Acknowledgment

The project Management team of GRIN wishes to acknowledge and appreciate the funders of our work, the United Kingdom (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and IDRC – International Development and Research Centre, Canada.

Inception Workshop – March 2024

The Decision Support for Climate Risk Preparedness Towards Gender-Responsive crop Insurance in West Africa (GRIN) project was flagged off on the 12^th March 2024, with the inception workshop, a hybrid event which took place at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), the implementing institution. Other important members of the team and officials of IDRC and WASCAL, the project host institution joined the meeting via zoom.

The inception workshop was declared open by the Vice-Chancellor of FUTA, Prof. Adenike T. Oladiji, FAS . She appreciated IDRC, all partners of the CLARE initiative, the project team and all other stakeholders at the inception meeting. She noted that the issue of climate change and its risk is no longer strange to the global environment which calls for decisive action and support towards adaptation and mitigation particularly, in the agricultural sector. She expressed optimism about the important role of the GRIN project to farmers, especially female farmers who are expected to be major beneficiaries in Nigeria and Ghana.

In his own contribution, Mr. Bruce Currie-Alder, Program Leader of CLARE, speaking via zoom appreciated the efforts of project team and all stakeholders involved in the execution of the project from planning stage to the inception meeting stage and called for more collaboration in the future.

The Ag. Executive Director of WASCAL, Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi, also speaking via zoom, thanked IDRC for being part of the consortium as host institution. He was optimistic that the consortium will effectively implement the project, which will effectively integrate gender responsive strategies into crop insurance and enhance climate risk preparedness across west Africa.

There were two other keynote addresses from Michele Leone, Senior Program Specialist for Climate Change at IDRC and Dr. David Awolala, the project Principal Investigator (PI). Mr. Leone, speaking via zoom provided an overview of the CLARE program including its research themes, research pillars and geographical focus. Dr. Awolala in his presentation, at the inception venue, provided an overview of the GRIN project, the project context, objectives, rationale; as well as the project expected outcomes and output including the project expected contributions to the subject area of gender mainstreaming, climate risk insurance and climate change adaptation.

There where several other presentations from key members of the project team. The presentations focused on providing a wider context of the project to all those present and those joining online. The presentations and their topics are highlighted below:

Project Team Member	Title of Presentation
Prof. Chukwuemeka Diji (Co – PI)	Climate Risks and small crop losses – Emerging issues for policy interventions in West Africa – Overview and Key findings.
Prof. Debo Adeyewa	Perspectives on weather forecasting tools for climate Risk management in West Africa.
Prof. Taiwo Mafimisebi	Climate and weather information as Decision support tool in adaptation planning
Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun	National perspectives on status of climate smart insurance as an adaptation strategy in Nigeria
Dr. Chine A. Afful (Co – PI)	Overview of climate smart insurance uptake in managing crop losses in Ghana: Successes and Gaps.
Prof. Adegboyega Oguntade	Academic Research and National policy processes: Revisiting the institutional cooperation in driving climate action.
Dr. Stephen Yeboah	Climate smart Agriculture pathway to livelihood Resilience.

The inception workshop concluded with questions, comments and clarifications on the project scope, context and expected outcomes.

Stakeholders Meeting (Ghana and Nigeria)

The first activity after the inception meeting of the GRIN project is consultation with stakeholders. The stakeholders’ workshops provided an opportunity to receive feedback for planning the next phase of the project including fieldwork, FGDs (Focus Group Discussions) and KII (Key Informant Interviews) in the selected areas of study. The stakeholders also provided information and underlying issues affecting uptakes of innovations by smallholders’ farmers; especially with the integration and incorporation of GEI considerations and gender segregated data in the design of the project objectives and executions.

The stakeholder workshop in Ghana and Nigeria also brought together strategic and potential partners that will be involved in the project implementation based on their interest, influence or expertise related to the development of weather index crop insurance as a climate risk transfer management strategy in the two project countries.

The stakeholders workshop took place in Nigeria on the 16^th of April, 2024 at the conference Centre of the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Gudu district, Abuja Nigeria.

Below are some of the group pictures at the Nigerian stakeholders workshop

The stakeholders’ workshop took place at the WASCAL headquarters in Accra on the 19^th April, 2024. Below are some of the group photographs from the Ghanaian stakeholders’ workshop.

Mr. Bruce Currie-Alder’s Visit to the Federal University of Technology,(FUTA) Akure – May 2024

Mr. Bruce Currie-Alder (Program Leader of CLARE) visited the GRIN implementing institution and implementing team from the 26^th – 28^th May 2024. He arrived Akure from Abuja on Sunday 26^th May 2024 and was well received by the FUTA university community.

The next day, 27^th May 2024 was full of activities for Mr. Currie-Alder. At 10am, the Vice – Chancellor of FUTA, Prof. Adeniki. T. Oladeji received him in audience with several key members of the GRIN implementation team. Also, in audience was the Research Director of FUTA. The VC – FUTA welcomed him formally to the university and thanked him for the opportunity provided to serve as implementing institution in collaboration with WASCAL, which has a significant presence in the university. The courtesy meeting also discussed several bilateral collaborative opportunities that could be explored between IDRC and FUTA.

Mr. Currie-Alder’s next activity after the courtesy meeting was an interactive session with the research and academic community in FUTA in the WASCAL – FUTA conference centre. The session involved presentations from Mr. Currie-Alder about the IDRC and the CLARE programme, including its aims, objectives and expected impacts. FUTA, in its presentation provided an extensive overview of the research strides and research accomplishments of the institution. There was also a presentation by Prof. Ajibefun and Prof. Diji on the GRIN projects and updates on the activities of the project post inception workshop.

The third activity of Mr. Currie-Alder after lunch was meeting with the project team members in a hybrid mode to discuss and clarify various aspects of the GRIN project.

The last activity of the day was a dinner session between Mr. Currie-Alder and members of the university management, with members of the GRIN project management team.

Mr. Bruce Currie–Alder departed Akure in the morning of the 28^th May 2024.

Knowledge Brokering Workshop – Nairobi – May 2024

The Co–PI, Prof. Chukwuemeka Diji attended the CLARE Knowledge Brokering workshop (KBW) on behalf of the GRIN project from 13^th – 16^th May 2024.

The CLARE KBW was organised by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and CLARE. The workshop was co – hosted by the CLARE Research for Impact hub and Capacity Strengthening hub. At the KBW, the SouthSouthNorth (SSN) served as CLARE’s Research for Impact (R4I) hub, while the CLARE capacity Strengthening hub was represented by the Kenyan – based African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) working in collaboration with PlanAdapt.

The objectives of workshop included:

• To increase understanding of the concept and principles of knowledge brokering.
• To strengthen skills and awareness about different knowledge and innovation brokering tools, approaches and strategies that participants will be able to apply in their current and future work.
• To create a peer learning, dynamic environment in which participants learn from each other, strengthen relationships and identify potential synergies among their projects.

CLARE GEI Workshop – September 2024

The two Co–PI of GRIN, Prof. Chukwuemeka Diji and Dr. Chine Araba Afful, attended on behalf of GRIN attended the CLARE gender equality inclusion (GEI) in Rwanda Kigala from 16^th – 20^th September, 2024. The programme was organised with support from the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), PlanAdapt and Vanguard Economics.

The CLARE GEI focused on peer learning, knowledge exchange and collaboration. The workshop provided participants with practical strategies and methodologies to ensure that their work benefits all, especially those most vulnerable to climate impacts.

Below are the presentation from GRIN and other pictures of our participation.

Appreciation and Gratitude

The Project Management Team of GRIN wishes to express its appreciation and thankfulness to our Funders UK–FCDO and IDRC and all the programme officers and other support staff of CLARE who assisted us in completing all our activities in 2024.

Thank You