Attachments
Executive summary
The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) began as a strategic partnership between the World Food Programme (WFP) and Oxfam America in 2011 to build on the success of Oxfam America’s pilot project HARITA (Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation) that broke new ground in the field of rural risk management. After the successful expansion of the R4 integrated approach under the global partnership, in October 2018, Oxfam America transitioned into an advisory role with WFP taking the lead on the management and scale-up of R4 operations, globally. WFP gratefully acknowledges the pioneering role Oxfam America played together with the communities, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) and other local and international actors in creating, developing and transferring the HARITA model outside Ethiopia. R4 is comprised of four integrated risk management strategies that strengthen farmers’ food and income security. The initiative combines improved natural resource management through asset creation or improved agricultural practices (risk reduction), microinsurance (risk transfer), increased investment, livelihoods diversification and microcredit (prudent risk taking), and savings (risk reserves).
During this quarter, activities focused on preparing for the 2020/21 agricultural season for the R4 Southern Africa countries, including Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Mozambique. Activities involved trainings and sensitization meetings on insurance, sustainable agricultural practices, financial inclusion and climate services. In Kenya, insurance registration for the 2020 Short Rains season was conducted with targeted farmers. Due to COVID-19, WFP Kenya adapted its registration modality to phone-based surveys and successfully managed to enroll 12,206 smallholder farmers. In Ethiopia, capacity building activities were conducted with local stakeholders. Notably, index design teams have been established both at national and regional levels to build incountry capacity to design and develop index insurance.