Emergency preparedness
Community protection and preparedness are about ensuring that the whole of society can cope with both minor and major accidents and crises. Emergency preparedness is intended to protect the lives and health of the population, society's ability to function and the capacity to uphold basic values such as democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
How do we define a crisis?
'Crisis' refers to an event that affects many people and large sections of society, and threatens basic values and functions. A crisis is a state of affairs that cannot be handled using the regular resources and systems. A crisis is unexpected, beyond the range of regular or commonplace events, and resolving a crisis requires coordinated measures by several actors. A crisis can occur as a result of, for example, a natural disaster, a major accident, an epidemic or a computer system crash.
Principle of responsibility
The fundamental structure of society's emergency preparedness is based on the 'responsibility principle', which means that the party conducting an activity in normal circumstances also has the corresponding responsibility in emergency situations.
This means that the agencies themselves must have a system in place that is equipped to cope with their activities in the event of a crisis. It is often necessary for those responsible for an activity to cooperate, both within their sector and outside it, in order to accomplish the task. The principle of responsibility therefore also implies responsibility for each actor to work with others to manage and resolve crises.
Emergency preparedness can be divided into different phases: preventive (before), crisis management (during) and learning lessons (after).
Preventive efforts
Preventive efforts aim to reduce the number of accidents and crises and minimise their impact. This is achieved through the responsible actors taking preventive measures and measures to reduce vulnerability. Exercises, training and measures to make infrastructure more robust are examples of preventive efforts.
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
In order to provide concerted support to different actors and make society's emergency preparedness activities more effective, a new government agency, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, was established on 1 January 2009. At the same time, the Swedish Emergency Management Agency, the Swedish Rescue Services Agency and the National Board of Psychological Defence were closed down. Their activities are now covered by the new Agency.
The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency works with coordination across sectors and areas of responsibility, and within and between central authorities, regions and municipalities. The Agency is to undertake preventive efforts, as well as response and recovery during and after a crisis or accident.
