Drought Risk Information for the African Finance Sector (DRIAFS)

干旱对2亿多非洲农民构成持续威胁，使他们陷入贫困，阻碍国家发展。天气指数保险(Wii)和预测金融(FBF)等金融服务可以通过在预期的干旱时期提供作物保险或财政援助来提供安全网，使农民能够购买粮食、牲畜和种子等关键资源。然而，准确捕捉地面条件的数据对于Wii和FBF的有效实施至关重要。尽管TAMSAT基于降雨的产品得到了广泛应用(使用TAMSAT数据每年为300万农民投保)，但它们并不总是与农民的体验相一致。TAMSAT的近乎实时的土壤水分监测和预报服务可以解决这个问题，只要金融部门有足够的知识和能力来利用这些数据。此外，Wii和FBF的社会利益受到一个更广泛的问题的阻碍：由妇女领导的家庭获得这些服务的机会有限。然而，现在有机会弥合这一差距。尽管在获得传统农业推广服务方面仍然存在性别差距，但在获得移动电话方面的差距已经缩小。普惠性移动服务有可能扩大妇女家庭获得服务的范围，从而减少获得干旱管理工具和信息方面的不平等。最近推出了一套新的土壤水分数据集，有机会更新TAMSAT的数据提供办法，目的是加强公平获取所有TAMSAT产品的机会。我将领导一个活动方案，使金融部门获得知识、工具和信心，使其能够开发和实施基于土壤水分的金融服务，同时为女性农民提供更多获得这种服务的机会。为此，我将利用TAMSAT的新的可操作的根深土壤水分数据集。作为TAMSAT土壤湿度和降雨监测服务的首席开发人员，我是从事这项工作的理想人选。知识的转让将得到实践者设计的工具箱的支持，该工具箱将减少获取干旱信息的技术挑战。完整的工具箱将使金融服务提供商能够访问土壤湿度和其他干旱数据，而移动友好版本将使农民能够访问定制的干旱信息，使他们能够独立验证金融产品所基于的干旱数据。提供针对性更强的金融产品，再加上易于获取的基于卫星的干旱信息，将增加女农民和金融部门之间的信任，从而促进对基于土壤水分的金融服务的接受。DRIAFS将与一组金融服务提供者合作，这些提供者是非洲金融部门的领导者，我与其中一些人建立了牢固的关系。我将为该项目带来十多年来开发基于卫星的气候服务的经验，以及在促进非洲金融、农业和人道主义援助部门之间合作方面的经验。项目合作伙伴在获得农业金融服务方面的性别差距方面的深入经验将有助于指导该项目，以确保TAMSAT服务更好地针对女性主导的家庭，更重要的是，将发展我个人对性别因素的理解，这将有利于该项目以及未来的TAMSAT气候服务。与非洲领先的从业者合作，将使土壤水分金融产品迅速进入市场，并为数百万农民提供保险，从而实现更公平的支出和更好的抗旱保护。

Drought poses an ongoing threat to over 200 million African farmers, trapping them in poverty and hindering national development. Financial services like weather-based index insurance (WII) and forecast-based finance (FbF) can offer a safety net by providing crop insurance or financial aid during anticipated drought periods, enabling farmers to purchase crucial resources like food, livestock, and seeds. However, data that accurately captures on-ground conditions is essential for effective implementation of WII and FbF. While TAMSAT rainfall-based products have been widely used (>3M farmers insured annually using TAMSAT data), they don't always align with farmers' experiences. TAMSAT's near real-time soil moisture monitoring and forecasting service could address this issue, provided there is sufficient knowledge and capacity within the financial sector to exploit the data.The societal benefit of WII and FbF has, moreover, been hindered by a broader issue: the limited access to these services among households led by women. However, there is now a chance to bridge this gap. Although there remains a gender disparity in accessing traditional agricultural extension services, the gap in mobile phone access has narrowed. Inclusive mobile services hold the potential to broaden the availability of services for households led by women, thus reducing the inequality in accessing drought management tools and information. With the recent introduction of a new soil moisture dataset, there is an opportunity to refresh TAMSAT's data provision approach, aiming to enhance equitable access to all TAMSAT products.Within DRIAFS, I will lead a programme of activities that will give the financial sector the knowledge, tools and confidence to allow them to develop and implement soil moisture-based financial services while providing female farmers with greater opportunities to access such services. For this, I will exploit TAMSAT's new operational rooting-depth soil moisture dataset. As lead developer of the TAMSAT soil moisture and rainfall monitoring services, I am ideally placed to undertake this work.The transfer of knowledge will be underpinned by a practitioner-designed toolbox that will reduce technical challenges in accessing drought information. The full toolbox will enable financial service providers access to soil moisture and other drought data while a mobile-friendly version will give farmers the ability to access tailored drought information, allowing them to independently verify the drought data that the financial products are based on. The provision of better targeted financial products combined with easily accessible satellite-based drought information will increase trust between women farmers and the financial sector, thereby promoting buy-in of soil moisture-based financial services.DRIAFS will partner with a group of financial service providers who are leaders within the African financial sector, some of whom I have established strong relationships with. I will bring to the project over a decade of experience in developing satellite-based climate services and experience in fostering collaborations within the finance, agricultural and humanitarian aid sectors in Africa. The depth of experience amongst the project partners on the gender gap in access to agricultural financial services will help guide the project to ensure that TAMSAT services better target female-led households and importantly, will develop my personal understanding of gender considerations which will benefit this project as well as future TAMSAT climate services.In summary, DRIAFS will build the capacity of the African financial sector to develop equitable access products that robustly identify drought conditions. Partnership with leading practitioners in Africa will enable soil moisture-based financial products to rapidly reach market and provide cover to millions of farmers, resulting in fairer pay outs and better protection against drought.