Project profile — Improving Access to Agricultural Insurance in the Casamance Region in Senegal

• Senegal (100.00%)

• Banking And Financial Services: Education/training in banking and financial services (24081) (30.00%)
• Agricultural financial services:
Agricultural financial services (31193) (54.00%)
Agricultural co-operatives (31194) (16.00%)

• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (significant objective)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)

The project seeks to support the economic empowerment and resilience of women farmers in Senegal’s Casamance region by improving their access to agricultural insurance as a way to mitigate the impact of climate change. The project focuses on the availability of financial products and services tailored to the needs of women farmers and enhances their ability to access and use them. Project activities include : (1) Providing training and support to women farmers so they can access and use financial products and services, including agricultural insurance; (2) building the capacity of grassroots cooperatives and regional financial institutions to tailor their range of products and services to the needs of women; (3) developing and implementing an innovative business model for distributing agricultural insurance to women and women’s groups; and (4) building the capacity of the Compagnie Nationale d’Assurance Agricole du Sénégal (CNAAS, Senegal’s national agricultural insurance company) and national financial institutions to develop and provide products and services tailored to the specific needs of women. The project is being delivered by SOCODEVI with the help of two local partners, the CNAAS and the Organisation de Formation et d’Appui au Développement (OFAD/Nafoore). The indirect beneficiaries are estimated at approximately 900,000 people making up the population of all the households to which the direct beneficiaries belong, who represent 7,000 women members of 150 agricultural groups (GFVA) in the rural regions of Casamance.

The expected outcomes for this project include : (1) women farmers are more economically resilient; (2) grassroots cooperatives and groups are better at reducing barriers to women’s economic empowerment in the context of climate change; and (3) the Compagnie Nationale d’Assurance Agricole du Sénégal (CNAAS) and targeted national financial institutions are better at providing services tailored to the needs of women.

Results achieved up to March 2024 include: (1) supervised, strengthened and coached the teams and technical partners of 23 partner agricultural cooperatives, 388 women's agricultural groups and 391 women leaders. The project has enrolled a total of 7850 women to benefit from training activities in financial education (3 sessions) and community talks (3 sessions). Themes covered include the participation of men and women in the household, joint decision-making, gender-based violence, leadership training and positive masculinity; (2) committed to improve the performance of 23 grassroots cooperatives and 5 financial institutions. This aimed at reducing systemic barriers to the economic empowerment of women farmers in a context of climate change. Together with all regional players (government departments, agricultural cooperatives, financial institutions, projects and programs, etc.), the project adopted strategies to provide cooperatives with products and services tailored to their needs, integrating environmental considerations, climate change and agricultural insurance; and (3) supported the national agricultural insurance in maintaining positive discrimination against women on agricultural insurance products, by granting a 20% reduction on premiums for agricultural products, and 10% for livestock products.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities: Improving Access to Agricultural Insurance in the Casamance - Monitoring