Improving Risk Governance : Defining a Better Process for Risk Communication and Stakeholder Participation
The success with which risks are managed in society, in the world, depends on a complex system of risk governance. Not only does risk governance include what we traditionally define as ‘risk analysis’ and ‘risk management’ but it also includes of a range of decision makers, stakeholders, scientists and other experts, or members of the public and the roles they have on decisions throughout the process. Failures of risk governance can often be traced to failures to understand and respond to this ‘bigger picture’. In this workshop, we focus on a major challenge to successful risk governance – risk communication throughout the process.
The basic core of this workshop is formed by a broad conceptual framework for risk governance developed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC), a private, non-profit foundation in Geneva, Switzerland. Their risk governance framework was designed to provide a more comprehensive characterisation of risk governance — one that builds on foundations of risk analysis and risk management as embodied in many in existing frameworks --- and thereby to guide risk analysts and policy makers around common pitfalls that have been encountered before.
The workshop was a combination of lecture and interactive case studies, including development of mock press conferences and other role-playing exercises, and feedback discussions. The cases studies were drawn from recent experiences of the two presenters on the governance of food safety. They were designed to help workshop participants think through the issues involved in dealing with risk communication both in the design of programs for the governance of new risks and when faced with a crisis.
Overview of topics
What do we mean by Risk Governance ? : New frontiers and challenges
Toward an integrated approach : an introduction to the IRGC risk governance framework
Risk Communication as part of governance : Where does it go wrong and how to get it right ?
Stakeholder involvement : Who, what, why, when, and how ?
Case studies from food safety :
— Acrylamide in Food
— Aspartame
— Further references to BSE, semicarbicides, genotoxic substances
This workshop was for anyone who works at the interface of risk analysis and policy. While the case studies were taken from food safety, they offer concrete lessons to risk analysts and managers in the public and private sectors on how to develop and integrate risk communication programs into the overall process of risk governance.
Presenters
Ortwin Renn has been full professor and chair of Environmental Sociology of the State University in Stuttgart (Germany) since 1994 and, since 2003, has also been director of the nonprofit company Dialogik, a research institute for the investigation of communication and participation processes in environmental policy making. He has also been (1993-2003) a member (and from 1999-2003, chair) of the board of directors at the Center of Technology Assessment in Stuttgart. He is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and is a member of the IRGC’s Scientific and Technical Council. He received the “Distinguished Achievement Award” from the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) in 2005. Renn serves on the Panel on “Pubic Participation in Environmental Policy Making” of the US-National Academy of Science in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the Risk Communication Advisory Group of the European Food Safety Authority.
Ragnar E. Lofstedt is Professor of Risk Management and the Director of King’s Centre of Risk Management, King’s College, London, UK where he teaches and conducts research on risk communication and management. He is also an adjunct Professor at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis at Harvard School of Public Health, an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Public Sector Research, Gothenburg University, Sweden. Dr. Lofstedt has conducted research in risk communication and management in such areas as renewable energy policy, transboundary environmental issues, telecommunications, biosafety, and the siting of building of incinerators, nuclear waste installations and railways. He is on the Society for Risk Analysis-Europe’s Executive Committee and is the previous chair of the Society for Risk Analysis’ Risk Communication Specialty Group. He also is the external chair of the European Food Safety Authority’s risk communication advisory group. In December 2000, Dr. Lofstedt was the first non-American awarded the Chauncey Starr Award for exceptional contributions to the field of risk analysis by the Society for Risk Analysis.
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