Opinion article by Prof Alice Ncube, Associate Professor/ Program Director, Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC), University of the Free State

As South Africa continues to grapple with the cascading social and economic effects exposed by COVID-19, it has become increasingly clear that resilience cannot be improvised during a crisis. It must be intentionally built long before disaster strikes. This principle is at the heart of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which calls for strengthened governance, inclusive participation and a commitment to addressing underlying vulnerabilities. It is echoed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa’s Agenda 2063, where resilience, equity and people-centred development remain central priorities. At the University of the Free State’s Disaster Management Training and Education Centre For Africa (DiMTEC), this vision is being advanced by two exceptional women who are completing their doctorates in Disaster Management, whom I had the privilege of supervising. Drawing from my own experience as a female academic navigating a traditionally male-dominated disaster “risk” management field, I have been able to support them. Their achievements demonstrate the transformative power of gender-responsive research in shaping a more inclusive disaster risk reduction (DRR) landscape for Africa.

Investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction

Dr Maureen Kudzai Maisiri’s research into food insecurity among smallholder farmers, many of whom are women sustaining rural livelihoods while shouldering disproportionate responsibility for household food security, reveals how the pandemic exposed weaknesses across agricultural systems. According to the Department of Agriculture, women represent nearly 60% of smallholder farmers, yet they continue to face unequal access to land, markets, insurance and climate-smart technologies. When COVID-19 disrupted supply chains, market access and labour mobility, these inequities deepened, placing many, including smallholder farmers, at heightened risk of hunger. Dr Maisiri’s work makes a compelling case for proactive investment in climate-smart agriculture, localised food systems, resilient value chains and early-warning mechanisms that support rural households mainly dependent on rain-fed agriculture. With her research study titled Investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction to reduce food insecurity among smallholder farmers in South Africa: Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, she highlights how these strategies directly support SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 13 (Climate Action) while advancing Agenda 2063’s aspiration for a prosperous, food-secure Africa.

Guidelines to bridge policy-practice gaps

In parallel, Dr Mariëtte Martha van Straaten’s study on disaster social work highlights another critical, often underappreciated dimension of resilience. The social workspace in which social workers who rightly are predominantly women became front-line responders during the pandemic. They were in the front line tasked with providing psychosocial support, counselling, social assistance facilitation and community care but were not fully equipped with structured guidance or integration within formal disaster management frameworks and regulations as put forward by the COVID-19 regulations, especially during various lockdown levels in the country.  Despite estimates that more than 85% of the country’s social workers are women, their expertise remains undervalued or not fully integrated in national disaster policy as witnessed during the pandemic. Dr Van Straaten’s proposed guidelines in her thesis titled, Developing disaster social work guidelines to bridge policy-practice gaps based on the COVID-19 response in Mangaung Metropolitan, South Africa, she proposed clear, actionable processes to bridge this gap by defining roles, strengthening coordination, improving training and embedding social work within all phases of the disaster management cycle. Her work further advances SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) that aligns with the Sendai Framework’s prioritisation of strong institutional capacity and reflects Agenda 2063’s commitment to people-driven development.

Women bear disaster burdens yet lack a voice in decision-making

From the two graduates’ perspectives outlined above, it is within this broader landscape that the 2025 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDR) theme, “Fund resilience, not disasters”, acquires deeper meaning. These two women’s research demonstrates that resilience is not simply achieved through infrastructure or technology, it is relational, gendered and deeply influenced by the social fabric of communities. Building resilience requires investing not only in physical systems but also in human systems, such as knowledge systems, leadership pathways, and inclusive governance that recognises diverse experiences of risk. Critically, it requires acknowledging that women disproportionately bear the brunt of disasters yet continue to be underrepresented in leadership and policy-making roles that shape national agendas such as disaster risk preparedness planning.

It is openly articulated in the UNDRR reports that women and children are up to 14 times more likely to die in disasters due to social constraints, unequal access to resources and caregiving responsibilities that limit mobility during disasters like COVID-19. Statistics South Africa found that women accounted for two-thirds of all job losses during the pandemic which eroded communities’ economic resilience. Such realities underscore why gender-responsive research, such as that produced by Dr Maisiri and Dr Van Straaten is important to national resilience.

Addressing the challenges

South Africa, like much of the continent, continues to face several structural weaknesses in its resilience architecture. Disaster governance remains fragmented across departments, with limited coordination and inconsistent resource allocation. Municipal disaster management centres often operate with insufficient budgets and limited staffing. Early warning systems, though improving, are not universally accessible, particularly in rural areas where digital divides persist. Furthermore, community-based disaster risk reduction, which is the Sendai Framework’s most emphasised strategy, is allocated barely 5% of South Africa’s DRR funding, despite being globally recognised as one of the most cost-effective resilience investments. These systemic gaps hinder the country’s ability to respond rapidly and equitably when crises emerge.

Addressing these challenges requires bold, actionable reforms. First, South Africa should establish a National Gender-Responsive DRR Framework that ensures gender analysis is integrated into all phases of disaster planning, budgeting and implementation. This must include ring-fenced funding for gender-inclusive DRR initiatives and strengthened partnerships with women’s organisations, researchers and local communities. Second, government and academic institutions should invest in expanding women’s leadership in resilience research through targeted grants, postdoctoral programmes, mentorship networks and collaborative research platforms that amplify women’s contributions. Third, informed by Dr Maisiri’s work, national and provincial governments should accelerate support for climate-smart agriculture through subsidised technologies, farmer training, improved extension services and resilient local food markets that strengthen smallholder systems.

Fourth, aligned with Dr Van Straaten’s findings, South Africa should institutionalise disaster social work by formally embedding social workers within municipal and provincial disaster management structures, supported by clear operational guidelines, capacity-building programmes and adequate resourcing. This integration would ensure that psychosocial support, vulnerability assessments and community strengthening are recognised as essential components of resilience. Fifth, the country should establish Community Resilience Hubs, especially in vulnerable districts, offering early-warning education, disaster preparedness training, women-led leadership programmes and locally stored emergency resources.

PhDs illuminate the way forward

Ultimately, resilience is a choice that requires political will, sustained investment and a commitment to inclusion. The achievements of these two women PhDs illuminate the pathway forward and their work embodies the essence of the IDDR 2025 theme, demonstrating that funding resilience means funding knowledge, equity and leadership. Their scholarship reinforces the Sendai Framework’s priorities, advances the SDGs and contributes meaningfully to Agenda 2063’s vision for an Africa that is peaceful, prosperous and resilient.