2017 - R4 Rural Resilience Initiative Annual Report

In 2017, the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) expanded from four to six countries. Overall, 57, 625 farmers (50 percent women) participated directly in R4 while around 300,000 people benefitted from it in five countries, namely, Ethiopia, Senegal, Malawi, Kenya and Zambia with its comprehensive risk management approach. This year saw the scaling-up of the initiative in Southern Africa, the R4 pilot in Kenya as well as the start of the inception phase in Zimbabwe. For the first time, some farmers transitioned from accessing premiums fully through labour to partial cash payments in both Malawi and Zambia, an important progress towards achieving program sustainability.