Systemic risk management and recovery pathways: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Southern African Development Community
This report focuses on systemic risks and lessons for risk management and recovery in the Southern African Development Community. Examining case studies in the Republics of Malawi and South Africa, this report provides an understanding of how the pandemic and concurrent hazards have exacerbated risks in specific contexts, and provides recommendations, validated by SADC member states, to strengthen systemic disaster risk management and recovery in the region.
The report puts forward several key lessons for strengthening systemic resilience:
- Systemic risk assessment approaches are needed to characterize and strengthen understanding of how hazards, risks and impacts are linked across sectors and borders in the SADC;
- A disaggregated view on vulnerability is needed in risk management and recovery. To tackle gender inequalities, which were particularly worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, gender considerations should be mainstreamed into existing and new policies;
- Given the size and importance of the informal sector in the SADC region, risk management and recovery policies should consider drivers and root causes of vulnerabilities in the sector.