Building Equitable Resilience in Southern Africa

Since early 2022, SARA has supported eight working groups comprising a diverse range of experts, from early-career professionals to established practitioners. These groups are actively synthesizing regional knowledge under the theme of “Building equitable resilience in southern Africa.” Each working group focuses on different topics and systems, such as informality, telecoupling, urban food systems, and conservation systems.
Over a two-year period, these groups convened three times for workshops in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Their primary task was to develop scientific papers for a special issue in an academic journal. Additionally, the groups received support to create knowledge products and engagement processes tailored for non-academic audiences and decision-makers, expanding the reach and impact of SARA outcomes.
This iteration of SARA received funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), with additional support from the South African Research Chair in Social-Ecological Systems and Resilience, held by Prof Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs at the CST. Opportunities for future iterations of SARA and similar academies are being explored.