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Capacity development for disaster risk reduction is an important process to substantially reduce disaster losses, which threaten sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This paper presents seven elements for capacity development for disaster risk reduction that has been applied in practise with noteworthy results. The seven elements are: (1) Terminology, (2
A society’s ability to anticipate disaster is a fundamental part of its resilience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential gaps between theory, policy and practice concerning functions for risk assessment in the governmental systems of southern African development countries, particularly Botswana and Tanzania. It applies comparative case studies with data collected in focus groups a
It is increasingly suggested that societies must be resilient to be safe and sustainable. While there are many approaches to resilience available, not all of them operationalize the concept to the extent of guiding what to look for when observing actual communities. This is a requisite for linking the conceptual and the actual, and vital for our ability to develop societal resilience. Drawing on r
This article argues for the importance of explicit discussions of what is valuable as a foundation for any disaster risk reduction initiative to be effective. It does so by stating that it is impossible to talk about risk at all if not having some notion of uncertain potential impacts on something that humans value. What is assumed as valuable and important to protect is then determining what haza
Modern day crises demand organizations to collaborate and adapt to new roles, functions and structures. In such situations, lack of collaborative behaviour and openness between organizations can result in reduced adaptive ability. Therefore, it is important to facilitate collaboration between organizations.We have studied the extent to which crisis managers are prepared to work with personnel and
Resilience is becoming a prevalent agenda in safety research and organisational practice. In this study we examine how the peer-reviewed safety science literature (a) formulates the rationale behind the study of resilience; (b) constructs resilience as a scientific object; and (c) constructs and locates the resilient subject. The results suggest that resilience engineering scholars typically motiv
A conceptual framework for systematically studying and analysing risk governance is introduced. The framework, which is influenced by design science, is particularly valuable for relating the way risks are handled at the micro-level to aspects at the macro-level. Three central concepts are included in the framework: purpose, function, and form. A function is used to denote what a specific system d
Key Messages • Sweden has an ideal opportunity to become a more important effect, reflecting the views of several Swedish organisations active international partner in DRR and resilience activities, originating in this area. from its strong history of donor support and long engagement • Acting on this opportunity would enable timely Swedish in DRR. contributions to the increasing global debate on
The last ten years have seen a sharp increase in externally supported capacity development initiatives for disaster risk management. However, not all of them have generated sustainable results. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the current focus on training as the main tool for capacity development in the context of disaster risk management, and to argue for the necessity to address capac
Southern Africa suffers from an acute lack in skilled capacities for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The region, with its unique disaster risk profile, is mostly bound by its inability to effect change and transformation for sustainable development and resilience building. Reasons for these limitations are largely due to the lack of capacities in disaster risk reduction with
Societal safety and sustainability are key challenges in our complex and dynamic world, causing growth in interest of applying the concept of resilience in broader societal contexts. This paper presents a concept of Community Resilience that builds on established theory of Resilience Engineering and operationalises the concept by presenting its purpose, required functions and a way to identify and
Capacity development for disaster risk reduction is an important process to substantially reduce disaster losses, which threaten sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This paper presents a theoretical framework with seven elements for capacity development for disaster risk reduction that has been tested in practise with noteworthy results. The seven eleme
The interaction among various stakeholder organizations in modern crisis response is very similar to negotiation where each organization has its own goal in addition to a common goal. Decision makers in stakeholder organizations most often have to settle for win-win situations to attain higher joint benefit. In such cases willingness to contribute in joint tasks becomes a prerequisite. In our pres
Society is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex, and therefore more vulnerable. It is thus important that society is resilient in order to be able to protect citizens and critical functions in the wake of disasters. It has been suggested that disaster risk reduction (DRR) is key in establishing resilience, and that adequate capacity in DRR is vital to reduce the effects of disasters. DRR and
The increased adoption of flexible work arrangements and changes in the habits and behaviors of employees since the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted companies to adapt their policies to accommodate these developments in the conditions of work. Despite being pioneers in flexible work arrangements, companies in Sweden still need to continuously refine their policies to meet the changing needs of thei
