Stakeholder Analysis
After you’ve engaged in the process of problem analysis and thereby identified the overriding problem and its constraints, causes, and effects, you need to consider whom the problem most affects and the roles and interests of different stakeholders in addressing the problem and reaching solutions.
The purpose of a stakeholder analysis is to:
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•better address the distributional and social impacts of projects, programs, and policies
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•identify existing or potential conflicts and to factor appropriate mitigation strategies into your methodology
Stakeholder analysis is thus about asking the questions “Whose problem?” and “Who will benefit?”
Stakeholder analysis involves several key elements:
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•Identifying the major stakeholders (these can be various levels—local, regional, national)
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•Investigating their roles, interests, relative power and desire to participate
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•Identifying the extent of cooperation or conflict in the relationships among stakeholders
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•Determining how the findings of the analysis should be incorporated into your overall funding effort and your project’s methodology
When examining the stakeholders, you should distinguish between the “target group” and the broader group of stakeholders (the target group being one of the major stakeholders). The target group can usefully be called the “Beneficiaries,” since this group (which most directly suffers from the overriding problem and effects your project intends to address) will receive the majority of benefits subsequent to your project’s execution.
Target Group
The target group includes those who are directly affected by the overriding problem and who might benefit from your solving or addressing the problem. Within any geographic area and within any “community,” there will always be considerable differences in people’s access to resources and opportunities. Some individuals and groups will be benefiting from the existing social, political, or economic relationships and some will not. It is therefore important to gain some understanding about how different groups within the community are affected by your project’s overriding problem.
Similarly, once you choose a particular intervention, some groups will benefit more than others. By understanding this reality, you can better assess the project’s risks related to its likely social and political support and opposition. You can then devise strategies to counter opposition and/or strengthen support.
The groups who might be specifically considered in any such analysis would depend on the nature of the problem, but could include:
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•Men/women
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•Rich/poor
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•Young/old
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•Small-scale/large-scale farmers
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•Rural/urban dwellers
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•Landowners/landless
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•Farmers/traders
Each of these groups should be clearly defined so that there is little ambiguity about whose problem you are addressing.
Other Stakeholders
In addition to the Target Group (the “Beneficiaries”), stakeholders might include government or private agencies (or groups) who have an interest in, or a responsibility for, addressing the overriding problem. These other stakeholders might include individuals, communities, institutions, commercial groups or policy makers. Certainly included within the category “Other Stakeholders” are your “Sponsors,” those individuals, within your organization and/or at the funding agency, who have some authority for approving your project and obtaining its funding. In designing your project, you should analyze their roles, interests, and desire to participate.
In complicated projects with a large number of and varied stakeholders, you will find it helpful to use a Stakeholder_Matrix.
