For thousands of women tilling small plots in Uganda’s refugee settlements and host communities, a failed harvest or a sudden hospital bill has long meant one thing: sell the goats, borrow at high interest, or pull children out of school.
A new pilot launched in Kampala this week is designed to change that calculus by putting money in women’s hands within hours of a shock, not months.
Women’s World Banking announced this week a partnership with Ripple to test a stablecoin-enabled insurance product for about 3,000 women smallholder farmers.
The initiative, Harnessing Stablecoins for Women’s Financial Resilience in Uganda, uses Ripple’s US dollar-backed stablecoin, Ripple USD, as the settlement engine behind the policy.
When a predefined shock occurs, such as drought, crop loss, or a health emergency, the system triggers an automatic payout that lands in local currency on a beneficiary’s mobile money account. There are no forms to file, no adjusters to wait for, and no trips to a distant office.
On the frontline of risk
For the women at the center of the pilot, the difference is practical and immediate. Most depend on rain-fed agriculture with little room to absorb risk.
Climate shocks are no longer rare. Uganda has seen more frequent droughts and floods in recent years, and between 2018 and 2020 alone, climate disasters displaced an estimated 334,000 people.
Crop failures have become more severe and less predictable, hitting subsistence farmers hardest. Women, refugees, and host communities bear the brunt because they often lack savings, credit, or insurance to fall back on.
Global research by Women’s World Banking shows that more than 800 million women worldwide have no reliable way to receive relief payments after a climate emergency.
In Uganda, that gap translates into households being forced to liquidate productive assets, cut farm investment, and take on debt just to survive a bad season. Those choices erode progress that may have taken years to build.
‘Women farmers are already managing thin margins,’ said Stephen Ambore, Policy Director for Africa at Women’s World Banking.
‘A single shock, such as a failed harvest or a health emergency, can erase years of progress. Financial resilience powers economic empowerment.
When payouts arrive in hours instead of months, women can absorb shocks without selling assets or taking on debt, allowing them to stay invested in their farms, businesses, and families and continue building long-term financial security.’
The tech behind it
The mechanics behind the speed are what make the pilot notable.
Traditional insurance in rural Uganda is slow and costly to administer.
This model combines parametric insurance with blockchain settlement.
Parametric means the payout is based on an objective trigger, like rainfall falling below a set level or a verified health event, rather than on an individual loss assessment.
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin sits on the back end to move value instantly and transparently. Beneficiaries still receive Uganda shillings through mobile money, the channel most women already use, so the technology remains invisible to the end user.
‘As we continue exploring how stablecoins like RLUSD can support new real-world use cases, we’re excited to partner with Women’s World Banking,’ said Jonathan Perri, Director of Social Impact at Ripple.
‘This pilot demonstrates how the programmability of RLUSD can help automate insurance payouts for farmers in Uganda when predefined conditions are met, improving speed and efficiency.’ He added.
Partners on the ground
To design and deliver the product, Women’s World Banking is working with insurance technology firm Pula and with humanitarian actors already operating in refugee and host communities.
The goal is not only to pay faster, but to pay more predictably and at lower cost. By removing manual claims processing, the partners hope to reduce overheads that usually make micro-insurance unaffordable.
Beyond the payout itself, the pilot will measure whether faster money actually changes how women manage risk.
Using the Economic Empowerment Barometer developed by Women’s World Banking, researchers will track women’s ability to cope with shocks without distress sales, their confidence in making financial decisions, and their control over household resources.
Three tests, one goal
The project sets out to achieve three things in practice. It will deliver predictable, shock-responsive support covering agricultural, health, and life risks to women who currently have no access to insurance. It will demonstrate that stablecoin-backed settlement can cut payout times and increase transparency in both humanitarian aid and financial services.
And it will generate real-world evidence on whether the model can be scaled beyond Uganda to other systems facing similar climate and displacement pressures.
Women’s World Banking brings decades of experience to the effort. For more than 45 years, the organisation has worked to bring the 700 million women excluded by the formal financial sector into the economy.
As both an NGO and an investor, it partners with financial institutions and policymakers to design products for women, and since 2018 it reports having reached 118 million women and 76 million men.
Ripple, founded in 2012, provides blockchain-based enterprise solutions for payments, custody, and treasury management. Its stablecoin and related infrastructure are being tested here not as a speculative asset, but as plumbing for faster, cheaper transfers in a context where timing matters.
Why it matters now
In refugee settlements in northern Uganda and in surrounding host communities, where a dry spell can wipe out a season’s maize or a bout of malaria can drain a family’s savings, that timing is everything.
If a woman knows that support will arrive within hours of a verified shock, she is less likely to sell her last cow at a loss. She is more likely to replant, to keep her business running, and to plan beyond the next crisis.
The pilot will run with 3,000 women to start, a modest number against Uganda’s millions of smallholders. But its significance lies in the precedent.
If automatic, stablecoin-enabled payouts prove they can reach women quickly, transparently, and affordably, the model could be adapted for floods in Kasese, drought in Karamoja, or health emergencies in settlements across the country.
For the women in the program, the promise is simple: when the next shock comes, they will not have to choose between survival today and the farm they are trying to build for tomorrow. The money will come faster, and with it, a little more room to stay in control.