Ground combat with Yohana Tesfamariam Tekeste

Ground combat with Yohana Tesfamariam Tekeste

This story is part of the Columbia Climate School’s series celebrating women’s work in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2022.Read more about the day and our related blog post here.

When asked about her fieldwork with farmers in East and Southern Africa, Yohana Tesfamariam Tekeste Describe it as “swearing.” She is committed to making an impact that not only reflects the needs of farmers in the face of the climate crisis, but is fundamentally determined by their needs.

Originally from Eritrea, Tesfamariam Tekeste started her career in biotechnology, researching and producing diagnostic tests for malaria and cholera.This work got her into the Columbia Climate School International Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) In 2015, she used climate change information to create an early warning system for the spread of infectious diseases.

Tesfamariam Tekeste has since worked in various divisions of IRI and is now a member of the Financial Instruments team supporting the technical development of various information tools for agricultural stakeholders, such as weather-based index insurance.

weather based Index Insurance is a relatively new but increasingly popular approach to reducing climate risk for smallholder farmers. In contrast to traditional insurance that pays farmers based on verifiable losses, indexed weather-based insurance pays farmers based on their insured losses. satellite data factors such as rainfall.

Today, most of Tesfamariam Tekeste’s work in index insurance is concentrated in Zambia and Mozambique. She also leads forecast-based financing projects in Lesotho and Djibouti, among other research topics.

On International Women’s Day, we reached out to Tesfamariam Tekeste to learn more about her approach to developing financial instruments and reducing climate vulnerability in the global South.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What kind of problems are you trying to solve by offering index insurance and other financial products?

In general, through tools such as index insurance or forecast-based financing tools, we contribute to ad hoc microsolutions by providing vulnerable communities with sufficient climate information to make informed decisions. Providing farmers with index insurance, for example, prompts some smallholders to take risks, such as buying fertilizer or drought-resistant seeds, so they are more likely to get better results in the upcoming season. Then, if extreme droughts or excessive rainy seasons do occur, they have a safety net to minimize economic hardship.But index insurance is by no means This solution. This is just some of the many mitigation approaches we need to deploy to address the entire climate vulnerability problem.

How do you design forecast-based financing vehicles?

“We have to get out of our preaching mode and really start listening. These communities were resilient before our ‘intervention,’ and they know their territory better than we do.”

The exciting part about forecast-based financing is that we are packaging climate information and climate data in a way that policymakers can use to inform their actions. For exponential insurance and forecast-based financing programs, bringing together the voices of disadvantaged communities is an integral part of our design and development tools. We can’t say, “This is an amazing tool that you can deploy. We’ve done our job, thank you so much,” and leave. We need to ensure that there is some form of co-production, co-generation and a process for reconciling with satellite data, which is done by asking farmers what the worst years they are facing and incorporating that into the design – or in forecast-based financing Projects, working with decision makers to integrate all necessary information to make decisions. In these projects, we must also consider the user interface designs that our partners like to use most, and whether farmers’ consent comes from a place for information, knowledge and education. My job is not to be the main voice for the farmers, but to make sure they are their own voice and to make sure they have a central voice when it comes to projects like this.

What have you learned by working with these local partners and community members?

Our approach needs to be more open. We have a lot of preconceived notions about what decisions and projects or programs should look like, which is a very Eurocentric ideology. Climate scientists are eager to explain how data is used and communicate information without gatekeeping, but as institutions, we need to understand that we are more about learning than teaching. As we learn more about the needs of our partners, we have to get out of our preaching mode and really start listening. These communities were resilient prior to our “intervention” and they knew their territory better than we did.

Photo courtesy of Yohana Tesfamariam Tekeste

Do you find yourself struggling with some specific aspect of your job right now?

The main problem I have in my field right now is that not enough people are asking why these communities are vulnerable in the first place. Why can’t they get the resources and infrastructure they need to remain resilient in 2022? A lot of people think that when insurance programs expand, “Oh, that’s a great opportunity.” But, in reality, we’re using a “Band-Aid” to alleviate the symptoms of a real situation. Working with farmers highlights the magnitude of the climate crisis for me more than anything else. At some point, we need to recognize that most people in the Global South are vulnerable now, not tomorrow, all because of the actions — or inactions — of those who benefit from the vulnerability of others.

How does first-hand knowledge of climate vulnerability affect your approach as a practitioner?

I’m from Eritrea, so as an African woman from a country that also has a peasant community, I know not only [climate vulnerability] From my upbringing, but now I also look at the process from a privileged perspective. I have come to realize that there is an inherent messiah complex in academia on the part of Western researchers and practitioners, which centers only on our own privileges and takes away from the communities we serve there. My first reaction was that I wanted to be outdated in my work. The idea that I get the job done is, when I’m done building capacity and people in these countries can do what I do on a daily basis, because it’s not rocket science, how do I make sure self-reliance is guaranteed in these communities?

Your choice of the word “self-reliance” strikes me as particularly meaningful.

Self-reliance is the true form of sustainable development. To me, that means empowering communities in these countries, whether through universities or other groups, that people understand how to operate with data, design insurance indices, and have the skills they need to develop new technologies. This means making sure that there is no interdependence between me and them, but a fair environment for communication and collaboration.

What prompted you to do this work?

There is not enough solidarity within institutions for the working class of the Global South – finding anti-capitalist/anti-neocolonial solutions is the main driver I continue to push. Honestly, the system we constantly vote for and benefit from is what makes these communities vulnerable, and we need to question the type of impact we have as an institution and which side of history we are on. It’s about solving problems holistically and radically – holding each other accountable is part of the solution.

Is there anything you would like to add, including the future of your work?

I feel like the future is a privileged conversation. There is a lot of work to be done at the moment, and I look forward to connecting with more like-minded people, bringing different perspectives – not just pointing out the problem from a westernized perspective, but coming up with grassroots solutions to problems by holding people here accountable idea. I think the end of the world is easy to imagine. It’s harder, but also important, to imagine that we can work together and be the solution. So I look forward to seeing people-centred solutions rather than imperialist capitalist incentives.