ASI-I Project Description

The Arctic Social Indicators Project (ASI)

ASI-I PROJECT DESCRIPTION

ASI work in progress:
ASI Executive draft summary prepared for the SDWG meeting, October 24-25, 2008 in Tromsø. Includes preliminary draft recommendations.

Work Plan
A first meeting to discuss the concept and idea of Arctic social indicators and the feasibility of establishing an indicator working group took place at the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II) in Copenhagen on November 12th, 2005.  The meeting included broad representation from the Arctic social science community, with representatives from the policy and Arctic indigenous community also in attendance.  The outcome of the meeting was the unanimous and enthusiastic support for the importance and feasibility of an indicator working group.

The goal of the proposed follow-up to the AHDR is to weigh the relative merits of a range of proposed indicators of human development in the Arctic, to select a number of indicators that seem most likely to prove successful in this context, to “test" or "calibrate" indicators with existing data and in discussions with representatives from various Arctic communities , and to recommend a particular course of action in this realm to the Arctic Council and its Working Group on Sustainable Development. As such, the project covers the developmental stage in a long-term effort to measure and monitor human development on an integrated basis in the circumpolar Arctic.

The first step in pursuing the goal of developing Arctic social indicators will be the establishment of a working group that will be given the task of constructing a set of clearly defined indicators suitable for measuring change in terms of human development in the Arctic.

The next step in pursuing the goal will be the organization of a workshop, to take place in the summer of 2006, involving approximately 25 participants, several of whom have been involved in the production of the AHDR, and including representatives from a wide selection of Arctic communities as well as social scientists who are knowledgeable about the Arctic and who have a good understanding of the nature and uses of social indicators. The set of participants in this initial workshop will include representatives of the UN Development Programme – the agency responsible for calculating the HDI – and individual scientists with experience in the creation and application of social indicators in other settings as well as a number of experts on conditions prevailing in the Arctic. The goal of this meeting will be to devise a number of candidate indicators suitable for testing during the second stage of the project.  Participants will bring draft work on indicators to this meeting.

A second workshop will be planned for the summer of year 2007, the purpose of this follow-up workshop being to gather the working group to continue scientific collaboration and discuss progress so far.

A third meeting of the working group will take place at the Sixth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IV) in Nuuk, Greenland, summer 2008, during the International Polar Year (IPY).  The goal is to have the set of indicators completed in time for presentation and discussion at the 2008 ICASS conference.  Subsequent to ICASS, the report on Arctic Social Indicators will be finalized, with webification by summer, 2008.

Working Group
A working group will be established and given the task of constructing a set of clearly defined indicators suitable for measuring change in terms of human development in the Arctic region.  As outlined above, the working group will have broad representation from the scientific community, communities of Arctic inhabitants, and the UN Development Programme.

Management procedures
Project leader & project manager: Joan Nymand Larsen, Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland.
Co-project leader: Peter Schweitzer, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Secretariat
A secretariat will be established to coordinate and support the work of the AHDR indicator working group.  The secretariat will be located in Akureyri, Iceland, at the Stefansson Arctic Institute.  The Stefansson Arctic Institute also hosted and operated the AHDR secretariat.  

Assessment
 Assessment is of critical importance in order to ensure the utmost scientific credibility.  There will be a number of components to the project’s assessment strategy:

Assessment will include a peer review process, involving social scientists who are experts in the subject matters, with these reviewers being identified later in the project.

In year 2007 the working group will "test" or "calibrate" indicators with existing data and in discussions with representatives from various Arctic communities.  Community and indigenous feedback on the indicators will be a critical part of the evaluation process. The process for feedback from indigenous people and Arctic communities will be formulated after the working group has been formally established. The working group will also invite feedback from members of the Sustainable Development Working Group of the Arctic Council. Additional components of the evaluation process will be formulated in conjunction with the working group once established. 

Audience
The report on Arctic social indicators will be directed at a broad audience, including the science community, inhabitants of the Arctic, policymakers at all levels, and in particular the Arctic Council and its SDWG.

Dissemination
The principal product of this project will be a report which will be made accessible as a web publication initially.  Subsequent to this, the plan is to seek funding to follow up with a book version of this report, featuring the results of the working group on Arctic Social Indicators.

Time line
The duration of this project is estimated at 2.5 years.

  • Secretariat to be established in January 2006 and based at the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland.
  • Indicator working group to be established by February 2006.
  • Project proposal, the concept and idea of Arctic social indicators, goals and objectives, to be presented to the SDWG of the Arctic Council at its March/April 2006 meeting.
  • First meeting of the working group to take place in the summer/fall of 2006. Preliminary work to be presented and discussed at this meeting.
  • Draft versions of the working group to be circulated for comments (including review process) in January 2007.
  • Second meeting of the working group to take place in the summer of 2007.
  • Fall of 2007 – consultations in/with Arctic communities.
  • Peer review of working group results in winter of 2007.
  • Participants of the working group will meet at the Sixth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IV) in Nuuk, Greenland, in summer 2008, during the International Polar Year (IPY).  The goal is to have the set of indicators completed in time for presentation and discussion in a session at the spring 2008 ICASS conference.
  • Webification of report on Arctic Social Indicators in 2008 following final editing based on last round of review and feedback gathered at ICASS IV.
  • Publication in Nordic Council of Ministers’ publication series in 2008.
  • Subsequent to webification, funding will be sought for publication of book version of the report.

The development of the AHDR was a timely initiative. The scope and significance of the report have been recognized and widely praised both among those concerned with Arctic affairs and among those who deal with human development in the world at large.  The report is currently being translated into both Russian and Finnish, with translation into Sámi language in the planning stages - a reflection of the importance of this work in science, as well as policy and educational settings.  The proposed follow-up to the AHDR - the development of a suite of Arctic social indicators - is an equally important initiative. It is a task that is long overdue, and which promises to fill a critical gap in knowledge, specifically the establishment of a tool for tracking and monitoring change in human development in the Arctic over time. The creation of indicators can benefit a wide range of stakeholders, including those involved in Arctic policy making processes, residents of the North, as well as those engaged in the Arctic social sciences.