This report on deficits in the risk governance process is a continuation of the development of IRGC’s approach to risk governance. Central to this approach is the IRGC Risk Governance Framework, intended to help policymakers, regulators and risk managers in industry and elsewhere both understand the concept of risk governance and apply it to their handling of risks.
IRGC’s approach emphasises that risk governance is context-specific. A range of factors – including the nature of the risk itself, how different governments assess and manage risks, and a society’s level of acceptance or aversion to risk, among others – means that there can be no single risk governance process. The framework is therefore deliberately intended to be used flexibly.
The framework is central to IRGC’s work – from it stems the distinction made in this report between understanding and managing risks. However, in this report on risk governance deficits, IRGC is not assuming that readers are familiar with the framework. All explanations in this report are hence self-explanatory and do not presume prior knowledge of the IRGC framework or terminology.
In developing recommendations for improving the risk governance of such issues as nanotechnology, bioenergy, critical infrastructures, and carbon capture and storage, it became clear to IRGC that many deficits are common to several risk types and organisations; they recur, often with serious health, environmental and economic consequences, across different organisational types and in the context of different risks and cultures.
Identifying deficits in existing risk governance structures and processes is now another significant element of IRGC’s methodology. The concept of risk governance deficits – which can be either deficiencies or failures within risk governance processes or structures – complements the use of the framework itself with an analytical tool designed to identify weak spots in how risks are assessed, evaluated and managed. These weak spots are the focus of this report.
The purpose of this report is to introduce to managers in government and industry the concept of risk governance deficits, to list and describe the most common deficits, to explain how they can occur, to illustrate them and their consequences, and to provide a catalyst for their correction.

By: International Risk Governance Council (IRGC)

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