On 22 November world leaders will gather in Johannesburg for the first G20 Leaders’ Summit to be held on the African continent, under the theme Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability. For South Africa, hosting the G20 Presidency is more than diplomacy. It signals Africa’s growing stature in global governance and is an opportunity to bring disaster management from the margins of humanitarian response to the fore of international economic planning.
Disasters are no longer merely local interruptions. They are systemic shocks. Climate-change-driven floods, droughts and wildfires erase years of progress, deepen inequality and push developing economies further into debt. Between 2011 and 2020, disasters cost the global economy more than US $2.8 trillion according to data from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). When a wildfire destroys crops or shuts down a power corridor, the losses cascade through markets, credit systems and public finance. Disasters cause a diverse array of systems to fail.
This is particularly relevant for Africa, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the surface area of the world, which burns each year. Yet regional cooperation across the continent remains limited. In an effort to change this, the Working on Fire–Kishugu Joint Venture (WOF-Kishugu JV) has been active in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Global Fire Management Hub and its Working Groups on International Interoperability and Fire Data.
Participation in these global working groups promotes shared standards and coordinated regional operations, as well as the use of tools that track hectares burned, personnel deployed and aerial resources in real time. This strengthens continental early-warning systems and predictive modelling, making such collaboration essential for Africa to close its data and capacity gaps before climate-change-driven disasters outpace adaptation. It also aligns with the G20’s call for digital public infrastructure and early-warning access for all.
The G7 group of countries also took the unprecedented step of issuing the Kananaskis Wildfire Charter in Calgary, Canada in June 2025, reflecting a growing global recognition of the threat of climate change-induced wildfires. This charter, also endorsed by Australia, South Korea, India, South Africa and Mexico calls for greater international collaboration and interoperability, better harnessing and sharing scientific research, focusing on preventative actions and adopting a “whole of society” approach to respond to the scourge of unwanted wildland fires. The G7 declaration is an important step in developing a consensus and collaboration in tackling this impact of climate change.
As an active member of the G20 Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group, Working on Fire contributed to the Ministerial Declaration that reaffirmed solidarity, equality and sustainability as guiding principles. These are not abstract ideals.
They describe how vulnerability, inequality and exposure interact to magnify risk. A township without drainage, large tracts of land without fire breaks, a farm without insurance, or a community without a flood-warning system all reveal why disaster and social policy must be treated as one.
The Declaration also recognises the value of international cooperation to prevent, mitigate, respond and recover from wildfires.
Guided by the Sendai Framework, the G20 Working Group has laid the groundwork. The next step is to translate principles into practice: predictable financing for prevention, interoperable data systems, and shared early-warning capacity.
WOF-Kishugu JV’s integrated fire management approach focusing on prevention, community fire awareness education, suppression, rehabilitation and applied research shows how operational skills and social inclusion reinforce each other. It gives substance to the G20’s call to reduce inequality as a path to resilience.
Through its implementation of the South African government’s Expanded Public Works Programme, Working on Fire, more than 5 000 firefighting jobs have been created among our unemployed youth and over 200 specialist teams across the country have been trained. Women make up 30% of this workforce — the highest female participation globally in wildland firefighting. Over two decades the programme has shown that disaster risk management can also build social protection, linking employment, environmental restoration and disaster readiness in a single model.
International interoperability is also part of WOF-Kishugu JV’s experience, and we stand ready to contribute to global wildfire cooperation. Since 2015, more than 1 500 firefighters have been deployed abroad, including six missions to Canada. These operations, carried out under the South Africa-Canada Bi-National Commission Memorandum of Understanding, prove that shared training standards and investment in preparedness make multinational responses both safe and efficient. Each deployment, with a 50:50 split between returning and first-time participants, builds professional capacity at home while contributing to global capability. This is solidarity in action, with African expertise supporting other nations and returning home with stronger skills and deeper partnerships.
As the G20 meets in Johannesburg, disaster governance must stand alongside debt, health and climate as a pillar of global stability.
The Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group has built the architecture; what is needed now is the political will to finance expanding investment in multi-hazard early-warning systems, promote risk-informed infrastructure and embed prevention criteria in development banks to turn policy into protection.
The goal is to shift the world from reacting to disasters to preparing for them. The G20 can redefine resilience as a shared public good that protects both lives and economies.
The fires that burn from the Amazon to the Southern Cape are not just natural events; they are warnings. The old model of response after the fact is no longer viable.The world already has the knowledge, partnerships and means to act before disaster strikes.
Disaster governance rightfully belongs on the G20 agenda. It is not a humanitarian afterthought; it is a form of fiscal discipline and a foundation for economic stability.
The cost of prevention is always lower than the cost of recovery, yet investment in risk reduction remains limited. Integrating disaster-risk metrics into financial systems would turn resilience into measurable economic value. The G20 now has the responsibility to turn known capabilities into real preparedness.
Under South Africa’s presidency, there is an opportunity to put principles into practice and make climate-change-driven disaster resilience part of how the global economy works.
Trevor Abrahams is managing director of Working on Fire.