Leonor Sierra, Sense about Science Associate
What do a community leader in rural Kenya and a fishing safety facilitator in coastal Bangladesh have in common? Why are they interested in what an adviser to a village near Fukushima following the nuclear accident has to say? Whether it’s engaging with their community on climate change and the effects it has on rainfall patterns, explaining what a 1 in 100-year cyclone means, or communicating whether it is okay to drink tap water near Fukushima, these are all conversations about risk.
There are people around the world who take responsibility for these conversations in their communities, often with limited support or tools. These community practitioners develop effective ways of engaging, so they are uniquely placed to share what works and what doesn’t and to provide feedback about the usefulness, or otherwise, of data sources and resources.
There is now an important opportunity for members of the American Statistical Association to support such people and develop a practical framework for risk know-how that many of them are helping to forge.
Risk Know-How aims to support communities around the world as they navigate risk information, assessing benefits and trade-offs within their own context. Led by Sense about Science, an independent charity that champions the public interest in sound science and transparent use of evidence in policymaking, Risk Know-How is supported by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and colleagues at the Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk at the National University of Singapore. At the heart of this initiative is a commitment to facilitating a meaningful dialog about the gaps between high-level expectations and actual community experiences of risk.
A recent article in Significance magazine, “What Is Risk Know-How?”, co-authored by ASA K–12 Statistics Ambassador Christine Franklin, launched the risk know-how framework with accompanying real-life examples and comments from risk and statistics experts consulted in shaping it. Risk know-how is not about getting people to make decisions others approve of. It should, instead, emphasize protection against misinformation and misperception. It should encapsulate the concepts that equip people to access and deal with the same information, even if how they feel about it differs.
Over the last year, Sense about Science staff have been having conversations with community practitioners to gather their experiences and insights on risk and decision-making in daily life. Through this, they have discovered they find each other’s insights helpful to such conversations, even when they are dealing with very different issues in very different places.
Working with the practitioners and drawing from their real-world experiences, and in consultation with leading statisticians and risk experts, Sense about Science staff continue to develop the risk know-how framework. The addition of more experiences, insights, and challenges will aid the creation of a supportive platform for practitioner interaction and resource sharing. The platform will also provide useful experiences others can learn from.
Members of the American Statistical Association can help by sharing what tools and resources might be available and, especially, any experiences of testing them with communities. Sense about Science staff need tools that break down the statistical concepts to help people who want to be empowered to weigh reliable information and make decisions in a way that fits their circumstances. They also need resources tailored to people who find themselves at the center of risk discussions in their communities and help others to navigate information. By sharing and testing the framework and adding these experiences, Sense about Science will be in a position to respond to community needs sooner and better.
For each of the concepts set out in the risk know-how framework, Sense about Science staff want to further illustrate them with real-life examples and tools and resources used and tested at the community level. If you can think of such examples, tools, or resources, share them.
For more information about risk know-how, send an email to Risk Know-How.
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