Resilience among young people in a community affected by drought

Project team and funding

Professor Hart’s team focused on young people in the South African municipality of Govan Mbeki in this key multi- and cross-disciplinary research project. Our researchers collaborated closely with international partners including Khulisa Social Solutions, Boingboing and leading academics in the UK, South Africa and Canada.

Khulisa Social Solutions is a community organisation in South Africa supporting youth-led health and social care interventions. Young people with lived experience of adversity, from the UK-based social enterprise are also involved. Other academics joining in with the research include Dr Clare Kelso from the University of Johannesburg, Professor Stephen Bottoms from the University of Manchester, Professor Liesel Ebersöhn, Dr Ruth Mampane and Professor Linda Theron from the University of Pretoria (UP). Professor Theron is leading the South African team. 

The Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) awarded funding of £166,000 to enable our team to work with partners to improve understanding about what enables young people to withstand, adapt to, resist or challenge these impacts. 

Details relating to the project were announced online by all three research councils supporting the project:

• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Umdzabu Cultural Group performing at 'United We Stand' film premiere in Leandra.

Project timeframe

Project aims

Project findings and impact

These issues have been identified as central to the Patterns of Resilience to Drought project:

• The general failure to implement existing drought policy in South Africa
• The absence of youth in developing and implementing policy
• The worsening effects of climate change and drought
• Weak government and community

After a series of workshops facilitated by postgraduate students from Pretoria and community facilitators from the UK, a group of young people in Leandra  developed their own ideas and gathered information from older people in the community. This was used to generate important responses to drought, addressing the challenge of finding mechanisms for communication with those responsible for policy and government activity.

Young people were vital members of the research team

"As young people from Leandra, we set about understanding our role in times of drought, as well as our potential to effect change where necessary. 

"Forty-nine of us contributed our personal and community perspectives on resilience to drought. Drawing on arts-based data collection approaches we were trained by 15 postgraduate students from South Africa, supported by academics from South Africa and the UK. Four young British community-based co-researchers with personal experience of overcoming complex life challenges, and of undertaking research on resilience, were also involved. South African co-researchers were trained to undertake research on the perspectives of elders in their community and were supported in communicating findings to policymakers." 

Young people from Leandra researched what they, their community, government and other policy-makers could do about the problem of drought, developing messages that they want policymakers to hear.

Read their messages in the pdf booklet United We Stand [3Mb]

We used visual and performance art to mobilise youth views

Art can be used for social change in many diverse ways in activism, research, for therapy, for community building, and in resisting oppressive regimes. In our research work in Leandra, art involving the coproduction of images, story boards and videos was used to uncover, and translate for wider audiences, the characteristics of youth which make them more resilient to drought-related stress.

Our co-produced art outputs provide a base to communicate with policymakers and others who might have relevant influence. We hope they can be used by policymakers to assist and support young people in Leandra and beyond, to be resilient in the face of drought. 

Art, as a way of making meaning, as communication and research, translated our Leandra youths' strengths and resilience. This is art as collective expression and art for social change. This is art as a driving force for communication. 

We investigated the impacts of drought in Leandra

Two University of Brighton climate scientists were involved in the investigation. The study used monthly rainfall measurements from 29 weather stations from across Gauteng and southern Mpumalanga. The measurements were used to identify when and how often droughts occurred, demonstrating that rainfall for the last 130 years varies a lot from year to year and drought is common.

Through our youth co-researchers we also collected the experiences of the further impacts of drought on communities such as the effects on employment and education. We discussed them together whilst making our film.

Together we made a film so that youth from our project could show the world what they think should be done about drought

In June 2017, some of our project co-researchers, who are all young people living in Leandra, created images and stories for our film. The film shows which of their characteristics and those of their families, communities and physical environments make them resilient to drought-related stress. In our film, the youth also imagined how policymaking can support some of these characteristics of resilience. Watch our co-produced film

We co-produced a strategy to support the resilience of young people to drought-related challenges

Read our United We Stand project publication to find out more about Resilience among young people in a community affected by drought.

We were a case study for UKRI-GCRF in their Sustainable Development Goals publication.

Read the article Mobilising young people in South Africa to develop drought resistence included in the UKRI case studies.