The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative is WFP’s flagship approach for integrated climate risk management. The initiative combines four risk management strategies: 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).
Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, WFP has continued to support vulnerable and resource-poor communities to better manage climate risks and build their resilience against climate and other shocks. In 2020, the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative has allowed nearly 180,000 farmers (55 percent women) to access index insurance products and a range of complementary risk management services in ten countries. The initiative has expanded to three new countries (Bangladesh, Madagascar and Mozambique), supported the development of WFP’s first flood index insurance policy in Bangladesh, and laid the groundwork for expansion into the Latin American and Caribbean region in 2021.
