– Whatever happens, it happens in a municipality, points out Harald Sunde. He is the leader of the Total Preparedness Commission, a group that will look at how we in Norway can work together to have better preparedness. TOTAL PREPAREDNESS: Harald Sunde is the leader of the Total Preparedness Commission. At the beginning of June, he will submit their advice to the government on what should be done to strengthen preparedness in this country. Photo: William Jobling / news After Russia invaded Ukraine, Sunde thinks it is high time that this is put in place. – Now it’s serious, now it’s really serious. And now we have no time to lose. We have to equip civil and military preparedness, says Sunde and points to total defence. It is the combined civil and military preparedness Norway has to meet the entire spectrum of challenges in society, from war to other events and crises in society. – Must be further strengthened Since 2002, the Directorate for Community Safety and Preparedness (DSB) has carried out surveys on the municipalities’ work with community safety. Director Elisabeth Aarsæther wrote in an e-mail to news that there is a positive development in this work in the municipalities, but that it must be further strengthened. – What is missing most is that contingency plans are updated. The risk ratio changes over time. Natural events such as landslides or flash floods, or the establishment of a new development area in the municipality, will create a need for new risk assessments. It is therefore important that the municipality’s risk analyzes and plans for preparedness and crisis management are up to date. Many hats Gamvik municipality in Aust-Finnmark has experienced several local crises in recent years. They have experienced power cuts and they have lost telephone contact with the outside world. But in a small municipality, it can be challenging to have enough people to work with preparedness. Should an incident occur, the smallest municipalities in particular experience that the same key persons in society have several roles. – In a crisis situation, municipal employees in central positions can also have important tasks in the Home Guard or Civil Defence, says mayor of Gamvik municipality, Alf Normann Hansen (SV). COOPERATION: Mayor Alf Normann Hansen (SV) says that it is important to have good cooperation when dealing with a crisis. Photo: EILIF ASLAKSEN / news Hansen says that it is challenging to find out what the municipality should help with in the overall preparedness. It is therefore important to achieve good cooperation, should the crisis occur. He points, among other things, to both the Home Guard and the Civil Defense. – It is important to have a full overview of the use of resources and what we can get help for. We should certainly meet in a contingency council to survey each other’s resources in order to be able to interact better. Facts about the total defense The total defense is a comprehensive overview of the military defense and civil preparedness in Norway. The scope includes mutual support and cooperation between the civilian and military sides to prevent, plan for and handle crises in peace, security policy crises, armed conflict and war. The threat and risk picture today is different from a few years ago. Increased migration flows to Europe, several serious terrorist attacks, more frequent cases of extreme weather and flooding, digital attacks and a demanding security policy development are examples that characterize the picture. Division of responsibility and joint responsibility There is a clear division of labor with solid political and constitutional roots for what constitutes civil and military responsibility. The government has the ultimate responsibility for safeguarding social security and state security. Civil authorities and actors are responsible for safeguarding social security. The primary task of the armed forces is to assert Norway’s sovereignty and Norwegian sovereign rights and also to defend the country against external attacks, which means safeguarding state security. Mutual support Civil and military preparedness and crisis management are nevertheless mutually dependent on each other, and ongoing cooperation is therefore necessary. Civil-military cooperation is also important in order to make the best possible use of the collective resources in society and thus contribute to a good social economy. Total Defense places as much emphasis on the Armed Forces’ support for civil society in a crisis situation as the support society has for the Armed Forces. (Source: Statsforvaltaren i Inlandet) In Porsanger municipality, the center is for the Garrison in Porsanger and the headquarters of Finnmark land defence, and people are used to both military exercises and other activities. Now a collaboration has started with the municipality to put in place a good joint emergency plan here. Photo: Allan Klo / news – Variable quality In Porsanger municipality, cooperation is already in place between the municipal management, the defense and the police. – Then you simply increase the quality of emergency work and at the same time save the municipality a lot of work, says HV-17 chief, Bernt Lockert. During the spring, the parties will have several meetings. The HV chief believes that a collaboration like this is crucial, especially for the small municipalities. – Together with the police chief and the state administrator, we have seen that the municipalities have challenges in having the resources to think about preparedness fully. Many municipalities in Finnmark are so small that they do not have their own emergency coordinators and they have variable quality in their emergency council work, as it is voluntary, says Lockert. HOME GUARD: HV-17 commander, Bernt Lockert believes it is important to shine a spotlight on preparedness across the board. Photo: Allan Klo / news Emergency Preparedness Council something not required by law The director of DSB believes that the municipalities must take ownership of their own risk to a greater extent and ensure updated planning. It is also important that the municipalities practice the emergency planning system – also together with other relevant actors. In order to bring together all the social security actors in the municipality, DSB recommends that municipal emergency councils be established, even if this is not required by law. An emergency council often consists of local actors from political and administrative management in the municipality, representatives from private and public actors within social security, such as owners of critical infrastructure and critical social functions, business, voluntary organisations, police, the Norwegian Civil Defense and the Norwegian Armed Forces. – It is natural to involve the emergency response council in the work with healthy ROS, overall emergency plan, drills and crisis management. Deficient on several levels It is not just in the municipalities that it is a struggle. Also at the regional level, preparedness orders have blank sheets. – As of today, we do not have a fully developed plan for how we envision a war evacuation from Finnmark. TROMS AND FINNMARK: Director of emergency preparedness in Troms and Finnmark, Ronny Schjelderup takes criticism and says it is very unfortunate that such plans are still missing in the large county in the far north. Photo: Marius Fiskum / State administrator in Troms and Finnmark Director of emergency preparedness in Troms and Finnmark, Ronny Schjelderup tells it like it is. There are no evacuation plans for the civilian population in Finnmark in the event of war. – This is something we have been aware of for some time. It is of course not what we want, and we have to look at it and start making a plan. It is now over a year since the unrest broke out in Europe, and Schjelderup says the plans must be in place. – But we have to rely on the fact that, as of today, there is no threat in relation to Russia. Having said that, it is clear that having an evacuation plan will be a good security for us in case we have to start moving people out. PREPAREDNESS: State administrator in Troms and Finnmark, Elisabeth Vik Aspaker, says that preparedness is something that is worked on throughout the country. In April, she organized a conference with the municipalities in her region to raise the focus on this work. Photo: Tonje Hareland State administrator Elisabeth Vik Aspaker says that what has happened in Ukraine is a wake-up call for the emergency work here in the north. – We now have to prepare for the possibility of a crisis that is more serious than what we have dealt with so far, says Vik Aspaker. Will give advice on good plans On 5 June, Harald Sunde and the rest of the commission will present their report on total preparedness in Norway, and give input on what measures the governing authorities can take to strengthen preparedness on several levels in this country. – We have looked at the connected big picture. We do not prepare emergency plans, but we give advice to the government on what should be done and what main directions should be taken. The Total Preparedness Commission The commission shall assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current preparedness system, and propose how the collective resources in society can and should be arranged to further develop social security and preparedness, and ensure the best possible collective utilization of the collective preparedness resources. The commission is headed by former defense chief Harald Sunde. It must submit its assessments in the form of an NOU in June 2023. The commission must give clear and concrete recommendations about what should be prioritized in the work on preparedness going forward. The commission will start from an assessment of the current challenge picture nationally and internationally, and give an assessment of how this can be expected to develop and affect societal security and preparedness. The commission’s mandate includes the entire social security playing field, including Svalbard, and the entire crisis spectrum from peace via security policy crises to war. This also includes civil-military cooperation. The entire country is represented in the commission. The members represent a broad spectrum of expertise, both from operative companies such as the police and the ambulance service, from ministries and directorates, from municipalities, the private sector and partners in business. (Source: Regjeringa.no) At the same time, he is aware of the challenges the municipalities have, and says this will be considered in the council. – What we recommend must be practical and feasible, Sunde clarifies. In the work, Sunde believes that it is crucial that the residents themselves are involved. – Because preparedness is built from the bottom up, not from the top down. It is up to me and you, it is the local area and your municipality, the region and the resources you have there. – And it doesn’t help to wish for things you don’t have, and in that way we build a solid preparedness from the bottom up, adds Sunde.
ttn-69
Many municipalities lack a contingency plan in the event of war as a result of the invasion of Ukraine – news Troms and Finnmark
