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Promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in standards and standards development


BSI is rightly proud of its multi-stakeholder, consensus-building approach to developing standards, one that has been copied around the world and forms the basis of the international standards system. It draws on knowledge and experience from a wide range of sources including industry, government, consumers, academics, environmental organizations, charities. But could the prevailing view of which


stakeholders are relevant and what level of diversity is required mean participation is not as diverse as it could be? And if it isn’t, are valuable inputs being missed and are standards being developed that don’t serve or benefit everyone equally? “We want a rich diversity of people on our committees, not just for the sake of diversity but because it intrinsically benefits the standards development process and its output – the standards,” said Stephanie Eynon, Head of Standards-Makers Engagement & Inclusion at BSI. “Research shows that more diverse groups are better at problem-solving and decision-making, and more creative.”


While these sentiments will be widely


shared in BSI and among its network of standards-makers, the fact remains that BSI committees are not as diverse as they could be despite everybody’s good intentions. “To make the standards-making process the best it can be, we have to include diversity of thought, perspective, knowledge and experience. We must be explicit and intentional about wanting to ensure we are making standards better by making sure they equally benefit everyone,” says Stephanie.


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She points to research carried out by the ISO/IEC Joint Strategic Advisory Group on Gender Responsive Standards that showed fewer committees were discussing the implications of gender differences than those that weren’t. “This indicates we need to understand


how we can encourage committees to explicitly consider the implications of gender differences, as well as other human differences, based on who will be affected by the standard as well as the needs of different potential standards users,” said Stephanie. A recent real-world example of what can happen if human differences aren’t considered is the problem of pulse oximeters over-estimating blood oxygen levels in non- white patients at three times the rate they do so in white patients. “Bias is a cognitive flaw that exists in all of us,“ says Stephanie. “It may have originated for good reasons, perhaps to identify threats, but it doesn’t always serve us well. We all bring our backgrounds with us; experiences, education, upbringing, and we need to be intentional in exploring what


we don’t know, about asking what we might not be seeing.” Last year BSI launched a new approach


to recruitment of committee members and chairs which aims to be more transparent, broaden the outreach and encourage more diverse candidates to come forward. It addresses some of the challenges people faced but there is still more work to be done, says Stephanie. “We are taking steps towards our core goals of enabling an inclusive standards development process and environment which will enable us to reap all the benefits of diversity – and when we say diversity we mean of organizations, stakeholders and individuals. “We want more diversity on committees because we know this will lead to better standards, but we also want to become more systematically and consistently explicit


Research shows that more diverse groups are better at problem- solving and decision- making, and more creative


about better understanding how a standard may have differential impacts on different communities. This will ensure we create standards that equally benefit everyone. “More diversity can help increase the


likelihood that we will understand how a standard might differently impact different groups. However, it is the responsibility of all of us engaged in standards development to make sure we are asking the right questions and enabling every voice to be heard. “This is a journey we are still on, making


Stephanie Eynon


incremental improvements. As with any transformation, you do, review, learn and go again. It’s not a straight line and there is no magical silver bullet solution, it’s a continuous process that needs to be ongoing and needs to stay abreast of the ways in which we are changing as a society. We are seeing progress but there is still work to be done.”


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