The African integrated climate risk management programme (AICRM) aimed at building the resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change impacts was yesterday launched at a ceremony held at the Sir Dawda Jawara Kairaba International Conference Centre.
The AICRM is a regional initiative financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF); the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the Africa Risk Capacity (ARC) and the African Development Bank (AFDB/Programme ADRiFi) in seven countries in the Sahel: The Gambia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Officials said the goal of the programme is to build, strengthen and scale up the resilience and adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers and rural communities of seven least developed countries to climate change using an integrated climate risk management approach.
In relation to preparedness, the programme would address the need to strengthen the Hydromet network and develop climate information and early warning systems that provide robust climate data to governments, smallholder farmers and other relevant stakeholders to enable them to make more informed decisions and adopt effective preventative and adaptive measures to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, the country's minister for Agriculture, Demba Sabally, said the presence of World Food Programme in The Gambia from 1970s and its flagship programme continues to "impact the health as well as educational faculties of our school children."
The African Development Bank, he said, has also for many decades accompanied The Gambia in its efforts to improve the livelihoods of our people in the health, education, agriculture, transport and energy and infrastructure among others.
"In The Gambia, the AICRM programme will contribute to the implementation of the objectives of the three Rio Conventions ratified by all countries, including the UNFCCC, as well as the Paris Climate Agreement, the SDGs and the Sendal Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction," he stated, while claiming that The Gambia has already benefitted substantially from GCF support, with further support already in the pipeline.
Jo Puri, associated vice president, Strategy and Knowledge Department of IFAD, said: "The Sahel region of West Africa is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change with worsening impacts of rising temperature, rainfall variability and extreme weather events," she said, adding "reliance on rain-fed farming and pastoralism for income and subsistence means that livelihoods and food security are inextricably linked to climate variability across the region."
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The programme, she continued, would build, strengthen, and scale up the resilience and adaptive capacities of smallholder farmers and rural communities.
"It will also provide capacity building and institutional development on integrated climate risks management. This includes reducing obstacles to access agricultural insurance for governments and smallholder farmers to enhance resilience building and strengthening climate weather information services."
"Although the agricultural insurance industry is still in an incipient phase in some countries, experiences in the region have demonstrated that combating climate risk transfer (micro and macro insurance) with climate preparedness and climate risk reduction practises is much more effective," she postulated.
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