Building resilient muncipalities Disaster risk reduction policy adaptions in an international and local Swedish context

Abstract: In a world of increasing uncertainty due to climate change the urgency to act becomes more vital, disasters and natural hazard are increasing and resulting in more consequences. The Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction was established to tackle and minimize the consequences of disasters. This framework is being implemented globally and in different settings. Sweden a country that has been seemly spared from natural hazards has become increasingly vulnerable to floodings and storms. MSB the Swedish civil contingencies agency has been tasked to adapt this framework in Sweden to reduce risk of disaster and build a more resilient society. The aim of this thesis was to map out the processes of resilience in a disaster risk reduction context and a local context framework. A descriptive policy analysis was conducted to understand how international actors engage with resilience to reduce risk. An interview study with three municipalities in Gävleborg County was conducted to understand and investigate the local engagement of resilience, how and to what extent it has been promoted. Resilience is a rather broad concept and to narrow it down this thesis based it on three pillars resistance, recovery and adaptive capacity. These concepts formed the basis of the theorical framework to analysis how international and local actors prepare, recover and adapt in the event of a crisis. Previous research had been rather lacking in studying all of the pillars coherently and adaptation research had been the previous approach to study. This thesis attempted to not only apply resistance recover and adaptive capacity in a coherent framework but in two different sceneries. The results showcased a rather reverse turn as resistance and prepearndess method was the dominant approach to engage with resilience.