PARM urges institutionalisation of Agriculture Risk Management into national policies, strategies & investments

The Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) was delighted to be part of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, ANDE 2022 Regional Conference sponsors. The conference was held from 19th to 20th July 2022 in Accra, Ghana.

The event was a great opportunity for PARM to promote Capacity Development in Agricultural Risk Management (ARM) at regional level, and also to promote gender mainstreaming as an ARM tool as well as how ARM can support climate action initiatives.

On 19 July 2022, PARM held a session on Policy Dialogue: Climate Finance and Risk Management for African Agriculture, addressing the importance of Capacity Development on ARM with a holistic perspective, and the role of Capacity Development in de-risking investment in agriculture and rural development sector.

Organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal and Fishery Resources of Burkina Faso and the Ministry of Livestock and Animal Protection of Senegal, the session also benefited from the participation of “Investisseurs & Partenaires”, an impact investor active in several African countries. Mrs. Francesca Nugnes, Capacity Development Specialist at PARM highlighted the importance of a dialogue among stakeholders including academics, producer organisations, financial institutions and governments which nurture and sustain ARM tools; thus, she emphasized the importance of institutionalising ARM into national agricultural policies, strategies and investments.

The session also underlined the importance of knowledge/information sharing and awareness raising of small farmers and their organisations about agricultural risk management. “

In Senegal, for example, information sharing is done by the Agricultural Advisory Office, through agricultural and rural Advisors who are members of the Local Development Committee (LDC). The sharing of information on agricultural risks is not only done through the LDC but also through other bodies such as the Village Committee, Community Radios and Women’s associations (GPF, GIE) who support these efforts by relaying information to their bases”, mentioned Dr. Fatou KA, Director of the National Training Centre for Livestock and Animal Industries Technicians in Senegal.

Burkina Faso government has also shared experience on a risk assessment study carried out and validated by the government in 2021 in the country with PARM support, which identified and quantified 17 risks, using parameters such as the frequency, magnitude and capacity to manage risks.

Among these 17 identified and statistically quantified risks, the 6 major agricultural risks in order of priority in terms of frequency and impact are: (i) the security risk; (ii) the risk of inter-annual price volatility; (iii) the risk of drought; (iv) the risk of intra-annual price volatility; (v) the risk of post-harvest losses and (vi) the risk of flooding.

Mrs. Francine Ilboudo, the Head of the Department for Partnership and Private Investments in the rice sector, confirmed that the government of Burkina Faso is making efforts in addressing Agricultural Risk Management as a national priority, through the creation of the National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation (CONASUR) in 2004, then,the creation of the multi-risk contingency plan (2009) and the contingency plans regional (2012).

On the same day, PARM and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Ghana hub also participated in a Gender session on “Connecting Ecosystems Actors for West Africa Female Entrepreneurs: Accelerators, BDS (Business Development Services) Programs and Private Investors”, moderated by PARM with a panel composed by the Women Investment Club Bureau, the Mobile Business Clinic Africa and IFAD Ghana. The session discussed challenges and solutions for women to grow their businesses and highlighted the importance of accessing finance, information and business development services as well as the role of public policies to enable women business to grow.

Hosted by IFAD, PARM is a G20-initiative created in 2013 with the mandate to enable the integration of a holistic agricultural risk management (ARM) approach into policy planning, institutional capacities and investment in the agriculture sector of Least Developed Countries and Lower Middle-Income Countries to move away from a culture of coping with disasters towards a smart management of risk, and support building resilience in the agricultural sector.

The platform represents a unique and strategic global multi-stakeholder partnership in the area of Agricultural Risk Management guided and supported by IFAD, the European Commission (EC), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Italian Development Cooperation (DGCS) and German cooperation (BMZ and KfW), in strategic partnership with NEPAD.

It also benefits from the technical assistance of a pool of international and regional multilateral partners (World Bank Group, the Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS (ECOWAS), African Risk Capacity (ARC); knowledge partners (Agrinatura, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), etc.); farmers organizations (ROPPA, EAFF); and private sector (CARGILL, MUNICH RE), among others.

PARM implementation is done in phases, with phase one (PARM Horizon 1) spanning over 2013-2019. The objective of this phase was to mainstream ARM at global level and enable the integration of a holistic agricultural risk management into the policy planning and investment plans in 8 African countries from SubSaharan Africa.

The very positive results achieved by PARM during the first phase brought to the development of PARM Horizon 2 (2019-2025). During that time frame, PARM is continuing to bring evidence and build capacities on ARM at global and country level, but investing more resources in the design of ARM programs for investments, with a more structured involvement of publicprivate-partnerships and in direct support to meso-level players (extension services, financial intermediaries, women’s and youths’ groups, NGOs, farmers enterprises and organizations).

In addition, the KM and Capacity development component are being scaled up and activities intensified; gender equality and women’s empowerment issues are systematically addressed throughout the PARM process.