R4 Rural Resilience Initiative July 2021

Over 1.7 billion people have been affected by climate-related disasters globally in the last ten years, with the number of people facing acute food insecurity being on the rise. Strategies for reducing and mitigating risks are therefore essential to overcome hunger, achieve food security and enhance resilience.

Since 2011, R4 has broken new ground in the field of climate risk management by enabling vulnerable households to access index insurance products by participating in risk reduction activities.

ABOUT R4

Resource-poor and food insecure households are faced with a wide range of shocks, including climate variability, extreme weather events, conflict, and socio-economic crises. While vulnerable communities have a greater likelihood to suffer heavy losses from these shocks, they often lack access to efficient and effective formal risk management and social protection mechanisms. WFP’s vision is to end global hunger by helping reduce risk and vulnerability to shocks and achieving sustainable food security and nutrition. WFP recognizes that in order to achieve its objective, it is essential to rely on a comprehensive set of integrated risk management strategies and tools that address both the climatic as well as non-climatic factors contributing to people’s vulnerability.

WFP has been the first UN agency to develop a microinsurance scheme integrated in a broader strategy to manage climate risks in chronically and transient food insecure areas, prone to recurrent droughts and floods. The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) is an integrated climate risk management approach that aims to help communities build resilience, incomes and wellbeing in the face of increasing climate variability and shocks. The initiative combines four risk management strategies: reducing the risk of climate-related shocks through nature-based solutions and improved agricultural practices; transferring the risk of catastrophic events to private insurance markets; enabling better risk retention of households and communities through the promotion of group savings and integration with social protection systems; and promoting prudent-risk taking through a combination of financial education, livelihoods diversification, and easier access to credit to enable better investments.

Source: World Food Programme