Data-driven subnational decision-making in the Arctic: the standards of data applicability and understandability

This policy paper is about messages subnational policymakers, managers, and experts would like to convey to data and knowledge producers in the Arctic.

The language of science and research, with its intricate and academic terminology, is yielding to the language of everyday communication. This phenomenon is not a reflection of the literacy level of policymakers in the Arctic but rather the result of municipal managers’ inability to spare additional time to use dictionaries or seek assistance from scientific institutions in interpreting the incoming data and knowledge. Consequently, overly technical reports, with an abundance of numbers and formulas, inhibit the decision-making processes and contribute to the need for additional work for municipal managers, who are tasked with translating data and scientific reports to fit requirements for policymakers.

Moreover, the scope of work of municipal managers also includes ongoing communication with policymakers,
necessitating their understanding of not only the content of scientific output(s) or data but also the data
background and methodologies applied in its collection. The consultations conducted by the University of Lapland Arctic PASSION team with local/regional stakeholders indicated that existing approaches to data and report production are unsuitable for stakeholders who lack an extensive academic background. The purpose of this policy paper is to elaborate on the primary messages about data/reports production received by the University of Lapland team from subnational managers and decisionmakers. The overall message includes the request for R&D projects, such as Arctic PASSION, to have a “human face -simple and attentive to local needs” in scientific outcomes and products that will be disseminated to municipal and regional administrations across the Arctic.

The policy paper builds on insights obtained through semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders from all Arctic states (except for Russia), as well as on a session and workshop organised by the Arctic PASSION during the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference
in November 2023.

In addition, this policy paper includes an overview of the distribution of responsibilities between different levels of governance and different departments and agencies with respect to the issues of relevance for Arctic PASSION pilot services, including wildfires, lake ice, shipping safety and ambient air quality. Also, national, regional and local policies and legislation relevant to these issues are indicated. The need to have a better overview of the local and regional authorities’ responsibilities for various sectors and problems was also raised as a gap by subnational decision-makers during the aforementioned workshop at the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference. We hope, therefore, that this overview serves Arctic PASSION pilot services in further identification of decision-makers relevant for their work as well as contributes – albeit in a small way - to the cooperation between Arctic municipalities and regions by allowing decision-makers to understand better the role of municipal and regional authorities in governing different Arctic challenges.

Key findings: 

• The databases available on an international and national level, as well as the individual data submitted to municipalities, may not always apply to the structural and developmental features specific to each municipality. In many instances, it is not feasible to downscale data to a concrete locality. This situation necessitates that municipal administrations undertake additional efforts to gather more locally applicable data, which can be an arduous and resource-intensive process.

• The use of technical jargon in data reports provided to municipalities has been identified as a potential barrier to full comprehension of the information by policymakers, who typically lack a technical background.

• The key responsibility of experts operating in the environmental, climate, and sustainability departments of municipal administrations is to receive data, reproduce it, and explain to policymakers why the data and the issue at hand are significant and actionable. Having socio-economic conclusions in data reports related to a particular community in question is essential for making further decisions based on the provided data as much actionable as possible.

• Data sources and collection methodologies form the data background to which many policymakers pay attention in their interactions with subnational civil servants and municipal experts. That emphasises the significance of ensuring that data is collected and reported transparently and consistently, especially when used in the context of policymaking.