This event, jointly presented by Microlinks and Agrilinks, covered the potential for agricultural insurance to promote resilience and inclusive agricultural growth as part of an integrated risk management approach. Integrated risk management can provide a pathway out of poverty by mitigating climate risk and enabling smallholders to take advantage of economic growth opportunities.
Lena Heron, Senior Rural Development Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Food Security, discussed the use of insurance to support USAID’s inclusive, climate-smart agricultural growth and resilience programming objectives. Richard Choularton from the World Food Programme discussed how the Rural Resilience (R4) Initiative combines agricultural index insurance with broader risk management approaches to reduce vulnerability and improve the livelihoods of rural farmers.
The R4 approach also incorporates risk reduction through community asset building (soil and water management), savings for improved coping, and credit to enable prudent risk taking for economic growth. Currently being implemented in Ethiopia and Senegal, R4 has recently begun activity in Malawi and Zambia. R4’s activities in Senegal are supported by a grant from USAID’s Global Climate Change Office. In 2014, R4 won a $500,000 grant through USAID's Internal Development Innovation Ventures (iDIV) competition, which sources game-changing ideas from USAID staff anywhere in the world.
