PARM Secretariat has successfully finalized the first phase, PARM Horizon 1 (2014-2019), of its participatory engagement process in sub-Saharan Africa. The Secretariat accomplished a number of achievements all of which are highlighted in the Final Report 2014-2019.
About PARM
PARM became a full-fledged Secretariat in 2014 and had since been helping 8 countries – Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia – to identify and implement sound risk management strategies and tools for the agricultural sector and food security. Key achievements from the process include;
Identifying priority risk and ARM tools for investment
The process has resulted in the identification of priority risk in these eight focused-countries and the generation of evidence to improve perceptions on risks. It has also led to a package of ARM tools for investment in line with Governments and development partners’ priorities.
Sharing knowledge and developing capacities on ARM
In terms of knowledge on ARM, the PARM initiative has generated, in only 5 years, over 100 resources and knowledge products on agricultural risks and management. It has also increased awareness, strengthened capacities and knowledge on ARM through 15 dissemination and policy dialogue workshops, 17 capacity development seminars and 6 knowledge-sharing events. These have all reached over 1000 national and international stakeholders. Knowledge transfer and partnerships for innovations on ARM has also been promoted with a wide range of partners through the engagement of PARM’s technical advisory members from FAO, WFP, World Bank, African Risk Capacity, GrowAfrica, ECOWAS, COMESA, Agrinatura, AGHRYMET, EAGC, ROPPA, CARGILL, MunichRe, IFPRI, CABI, EAFF, and Heifer International, along with other partners such as the Makerere University in Uganda, Hawassa University in Ethiopia, CIRAD, IRAM among others.
Scaling-up knowledge transfer
Moreover, the agreement signed between IFAD, PARM and the World Bank in 2018 for the migration of the online Community of practice (CoP) Forum on Agricultural Risk Management for Development (FARM-D) of 7,000 members from the World Bank Group to PARM represented a unique opportunity to scale-up knowledge transfer among different stakeholders and countries and promote and share innovations in the area of ARM. In the same year, PARM and IFAD also signed a co-publishing agreement with FAO for the development and launch of worldwide free-accessible e-learning courses on ARM, part of the broader joint effort led by EC, PARM/IFAD, FAO, and NEPAD.
In 2019, PARM also integrated two technical assistance initiatives hosted under the Weather Risk Management Facility (co-hosted by IFAD and WFP) to assist farmers to integrate micro-insurance in their business model.
Download the PARM FINAL PROGRAMME REPORT below for more information on the key achievements from 2014-2019.
