IBM Launches Fourth Annual Call for Code Global Challenge to Tackle Existential Threat of Climate Change

Together with Call for Code Creator David Clark Cause, Charitable Partner United Nations Human Rights, and the Linux Foundation, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the launch of the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge. This year's competition invites the world's software developers and innovators to combat climate change with open source-powered technology.

Now in its fourth year, the Call for Code Initiative has grown to more than 400,000 developers and problem solvers across 179 nations, and has generated more than fifteen thousand applications. Call for Code aims to drive immediate and lasting humanitarian progress around the world through the creation of practical applications built on open source-powered software, including Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, IBM Blockchain, atmospheric data from IBM’s Weather Company, and developer resources and APIs from partners like Intuit and New Relic.

The diverse and like-minded global ecosystem of experts, companies, foundations, universities, and celebrities supporting Call for Code continues to expand. It includes UN World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator experts, Arrow Electronics, Black Girls Code, Caribbean Girls Hack, Clinton Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative University, Ingram Micro, Intuit, Kode With Klossy, NearForm, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Way, and World Institute on Disability.

To help take on climate change, IBM is announcing new partnerships this year with Heifer International and charity: water. Heifer International joins the Call for Code movement, contributing their world-renowned expertise in mitigating hunger and poverty by investing in local farmers and their communities.

Ø By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas and IBM believes that technology can make a significant impact on the availability of water and its consumption. The environment is the next data frontier and collaboration is key to unlocking its insights.

Ø Today the world observes World Water Day, to celebrate the importance of water, raise awareness about the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water and explores ways to how we can better protect this vital resource.

Ø IBM is proud to announce the launch of Call for Code 2021 Global Challenge with ‘Clean Water & Sanitation’ as one among 3 key themes

Ø Call for Code is IBM’s largest and most ambitious Tech for Good platform - bringing together the world’s developers and problem-solvers to take on some of the most pressing concerns faced by the world today.

Ø The focus for the global challenge this year, is Climate Change & Sustainability. Key themes under this are: Clean water and Sanitation; Zero Hunger; and responsible production and green consumption

Ø What makes Call for Code unique is the impact it is making on the ground through its deployments in communities around the world. This isn’t check-book philanthropy. The winning solutions are successfully incubated, field-tested, and deployed in communities where they can make the greatest impact.

Ø And it is in this context that the challenge in India is even more special.

Ø There are 24.5 million developers in the world (Worldwide Developer Population and Demographic Study 2020, Volume 1), with India being second-largest at 4.1 million and the fastest growing developer base globally. India and the United States are the only nations projected to have more than 5 million developers by 2025.

Ø In our first three years of Call for Code, we've consistently had more people participate from India than anywhere else. In recognition of this extraordinary engagement IBM has this year has added a standalone award of $5,000 USD for India. IBM highly values the developer ecosystem and open source community in India and its desire to help make a real difference with technology.

Ø IBM started this journey of Call for Code, three years back as a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment that has today grown quickly into so much more. Since its inception in 2018, this movement has witnessed an overwhelming response from the developer community, with over 400,000 developer participants across 179 countries; and has already created more than 15,000 applications using IBM technologies.

Ø With Call for Code, IBM is empowering the developer ecosystem globally with technologies like Open Hybrid Cloud, AI, Automation and Quantum; putting them in the hands of the world’s 24 million developers, data scientists, and problem solvers to help address some of the biggest issues of our time.

Ø As the leading Hybrid Cloud & AI company, it is IBM’s responsibility to leverage our technology expertise and our strong ecosystem collaborations for the greater good.

Ø #GoodTech has always been at the heart of IBM’s values and with Call for Code, IBM is helping the ecosystem leverage its technology expertise for the greater good.

Ø IBM’s strategy has a strong alignment to its 2021 Innovation charter, being led by IBM labs and global missions in India - the global centres of excellence driving technology innovation in India, for India and the World.

Ø IBM recently announced a net zero pledge by 2030. As IBM works towards that goal, it will reduce emissions by 65% by 2025 (compared 2010 emissions) and use 75% of renewable energy by 2025 and 90% by 2030. IBM also intends to use technologies like carbon capture to remove emissions equal to our residual emissions.

Ø Over the last couple of years, multiple teams from India has achieved success in the Call for Code. We had ‘Purva Suchak’ as the 2019 Asia Pacific Regional winner, AI Farm as the 2020 CFC APAC winner and “Are You Well” was selected among Top 3 solutions to tackle Covid in the 2020 CFC Covid19 track.

“Smallholder farmers produce the majority of the world’s food and are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. With access to information and technology, they can make informed decisions on what to grow and when, enabling them to increase their incomes, while feeding the world,” said David Gill, Senior Director of Technology Innovation for Heifer International. “We’re excited to join IBM and the developer and open source communities in supporting these solutions that have the potential to increase access to water, food, and markets for millions of people around the world.”

IBM's multi-pronged advocacy for environmental sustainability dates back decades. Earlier this year, IBM announced it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by prioritizing reductions in its emissions, energy efficiency efforts, and increased clean energy use across the more than 175 countries where it operates. More recently, IBM Research announced progress in accelerating the discovery of new carbon capture, separation, and storage technologies.

“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and we must apply our collective ingenuity and cutting-edge technologies to make a lasting difference,” said Ruth Davis, director of Call for Code, IBM. “Together with our ecosystem of partners, IBM will work with the winning team to incubate and deploy their solution in communities where it’s most needed, just as we’ve done with past winners. I encourage every developer and innovator around the world to seize this opportunity through Call for Code to change our climate trajectory.”

Last year’s winning solution, Agrolly, is an app designed to support small farmers by providing climate and crop predictions and recommendations. Since October, the Agrolly team has expanded their solution to new markets and provided hands-on training to more than 500 rural farmers across Mongolia, India, and Brazil, who are testing and using the app to fight the effects of climate change. Agrolly is also working with the IBM Service Corps on a deployment plan to improve and test their technology in the coming months.

Call for Code has generated more than 30 solutions that are being incubated and field tested in a series of deployments, including 12 open source projects hosted by the Linux Foundation, enabling these projects to evolve through the power of the open source community. As the latest example, today on UN World Water Day, the Linux Foundation announced that another Call for Code solution, Liquid Prep, will be hosted at the Foundation so developers worldwide can contribute their mobile, IoT, Edge, cloud, and weather skills to help farmers optimize water usage during droughts.

“The winning team from each Call for Code Global Challenge receives $200,000, and support from the IBM Service Corps, technical experts, and ecosystem partners to incubate their technology, open source their code to make it available for anyone to use, and deploy their solution on the ground in communities around the world,” said David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause, and Creator of Call for Code. “This year the competition focuses on three sub-themes that are key to combatting climate change: clean water and sanitation; zero hunger; and responsible production and green consumption.”

Spokespeople details and quotes:

Sandip Patel, MD, IBM ISA

“As the leading Hybrid Cloud & AI company, it is our responsibility to leverage our technology expertise and strong ecosystem collaborations to help tackle some of the most pressing concerns faced by the world today. At IBM we not only solve business problems, but also put the power of tech to work for good. Being a responsible steward of technology is core to IBM’s culture and GoodTech is at the heart of it. The Call for Code Global Challenge 2021 reiterates this commitment to sustainability and to drive technology innovation in India, for India and the world.”

Bob Lord, SVP, WW Ecosystems & Blockchain

“As we launch our fourth year of Call for Code today, I am blown away by the response of the developer community and their passion to lean in and make a difference. To date, 400,000 developers and problem solvers across 179 nations have answered the call. In our first three years of Call for Code, we've consistently had more people participate from India than anywhere else. We’ve helped harness the enthusiasm of innovators from around the world to turn their ideas into real solutions and are thrilled to leverage the strength of a diverse and like-minded ecosystem of global partners in tackling issues like climate change and water conservation.”

Ajinkya Datalkar, CTO and co-founder, Agrolly

Agrolly is the winning solution from 2020 Call for Code that IBM is helping to further develop and implement. It is an app to help small farmers make smarter decisions on what to grow as they face challenges due to climate change. Agrolly fills information gaps and provides personalized recommendations so farmers can learn from one another, make more informed decisions, obtain financing, and improve their economic outcomes. By combining weather forecasts with crop requirements published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the platform provides tailored information for each farmer by location, crop type, and the stage of growth. Agrolly is currently testing their app with farmers in India. We began this testing in February and are receiving feedback that we can incorporate as we continue to enhance the solution. Through this testing, we’re focusing on crops that are specific to India.

Deepal Goyal, AVP, Altran - a part of Capgemini

Altran was selected as the Top 3 contenders having the Potential to mitigate the devastating impact of COVID-19 last year for Call for Code 2020. The application “Are You Well” is an end-to-end solution that helps citizens as registered user, medical infrastructure/service provider and medical practitioner. It enables the user register to a health assistance system with ease and be assured of medical help whenever needed. The user is able to communicate with the right medical assistance system as per the risk level and ask for immediate help whenever needed.

Priya Mallya, Leader, Hybrid Cloud Build and Developer Advocacy - Asia Pacific