Stakeholder analysis

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Stakeholder analysis

• Diana Podar
• Roxana Costache

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What is a stakeholder?

• Any individual, group, or institution who has a
  vested interest in the natural resources of the
  project area and/or who potentially will be
  affected by project activities and have something
  to gain or lose if conditions change or stay the
  same.

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What is stakeholder analysis?

• Stakeholder analysis is a process of
  systematically gathering and analyzing
  qualitative information to determine whose
  interests should be taken into account when
  developing and/or implementing a policy or
  program.
• Stakeholder analysis identifies all primary and
  secondary stakeholders who have a vested interest
  in the issues with which the project or policy is
  concerned. The goal of stakeholder analysis is to
  develop a strategic view of the human and
  institutional landscape, and the relationships
  between the different stakeholders and the issues
  they care about most.

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Why stakeholder analysis is important and useful?

• A stakeholder analysis can help a project or
  programme identify
• The interests of all stakeholders who may
  affect or be affected by the programme/project
• Potential conflicts or risks that could
  jeopardise the initiative
• Opportunities and relationships that can be
  built on during implementation
• Groups that should be encouraged to participate
  in different stages of the project
• Appropriate strategies and approaches for
  stakeholder engagement and
• Ways to reduce negative impacts on vulnerable
  and disadvantaged groups.

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Which characteristics are analysed?

• Knowledge of the policy
• Interests related to the policy
• Position for or against policy
• Potential alliances with other stakeholders
• Ability to affect the policy process (power
  and/or leadership)

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Steps

• 1. Planning the process
• 2. Selecting and defining a policy
• 3. Identifying key stakeholders
• 4. Adapting the tools
• 5. Collecting and recording the information
• 6. Filling in the stakeholder table
• 7. Analyzing the stakeholder table
• 8. Using the information

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Step 1 Planning the Process

• The first step in conducting a stakeholder
  analysis is to define the purpose of the
  analysis, identify the potential users of the
  information, and devise a plan for using the
  information.
• Identify and train a working group - The sponsor
  of the activity should form a small working
  group (two to four people) whose members will be
  the interviewers and analysts for the stakeholder
  analysis.
• Develop a plan and timeline - the working group
  should identify the specific steps to be taken in
  conducting the analysis (following these
  guidelines) and establish a timeline for the
  process.

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Step 2 Selecting and Defining a Policy

• Policy is used to refer to any national,
  regional, local, or institutional project,
  program, law, regulation, or rule.
• The policy should be specific and definable.
• The policy should be socially and politically
  controversial so that it merits the investment of
  resources required to determine what aspects are
  controversial and to whom.
• The policy should be key to current reform
  efforts and important enough to justify the
  resources that will be needed to implement
  recommended actions that emerge from the analysis.

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Step 3 Identifying Key Stakeholders

• Compile and review existing information.
• Develop a list of all possible stakeholders.
• Develop a list of priority stakeholders with
  input from experts.

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Step 4 Adapting the Tools

• The following tools can be used for gathering and
  analyzing this information
• Definitions of stakeholder characteristics
• Stakeholder table
• Interview questionnaire and protocol
• Reference chart

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Definitions of stakeholder characteristics

• The working group should define the exact
  stakeholder information or characteristics to be
  considered. The following characteristics are
  usually included for each stakeholder
• I.D. number
• Position and organization
• Internal/external stakeholder
• Knowledge
• Position
• Interest
• Alliances
• Resources
• Power
• Leadership

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Stakeholder Characteristics and Table Titles
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Interview questionnaire and protocol

• Once the working group has chosen and defined key
  stakeholder characteristics, a standard
  questionnaire should be developed for
  interviewing stakeholders. The stakeholders
  should not complete the questionnaire themselves,
  but the interviewer should use the questionnaire
  to guide the conversation during the interview.
• Questions should be clearly stated, specific, and
  open-ended wherever possible, requiring the
  stakeholder to provide more than a simple yes
  or no answer.

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Reference chart

• This chart serves two purposes
• to provide a means of checking that all the
  stakeholder characteristics are covered in the
  interview questionnaire
• to aid the working group in transferring the
  information from the questionnaire to the
  stakeholder table.
• The reference chart should be developed after the
  interview questionnaire and the stakeholder table
  because it incorporates specific interview
  questions and the column titles used in the
  stakeholder table.

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Step 5 Collecting and Recording the Information

• Review existing information - any written or
  spoken statements regarding the stakeholders
  positions on the policy, any goals or objectives
  of the organizations the stakeholders represent,
  the position of the stakeholders within their
  organizations, and any data on the quantity or
  type of resources available to the stakeholders
  or their organizations.
• Make interview appointments - 12 weeks in
  advance
• Conduct interviews and record notes.

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Step 6 Filling in the Stakeholder Table

• Determine the stakeholders position.
• The position of each stakeholder can be
  established by analyzing the following
• Information directly reported by the stakeholder
  in the interviews
• Indirect information gathered through other
  stakeholders and secondary information (i.e.,
  othersperceptions)
• Interest information.

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Stakeholders position
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Fill in the resources column and create a power
index for each stakeholder.

• 3 the stakeholder can make decisions regarding
  the use of the resources in his or her
  organization or area
• 2 the stakeholder is one of several persons
  that can make decisions regarding the use of
  resources
• 1 the stakeholder cannot make decisions
  regarding the use of the resources.

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Step 7- Analysing the stakeholder table

• At this point of the process we can conclude
  which are the most important stakeholders, what
  is their knowledge of the policy, their
  interests, their position on the policy, their
  view on the possible advantages and disadvantages
  on the policy, etc.
• The "importance" of stakeholders is defined here
  as their ability to affect the implementation of
  the policy.
• Since power and leadership are the
  characteristics that determine a stakeholder's
  ability to affect or block the implementation of
  a policy, these two characteristics are the basis
  for the first "importance" analysis.
•  

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Thus, yet again, three stakeholder groups will
emerge

• Group 1 those who have leadership and high power
  (level 3)
• Group 2 those who have leadership and medium
  power (level 2)
• Group 3 those who do not have leadership but
  have high to medium power (level 2 or 3).

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• Some of the stakeholders may not fit into any of
  these groups, i.e., they may have no leadership
  and low power. Such stakeholders may be removed
  from the analysis at this point so that attention
  can be focused on those stakeholders within the
  power/leadership priority groups.
• The stakeholders' level of knowledge can be
  presented as a general conclusion, especially if
  it is similar for the majority of the
  stakeholders, or the stakeholders can be divided
  by their level of knowledge (1, 2, or 3).
• On the other hand, the information found in the
  knowledge data can be crossed with the
  power/leadership analysis to highlight the
  importance level of the stakeholders with a low
  knowledge level (this will result in an even
  smaller priority group for targeting
  communication strategies).
• By analysing the stakeholders positions, the
  following aspects can be determined total number
  of supporters, their level of importance,
  knowledge, advantages and disadvantages of policy
  implementation to the supporters, total number of
  opponents and so on.

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Step 8- Using the information

• To which stakeholders and under what
  circumstances the data are presented depends on
  the set of objectives stated at the beginning of
  the analysis( e.g. to develop action plans to
  increase support for a reform policy, or to guide
  a participatory, consensus-building process,
  etc.).
• The presentation may include a short introduction
  on the stakeholder analysis, but it should focus
  on the results of the analysis( a concise
  synthesis of the most relevant information) ,not
  on the process.

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• Who is important?
• One way to present the most important conclusions
  is to focus the presentation on the three groups
  that emerged from the power/leadership analysis

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Level of knowledge

• As suggested in Step 7, the knowledge data can be
  presented in two ways as a general conclusion,
  especially if the level of knowledge is similar
  for the majority of the stakeholders, or as a
  graphic representation of the three levels of
  knowledge (the graphic representation of the
  three knowledge groups is particularly useful in
  cross-referencing the power/leadership
  information with the use of colored boxes).

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• The level of interest may be represented as a
  list of advantages and disadvantages of the
  programs implementation or can be
  cross-referenced with the other levels of
  analysis, in order to obtain a more comprehensive
  image.
• presentation of key alliances may help identify
  those stakeholder clusters which may support or
  oppose the policy

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• additional results- in addition to the
  information listed on the stakeholder table,
  other information gained from the interviews can
  be used to develop key results and conclusions
• For example
• stakeholders who were not included in the
  priority list but were mentioned often by those
  interviewed
• suggestions for the implementation of the policy
• any expectations that the majority of the
  stakeholders have in relation to the policy

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Presenting the results
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Presentation of recommended strategies

• Finally, the working group presenters should
  always place the results within the context of
  recommended actions and next steps so that the
  sponsor and other policymakers or managers know
  how to use the results.
• To guide these follow-up actions, the working
  group should develop strategies to achieve the
  following five basic goals
• 1. Maintain the support of those stakeholders
  who are currently supporters
• 2. Increase power and leadership of the
  supporters
• 3. Convert the opponents to supporters
• 4. Weaken the power and leadership of the
  opponents
• 5. Convert the neutral stakeholders into active
  supporters (i.e., convince them to support the
  policy and increase their power and leadership
  where necessary).

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• The group can recommend that the following
  stakeholders be targeted for the first stage of
  strategy implementation
• Supporters with little power and leadership
  focus on ways of increasing the power and
  leadership of these stakeholders.
• Neutral stakeholders with medium to high power
  and leadership focus on convincing the
  takeholders to support the policy and increasing
  their power and leadership where necessary.
• Opponents with high power and leadership focus
  on negotiating for the opponents' support and
  decreasing their power and leadership if they
  remain opposed.

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Limits

• First of all, stakeholder analysis may be
  over-used, therefore, it must be mentioned that
  this method is not a purpose in itself and a
  representation of reality, not reality itself
  (Crosby, 1991 Hyder et al, 2010)
• Second of all, due to a dynamic environment and
  its cross-sectional character, it may become
  irrelevant and obsolete on the long-term
  (Varvasovszky Brugha, 2000)
• Finally, some biases in conducting and
  interpreting the analysis may occur, like the
  Hawthorne effect, implication bias( some
  stakeholders may be more willing to participate
  than others), conflicts between the stakeholders
  attitudes and principles and those of the company
  they belong, real disclosure level, etc.

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References

• Hyder, A., Syed S., Puvanachandra P., Bloom,
  G.,(2010). Stakeholder analysis for health
  research Case studies from low- and
  middle-income countries, Public Health,
  pp.159166. Retrieved from http//www.publichealth
  jrnl.com/article/S0033-350628102900003-X/pdf
• Schmeer, K., (1999). Stakeholder Analysis
  Guidelines , in Policy Toolkit for Strengthening
  Health Sector Reform, Abt Associates, Inc.,
  Bethesda, MD. Retrieved from http//www.who.int/en
  tity/management/partnerships/overall/GuidelinesCon
  ductingStakeholderAnalysis.pdf.
• Varvasovszky, Z., Brugha, R.(2000). Stakeholder
  analysis a review, Health Policy and Planning,
  Vol.15, pp. 239246. Retrieved from
  http//heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/3/239.
  short
• Varvasovszky, Z., Brugha, R.(2000). How to do(
  or not to do) A stakeholder analysis, Health
  Policy and Planning, Vol. 15, pp.338-45.
  Retrieved from http//heapol.oxfordjournals.org/co
  ntent/15/3/338.short