8 - Policy analysis at the subnational level: an exploration of a collaborative governance model

Summary

Introduction

Disaster risk management (DRM) has begun to be addressed in government agendas as a process that leads to the planning and implementation of policies, strategies, instruments, and measures, and that must be assumed by all sectors of society, especially within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This DRM approach poses a great challenge for governments, which are challenged on a daily basis by the need to provide responses and solutions to crisis situations generated by natural or anthropogenic phenomena, through social participation and collaborative work. In the last decade, a set of international norms, rules, and practices on DRM (Sendai Framework, SDGs and Agenda 2030) have been developed and adopted.

This agenda especially addresses the need for local governments to become key actors in generating solutions, solutions that they can no longer address alone, but need to do so through governance. The participation of actors from all spheres and levels is indispensable. In this sense, it is understood that governance with respect to increasing resilience to disasters occurs when governments formulate policies and develop practices jointly with civil society, the private sector, and the populations in order to create an enabling environment to improve the response capacity of society (Turnbull et al, 2013).

In this sense, it is suggested that the orientation towards governance requires flexible organizational structures for governments, new competency profiles of public managers, modifications in management tools, the construction of deliberative spaces, greater doses of negotiation and consensus in processes, more and better communication, among others. There is no single model to respond to these governance demands, but rather each level of government, type of problem to be solved, social demands, services to be provided, and so on, will require its own designs (Prats & Vidal, 2005).

The objective of this chapter is to identify and analyze the incorporation of international norms, rules, and discourses on DRM in the policies and practices of local governments in the province of Córdoba (Argentina). To achieve this objective, a matrix was designed in a collaborative manner between academia and local government officials. The hypothesis guiding this study is that local governments incorporate changes at the discursive level (policy definition) and in organizational design components more rapidly than in the implementation of specific projects on policy content.