Enhancing resilience through public policy : lessons from disaster logistics in the post-2011 Tohoku earthquake in Sendai city

Title: Enhancing resilience through public policy : lessons from disaster logistics in the post-2011 Tohoku earthquake in Sendai city

Author: Mrs.Megumi Okumura

Year: 2024

Keywords: Disaster Logistics,Resilience,Policy Integration,Stakeholder Coordination

Theme: Disaster and Crisis Management

Advisor(s): Carl Nigel Middleton

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: In recent years, the integration of resilience into disaster policy has gained global traction. Despite being widely adopted as a concept by international institutions such as the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Bank, resilience often remains underdeveloped at the operational level and is frequently seen as a “buzzword.” Even in Japan, although recognized for its disaster preparedness, there has been limited debate on how resilience is integrated in public policy. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake prompted fundamental questions such as “Resilience to what?” and “Resilience for whom?”, highlighting the need to examine the purpose and direction of resilience within Japan’s disaster policy. In this context, disaster logistics has emerged as a critical area, particularly regarding the challenges of last-mile delivery—the final transport of emergency supplies to affected communities.This study analyzed how resilience-based public policies have been integrated and implemented in Sendai City, a municipality at the forefront of disaster response during the 2011 earthquake. It aimed to evaluate how such policies have influenced disaster logistics practices and contributed to building community, physical, and social resilience. Through qualitative methods, data were collected via interviews with government officials and experts from the academic field. Supplementary sources such as policy documents and academic literature were analysed using content analysis. The findings revealed three main insights. First, stakeholder engagement has improved significantly since 2011, with stronger coordination mechanisms emerging among different administrative levels and sectors. Second, there remains a gap in the conceptual clarity of “resilience” in policy language, limiting its practical application. Interviewees from both Sendai City and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) acknowledged this ambiguity. Third, coordination between local and central governments remains challenging, particularly due to decentralization and ambiguity over who should take the lead in disaster management. Some municipalities resist external involvement, which complicates efforts to achieve seamless coordination. The thesis argues that the extent to which resilience-based public policy for disaster logistics has been adopted in Sendai City reveals both progress and persistent gaps, particularly in clarifying the purpose of resilience and in strengthening the linkage between local and central governments—factors that are crucial for enhancing the resilience of social systems.This study contributes to disaster logistics and resilience policy discourse by examining how resilience concepts have been integrated into public policy and translated into practice. The choice of Sendai City—a key site for global disaster governance and a host of international resilience conferences—provides a valuable case for examining how resilient-based public policies in disaster logistics have been integrated into public policy and implemented in practice

Empowerment of indigenous women in recovery of post-earthquake 2015 in Nepal: a feminist perspective

Title: Empowerment of indigenous women in recovery of post-earthquake 2015 in Nepal: a feminist perspective

Author: Miss Mintira Premruethairat

Year: 2019

Keywords: Indigenous women, Earthquake 2015, Nepal, Women Empowerment

Theme: Disaster and Crisis Management

Advisor(s): Kasira Cheeppensook

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: Discrimination against gender and caste can be overwhelming issue to a person or a group who faces it. Similarly, indigenous women of Nepal have been facing impediments in regard to unequal power relations caused by gender, identity, as well as disaster. With the conceptualization of Feminist Political Ecology, this paper analyzes the subjectivities of a feminist perspective that highlights the lives of indigenous women pre-earthquake and their experiences on how they are affected by power relations in political ecology of Nepal. Along with the findings of the indigenous women’s lives and their experiences amid the earthquake 2015 have also been analyzed with the notion of empowerment in Nepal. In addition, the analysis on the notion of empowerment is made on political, socio-cultural, environmental governance, and economical aspects, as these dimensions are interconnected and intertwined that have consequences on indigenous women in terms of power imbalance, disaster sensitivity, and their empowerment. So, this paper finds it important to explore on such subjectivities to enlighten the stakeholder on the differences that a woman based on gender and caste is facing different forms of impediments on their lives and experiences during a disaster. Likewise, the paper is based on qualitative research with the interview of a focus group on research site named Sankhu/Shankarapur in Kathmandu district (hard-hit area by earthquake 2015), and as well on one-on-one interview with key informants, along with secondary sources for analysis. Hence, this research has been an emphasis on the dynamics of indigenous women’s lives pre-earthquake and their experiences during the earthquake 2015, with the notion of empowerment through the lens of Feminist Political Ecology