Att vara ett steg i förväg: En undersökning av svenska kommuners livsmedelsberedskap

Officials of varying backgrounds from a sample of nine municipalities in Sweden were interviewed in a semi-structured format regarding the state of their work on food preparedness, challenges and opportunities for working on said topic, as well as the relation between municipalities and national actors related to civil defence. A vast majority of Swedish municipalities were contacted, and the final interviewees were hand-picked from a group of candidates that accepted a request for an interview. A selection process was used that favoured geographic dispersion throughout Sweden as well as diversity in population densities to capture experiences, perspectives and unique conditions from as diverse of a sample as possible. The results showed that, among other findings, unclear instructions exist regarding legal responsibilities for ensuring food preparedness exist, what level of food preparedness is expected and how municipalities can work on improving it, sometimes also limited by financial and personnel constraints. These governance issues in turn have an impact on overall societal resilience in the case of crises, threatening long-term sustainability through the ability to respond to and recuperate after sudden disruptive, societal events. The Swedish Government and its agencies are recognized, both by municipalities and other actors, as needing to give this field increased attention and take decisive policy steps in order to improve food preparedness nationwide and to fulfil the goals of the Swedish civil defence. Steps suggested by the interviewees include explicit and direct instructions to municipalities and other actors on what needs to be achieved, adequate levels of funding toward increasing food preparedness capacity at all levels of government, and reconsidering the national government’s own role in ensuring a sufficient supply of food during peacetime, heightened state of alert and wartime