In mid September, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) helped launch an innovative new data platform in Lusaka, Zambia that combines satellite rainfall estimates with the country’s existing network of rain gauges. The platform, developed with the Zambia Meteorological Department and through funding from NASA, is the latest to come out of IRI’s Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative which aims to address the persistent problem of data scarcity and lack of access to climate information products in many African countries. The World Bank Group’s

In a New York Times' Opinion, Tina Rosenberg wrote that Andrew Mude, a Kenyan economist at the International Livestock Research Institute, is helping headers in Southern Africa insure their liveshock. Dr. Mude was awarded the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, which is a major prize in agricultural research, given by the World Food Prize Foundation. "Mude’s program began in one Kenyan county in 2010. Today, about 16,000 families are insured; most are in Kenya, and some are in southern Ethiopia," the op-ed says. To read the article on New York Times, please click here.

Ghana is celebrating its Farmers’ Day with the theme "Agriculture: A Business Response To Economic Growth". The theme focuses on addressing alternative financial and agricultural solutions that will protect farmers from erratic weather conditions. One of the innovative solutions the country has is the project dubbed “Innovative Insurance Products for the Adaptation to Climate Change” (IIPACC), led by the German Development Co-operation (GIZ), in concert with other relevant stakeholders. "The project, which started in December 2009, sought to facilitate the development and introduction of

Dr. Andrew Mude of the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, has been named the recipient of this year’s Norman Borlaug Award for his work in providing insurance to livestock herders in East Africa’s drylands through innovative, state-of-the art technologies. On October 12, 2016, Dr. Mude, a World Bank Group's grantee, was formally presented with US$10,000 and the “Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation”, in Des Moines, Iowa, as part of the 2016 World Food Prize international symposium. The award was given in

In a Harvard Business Review article, authors Dean KarlanRebecca, MannJake Kendall, Rohini PandeTavneet, and SuriJonathan Zinman discuss why microfinance is an imporant instrument for people in poverty to protect themselves from shocks such as illness, crop failures, livestock deaths, farming-equipment breakdowns and even wedding or funeral expenses. The article also sheds some light on why uninsured risk — not lack of access to capital — is a primary constraint on investment by farmers. "In India, when farmers were given rainfall index insurance, six percent more farmers focused production

ReliefWeb published a blog report on the progress of the Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) in Zambia. The program, launched by The World Food Program (WFP) and Oxfam, enables vulnerable rural households to increase their food and income security in the face of increasing climate risks. " In Zambia, smallholder farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture and constantly face challenges such as erratic rainfall, fragile soil and poor access to markets. Climate change places an additional burden on farmers’ food security by increasing the frequency and intensity of shocks including drought and flooding,"

In an interview with The Ethiopian Herald, published on AllAfrica.com, Solomon Zegeye, Micro Insurance Business Manager at Nyala Insurance Company, said weather index insurance service provided for smallholder farmers has registered positive outcomes in Ethiopia. "The World Bank and the World Food Program (WFP) are also playing crucial role in research and interpretation," said Zegeya on how d onors are involved in the process in providing finance, advise and other technical support. Although farming is the backbone of Ethiopia's economy, it is highly vulnerable to drought, weed, and pests