The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative
- US$452,000
- distributed in payouts to R4 participants in Burkina Faso, Kenya and Madagascar in 2021
- US$7.9 million
- of premiums paid under risk transfer mechanisms supported by WFP
- 395,000
- households reached through WFP-supported microinsurance programmes in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe
More than 2.3 billion people live on less than US$ 1.25 a day and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Vulnerability to climate-related shocks – made more frequent and intense by climate change – is a constant threat to their ability to secure enough nutritious food throughout the year. In the face of these challenges, the World Food Programme (WFP) is deploys innovative tools and strategies to reduce and mitigate risks in order to overcome hunger, achieve food security and enhance resilience.
WFP and Oxfam America launched the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) in 2011 to enable vulnerable rural families to increase their food and income security by managing climate-related risks.
As of 2021, R4 benefitted nearly 395,000 vulnerable households in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe through a combination of four risk management strategies: improved resource management through nature-based solutions or improved agricultural practices (risk reduction); access to insurance (risk transfer); increased investment, livelihoods diversification and microcredit (prudent risk taking); and savings (risk retention).