Stakeholder Analysis

• Identify and define the characteristics of key stakeholders;
• Draw out the interests of stakeholders in relation to the problems that the project is seeking to address;
• Identify conflicts of interests between stakeholders;
• Help to identify relations between stakeholders that may enable "coalitions" of project sponsorship, ownership and cooperation;
• Assess the capacity of different stakeholders and stakeholder groups to participate;

Step by Step

1. Identifying major stakeholder groups:
   • Identify the general development of the project as it is expected to be held.
   • Identify the groups that have a significant interest in the project (Stakeholders), they can be individuals, groups, communities, organizations, etc.
   • Define the interests and agenda of the agency directing the exercise. This can be redressed later in the process by allowing the inclusion of more stakeholders as their interest comes to light.
2. Determining interests, importance and influence:
   • Investigate roles, relative power and capacity to participate in the project, in order to draw out key interests for each stakeholder group in the initial list. Key questions could include:
     • What are the contribution the stakeholder can give to the project and what resources is it likely to commit (or avoid committing) to the project?
     • What interest the stakeholder has in the project and what are the benefits it can get?
     • What are the stakeholder expectations and requirements to the project?
     • What other interests does the stakeholder have that may conflict with the project?
     • What actions can be taken to address its interest?

       The use of a stakeholder map can be useful to collect all of this information in a more methodical way.

   • Assess the influence and importance of each stakeholder considered in the previous step.

     Influence refers to how powerful a stakeholder is; importance refers to those stakeholders whose problems, needs and interests coincide with the aims of the project. Also the relationship between stakeholders has to be observed, to outline the extent of cooperation and or conflict between them. This information should be organized in a Matrix, that is a useful tool to conduct a more effective analysis.

3. Establishing strategies for involvement:
   • Interpret the findings of the previous analysis and incorporate relevant information in the project design, in order to plan strategies
   • Manage and coordinate arrangements appropriately to promote stakeholder ownership, participation, and conflicts of interest
   • Partnerships should be flexible and designed to grow. Where the stakeholder is a group rather than an individual, you may need to decide whether all in the group participate or only representatives of the group. ^[2]

Creating the Matrix

This is where stakeholders are plotted against different variables, in particular the elements taken into consideration are the importance of each stakeholder and his influence in the project.

In the boxes A,B,C,D the stakeholder should be listed considering their relevance as influence as follows:

• Box A

  These are stakeholders with a medium to high degree of influence on the project, who are also of medium/high importance for its success. This implies that the implementing organization will need to construct good working relationships with these stakeholders, to ensure an effective coalition of support for the project. Examples might be the senior officials and politicians or trade unions.

• Box B

  These are stakeholders of medium or high importance to the success of the project, but with low or not known influence. This implies that they will require special initiatives if their interests are to be protected. An example may be traditionally marginalised groups (e.g. Indigenous people, youth, seniors), who might be beneficiaries of a new service, but who have little ‘voice’ in its development.

• Box C

  These are stakeholders with medium to high influence, who can therefore affect the project outcomes, but whose interests are not necessarily aligned with the overall goals of the project. They might be financial administrators, who can exercise considerable discretion over funding disbursements. This conclusion implies that these stakeholders may be a source of significant risk, and they will need careful monitoring and management.

• Box D

  The stakeholders in this box, with low or unknown influence on, or importance to the project objectives, may require limited monitoring or evaluation, but are of low priority ^[3]

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