to enhance local risk communications.”
Ayque was joined by Mahmud Johnson, founder of J-Palm, which focuses on indigenous wild palm in Liberia and how its oil can benefit the environment and rural communities. Aya Tarek Helmy, co-founder of digital water and sanitation solutions company Benaa in Egypt, completed the panel.
Learn more about the GSMA Emerging Trends In Climate Tech Innovations here:
https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/emerging-trends-in-climate-tech-innovations/
