Overview of CSI spend on disaster relief in 2024

National context of disaster relief in South Africa

• The National Disaster Management Centre within the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs was allocated R1.4 billion for emergency disaster relief in 2024/25, an increase of around 50% from R932 million in 2023/24. 
• The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that the increasing frequency and severity of weather and climate extremes disproportionately affect African economies and societies. Climate-related hazards including droughts, floods, cyclones and heatwaves exacerbate food insecurity, water scarcity and displacement, and cause African countries to lose, on average, 2% to 5% of their GDP annually, with many countries diverting up to 9% of their budgets into unplanned expenditures to respond to extreme weather events.  
• In 2024, South Africa experienced severe flooding, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. By April 2024, National Treasury had released R372 million from the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant for almost 200 projects in municipalities across seven provinces affected by floods in recent times. 
• The Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4All), launched at COP27 in 2022 and led by the WMO and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, aims to ensure that everyone on earth is protected by early warning systems by the end of 2027. Engagement at COP28 promoted the scale-up of end-to-end early warning systems, showcasing significant progress in countries including South Sudan, Mauritius and Tonga. South Africa has started to develop an EW4All National Roadmap. 

Overview of CSI spend  

Disaster relief was supported by 57% of companies and received 4% of average CSI expenditure. 

Type of intervention

Average % CSI disaster relief spend 2024 n=35

70% Emergency response

19% Rebuilding of disaster affected communities

5% Preventative efforts

6% Other

• Most disaster relief spend (70%) was allocated to emergency response in 2024, an increase from 64% in 2023. 
• Rebuilding of disaster-affected communities received a higher portion of disaster relief expenditure on average, increasing from 16% in 2023 to 19% in 2024. 
• Spending on preventative efforts was only 5% in 2024, slightly lower from 6% in 2023.