Southern African Resilience Academy Outcome Report

The Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA), coordinated by the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) at Stellenbosch University, operated from 2021 to 2023 to shift knowledge leadership toward the Global South. The initiative focused on 'Building equitable resilience in Southern Africa' through eight transdisciplinary working groups comprising academics and practitioners. Key outputs included a special feature in the journal Ecology & Society and various Non-Academic Products (NAPs) such as policy toolkits, guidance notes, and practice briefs. SARA's work spanned diverse sectors, including food systems, urban informality, conservation, and gender transformative approaches, emphasizing the interdependence of equity and resilience.

• SARA's first year (2021) focused on food systems transformation, identifying that transformation is necessary to adapt Southern Africa's food systems to future uncertainties and ensure climate-resilience and social sustainability.
• The initiative established eight transdisciplinary working groups in 2022 to synthesize knowledge on equitable resilience, covering topics such as urban informality, conservation systems, disaster risk, and gender transformative approaches.
• A primary academic outcome was a special feature in the journal Ecology & Society titled 'Enhancing social-ecological resilience and equity in Southern Africa: Insights from research and practice', which aimed to sensitize global readers to Southern African contributions and use a Global South lens for theoretical development.
• The use of Non-Academic Products (NAPs) allowed working groups to engage directly with decision-makers; for example, the urban food systems group provided a policy toolkit for Zambian policymakers and urban planners to address food insecurity.
• Research on urban informality highlighted that ignoring informal activities, institutions, and places in resilience planning risks increased conflict, expanded vulnerability to hazards, and deepened social inequity.
• The academy found that integrating Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) is imperative for sustainable development, as traditional gender mainstreaming often failed to address root causes like entrenched social norms and structural barriers.
• The 'metacoupling' framework was used to demonstrate how cross-scale connections—such as export horticultural value chains and transboundary fisheries—can reveal leverage points for fostering resilience and equity.
• SARA's findings suggest that equity and resilience are not just end goals but integral processes, and that the 'informal' often represents a majority of people and activities that are marginalized despite bolstering resilience.
• The initiative recommended that future programs initiate non-academic processes from the outset and diversify regional representation to reduce the overrepresentation of South Africa and include more lusophone and francophone countries.

APA

Trautman, S., & Hamann, M. (2024). Southern African Resilience Academy Outcome Report. Global Resilience Partnership. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sara_outcome-report-2024_02_08_24_single-page.pdf

Chicago

Trautman, Sabrina, and Maike Hamann. Southern African Resilience Academy Outcome Report. Global Resilience Partnership, 2024. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sara_outcome-report-2024_02_08_24_single-page.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Trautman |first1=Sabrina |last2=Hamann |first2=Maike |title=Southern African Resilience Academy Outcome Report |publisher=Global Resilience Partnership |date=2024 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sara_outcome-report-2024_02_08_24_single-page.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{trautman2024southern, author = {Trautman, Sabrina and Hamann, Maike}, title = {{Southern African Resilience Academy Outcome Report}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sara_outcome-report-2024_02_08_24_single-page.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }