South African Environmental Observation Network
South African Environmental Observation Network
On 17th and 18th June 2025, the South African G20 Research and Innovation Working Group (RIWG), through the South African Government Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), hosted a G20 virtual stakeholder engagement workshop as input and support for the upcoming disaster risk reduction hackathon. The event saw participation and representation of 150 participants and experts from G20 countries, invited members and global stakeholders. The event was facilitated by the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) coordinating office at the National Research Foundation (NRF), and NRF National Facility South African Environmental Observation Network (NRF-SAEON) as SA G20 RIWG Knowledge and implementing partners.
In introducing the event, the programme director, Dr Tshiamo Motshegwa, Director AOSP, highlighted that this stakeholder event primarily aimed to enable exchange of best experiences and lessons from countries, expertise from domain experts and projects, and to gather reflections from community representatives. The workshop outputs are aimed at shaping the follow-on G20 Hackathon as part of the G20 RIWG Open Innovation Demonstrator Project on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for Water Resilience with a focus on Forecasting Informal Urban Expansion and Flood Risk. The workshop is complemented by the G20 DRR Landscape Global survey on data and data systems for crisis management. The survey will gather insights from a diverse range of stakeholders across sectors and regions to understand how data is used, shared, and governed during crises, including water-related disasters, and to also identify available data resources for open innovation.
The Deputy Director General of International Cooperation and Resources at DSTI, Mr Daan du Toit, delivered welcome remarks emphasizing the importance of global collaboration in disaster risk reduction and the role of innovation in strengthening resilience against natural disasters. Dr Mary- Jane Bopape (MD: NRF-SAEON) opened the discussion by talking about the study conducted by NRF-SAEON with other collaborators, highlighting long-term weather-related disasters in South Africa. The study showed that weather-related disasters have increased from 1980 to 2023. Floods and storms emerged as the most prevalent, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, with the EThekwini municipality recording the most events.
Mr Teboho Seseng, from the Technology Innovation Agency, introduced the Hackathon that South Africa will host to look for innovative solutions in addressing informal urbanisation and flood risks. The hackathon will be open to innovators, policy makers, scientists, developers, entrepreneurs, and data experts from G20 member countries. The winner will receive the award as well as showcase their idea at the G20 Ministerial meeting in September 2025.
Experts in Disaster Risk Reduction policy and research facilitated fundamental understanding of Risk, and discussed relevant defining documents, frameworks and policies and other developed instruments. These included UNDRR Hazard Definition and Classification and companion Hazard Information Profiles, UNDRR Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), Early Warning Systems for All (EW4All) and UNESCO-CODATA Data Policy in Times of Crisis (DPTC) and various National , Regional Disaster Risk Reduction strategies. Progress, challenges, barriers and opportunities in implementation and reporting on these DRR frameworks were also discussed.
Experts in disaster risk reduction from the European Union, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Algeria, America, China and India shared best practices in disaster risk reduction and measures that can be implemented to reduce vulnerabilities to disasters. Natural disasters are becoming frequent due to climate change. They highlighted the importance of stakeholder engagement, collaboration, data, and knowledge sharing between stakeholders in mitigating risks associated with natural disasters.
Disasters know no borders. The meeting highlighted the importance of learning from each other, innovation, and collaboration in reducing disaster risks. Natural disasters have a huge social, economic, and environmental impact. Through global collaboration, early warning systems and best practices could be shared to enhance resilience amongst communities.
This was also a great start in fostering global collaboration and innovation in disaster risk reduction. The meeting shared insights on the importance of quality real-time data for decision making. Sustainable Development Goal 13, which promotes climate action, featured prominently in presentations that showcased strategies to reduce risks and improve resilience.
#G20 # DRR #OpenInnovation.
