Women play a key role in meeting the challenges of agricultural production and development in Africa. Yet, women’s ability to generate income from agriculture leaves much to be desired. Women have limited access to productive resources and remain marginalised in decision makingdecision-making concerning agricultural produce and policies (Ogunlela and Mukhtar 2009). With the increase in frequency and intensity of climate risks, climate risk insurance (Weather Index agriculture insurance) is one way to strengthen climate resilience. However, insurance schemes are usually designed to cater to male clients (Fletschner and Kenney 2014 cited in Akter, et al. 2016). Evidence from Dassanou and Sherchan shows thethat the insurance industry lacks data on women and their insurance usage patterns (2017). In addition, few women work in the industry, which adds an information barrier, which means that the industry lacks knowledge on how to tailor products to women’s needs (Dassanou and Sherchan (2017); Fletschner and Kenney 2011). In addition, the industry often considers women less suitable clients, as they do rarely own resources that can be accepted as collateral (Fletschner and Kenney 2011).
Against this background, tailoring agricultural insurance initiatives according to women’s needs can bring us a step closer to gender parity and building climate resilience and adaptation.