Decision support for climate risk preparedness: Towards gender-responsive crop insurance in West Africa

 

The savannah region in Nigeria and Ghana is critical to domestic food production, yet also susceptible to drought. Smallholder farmers tend to adopt low-risk, low-return strategies, which favour low yields and keep households trapped in poverty. Weather index-based insurance offers the potential to encourage higher incomes, but availability of detailed information to inform farmer choice and payout options is limited.

This project will work across several communities to collect data on household exposure to, and attitudes towards, the climate-related risks of drought and crop failure, as well as farm-level decision-making and the potential for crop insurance. Detailed weather analysis will be used to refine the design of insurance products, including payment thresholds and amounts. The project will work with stakeholders – communities, meteorological offices and private-sector actors – to explore the factors influencing the uptake of insurance. The project will examine the gendered vulnerability of smallholder farmers and analyze preferences for weather and climate forecasts. It will pilot gender-responsive crop insurance and enhance its uptake bundled with weather information.

This project is part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) initiative co-funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and IDRC. CLARE is a five-year initiative that aims to enable inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards for people across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.