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;

The main steps involved in stakeholder analysis are:

• Identification of the general development problem or opportunity being addressed and/or considered;
• Identification of all those groups who have a significant interest in the project;
• Investigation of roles, different interests, relative power and capacity to participate;
• Identifiation of the extent of cooperation or conflict in the relationship between stakeholders; and
• Interpretation of the findings of the analysis and incorporate relevant information into project design to help ensure that resources are appropriately targeted to meet objectives and needs of priority groups; management and coordination arrangements are appropriate to promote stakeholder ownership and participation; conflicts of stakeholders interest are recognized and explicitly addressed in project design.

Steps

1. Identifying major stakeholder groups: Identification of the general development problem or opportunity being addressed and/or considered, and of the groups that have a significant interest in the project (Stakeholders). They can be individuals, groups, communities, organizations, etc. Stakeholder analysis is aimed at enhancing stakeholder involvement in participatory processes, prior to their actual involvement in decision-making activities. Thus stakeholders do not usually participate in this process. However, since stakeholder identification has consequences, analyses are likely to reflect 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.

1. Determining interests, importance and influence: Investigation of 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 likely expectations of the project by the stakeholder?
• What benefits are there likely to be for stakeholders?
• What resources are the stakeholders likely to commit (or avoid committing) to the project?
• What other interests does the stakeholder have that may conflict with the project?
• How does the stakeholder regard others on the list?

Next, assess the influence and importance of each stakeholder on the project. 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.

1. Establishing strategies for involvement: Interpretation of the findings of the previous analysis permits to plan strategies for approaching and involving each person or group. Management and coordination arrangements are appropriate to promote stakeholder ownership and participation and conflicts of stakeholders interest are recognized and explicitly addressed in project design. In order to obtain the wished results there is no need to involve reluctant stakeholders, and stakeholders may change their level of involvement as the process continues. Thus, 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]

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