Developing a Regional Risk Financing Framework for Agriculture and Food Security in Southern Africa

Context and objectives

The agriculture sector of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region faces significant systemic risks that go beyond one single country’s capacity to manage. Regional action in terms of public policies and programs is therefore an appropriate response to help safeguard the incomes of the rural poor in the Southern African region as well as to avoid large economic shocks in these countries. 

In this context, a project supported by the ACP-EU NDRR Program informed public policies and programs of SADC member countries for managing systemic risk to the agriculture sector and food security, in particular climate-related risks. This supported the improvement of public policies and programs where agriculture sector losses and food insecurity would benefit from an improved risk financing framework.

Main activities and results

This project undertook the following main activities:

• Implemented the latest modelling technology on agriculture and food security risks to overcome data-constraints; 
• Identifyed policy actions and programmatic investments and mechanisms at country and regional levels to improve the financial management of agriculture and food security risks.

This project harnessed the most recent modelling technology on agriculture and food security risks. The objective was to overcome data constraints and identify investment opportunities to improve agriculture statistics and agroclimatic data for risk management as well as to develop digital solutions through innovation challenges. Successful innovations were delivered, producing new agriculture risk financing tools and methods which were adopted by several SADC member states. 

The project also identified public policy actions and programmatic investments at both national and regional levels. A regional policy note was delivered on the improvement of the agriculture and food security financing framework, which will serve as a guiding note for activities at the regional and national levels in the SADC region. These activities improved the financial management of agriculture and food security risks and enabled the development of a pipeline of national and regional investments and policy options. The project also favored the creation of a network of experts and institutions from the public and private sectors, academia, and international organizations that worked towards the improvement of management of risk financing in food security and agriculture. 

Partnerships and coordination

This project was implemented with Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional technical teams working on DRR and agricultural policy, as well as with the Ministries of Agriculture and of Finance of selected countries.