Public Participation and Working with Stakeholders

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Public Participation andWorking with Stakeholders

• Dr. Mark Watson
• Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick Co. Ltd

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Presentation Structure

• Part I - Principles of Public Participation
• Part II Tools and Methods for Stakeholder
  Consultation

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PART I

• Principles of Public Participation
• Definitions
• Importance of stakeholder participation
• How/why people participate

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Definitions

• Participation is defined as
• A process through which stakeholders influence
  and share control over development initiatives
  and the decisions and resources which affect them
• 
  (World Bank)
• A Stakeholder can be defined as
• Any individual, community, group or organisation
  with an interest in the outcome of a
  programme/project, either as a result of being
  affected by it positively or negatively, or by
  being able to influence the activity in a
  positive () or negative (x) way
  
• (DFID)

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Stakeholder Participation

• Stakeholder Participation is defined as
• The participation of all relevant stakeholders in
  the development process, including the poor,
  Government, NGOs, private sector etc.) with an
  interest in outcomes

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Types of Stakeholder

• There are 3 main types of stakeholder
• Key stakeholders those who can significantly
  influence or are important to the success of an
  activity.
• Example Rural Roads Project
• Local politicians
• Village leaders

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3 main types of stakeholder

• Primary stakeholders
• Those individuals and groups who are ultimately
  affected by an activity, either as beneficiaries
  (positive impact) or dis-beneficiaries (negative
  impact).
• Example Rural Roads Project
• Primary stakeholders may include
• - small farmers and traders who are positively
  impacted by a new road
• - households who are adversely affected (e.g.
  relocation due to road widening)

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3 main types of stakeholder

• Secondary stakeholders
• All other individuals or institutions with a
  stake, interest or intermediary role in the
  activity.
• Example Rural Roads Project
• Secondary stakeholders could include
• Local transport providers
• Public transport workers
• Ministry of Transport
• NGOs
• Funders
• Etc.

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Stakeholder participation is important in
plan-making because it helps implementation

• Taking stakeholders views into account -
  particularly in relation to project/strategic
  objectives and how they are to be achieved -
  helps in achieving the plans aim
• Enhancing stakeholder participation aims to
  strengthen local ownership of a plan.
• From a planners perspective, it increases the
  likelihood that plans will be effective and
  sustainable
• More effective in drawing on a wide range of
  interested parties, the prospects for appropriate
  project design and commitment are likely to be
  maximised
• More sustainable people are more likely to be
  committed to carrying on an activity after aid
  stops and are more able to do so since
  participation builds their skills and confidence

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How do people participate?The Participation
Steps(Petts, J, 1999)
Citizen Control
Delegated power
Participation
Consultation
Information Provision
Manipulation
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PART IITools for Stakeholder Consultation

• Deciding on a strategy
• Identifying and managing stakeholders
• Methods for consulting stakeholders

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Deciding on a Strategy for Consultation

• It is important to develop a consultation
  strategy not just a series of one-off events
• A strategy helps planners obtain more of the
  information they need
• It helps educate stakeholders and planners so
  that it is easier to implement the completed plan
• Questions that need to be asked
• What information do I need to develop my
  Plan/strategy?
• Who do I need to consult?
• When do I need to consult them?
• How or what methods can I use?

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Principles to apply

• Ideally a stakeholder consultation strategy
  should
• Begin early in the preparation of a plan/strategy
• Be broadly representative
• Continue throughout at multiple stages in the
  preparation and implementation of the strategy
• Be a two-way process (information exchange for
  all parties including planners)
• Include a right of reply
• Include feedback from the planners to the
  stakeholders

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Stakeholder Analysis

• A tool used in the design and management of
  policy development programmes to identify
• The interests of all stakeholders who may affect
  or be affected by a policy/ programme
• Potential conflicts and risks that could
  jeopardise a programme
• Opportunities and relationships to build upon in
  implementing a programme to help make it a
  success
• The groups that should be encouraged to
  participate in different stages of the activity
  cycle
• Ways to improve the programme and reduce, or
  hopefully remove, negative impacts on vulnerable
  and disadvantaged groups

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When should a Stakeholder Analysis be carried out?

• It should be primarily used at the
  Identification, Design and Appraisal stages in
  the Project Cycle, but should be undertaken
  throughout the life of a project because it
  fulfils different functions at different stages-
• Identification stage purpose is to undertake
  preliminary identification of key stakeholders
  and decide how to involve them in design and
  appraisal
• Design and appraisal used as a basis for design
  and risk analysis
• Inception used to plan the involvement of
  different stakeholders in start-up
• Implementation used to ensure effective
  stakeholder involvement and to monitor key
  stakeholders opposed to it
• Evaluation to review analyses undertaken and to
  use them in planning the involvement of different
  stakeholders in reviewing and evaluating the
  policy or activity

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How to do it

• 3 basic steps
• Identify the main stakeholders and the reasons
  for their interest in the policy or activity
  using a Stakeholder Table
• Identify the influence and importance of each and
  show them in a matrix
• Identify the risks that may affect policy or
  activity design and discuss how they can be
  addressed

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How to do it

• A variety of techniques can be used to identify
  stakeholders, including
• Workshops (one of the most successful)
• Individual interviews
• Focus groups
• Whatever approach is used, the aim is to identify
  all key stakeholders and to be aware of their
  potential impact on the policy or activity

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How to do it

• To identify potential conflicts and risks
• E.g. A flood control policy could benefit farmers
  through increased yields, but it may adversely
  affect fishermen whose catches go down. The
  fishermen could try to block the policy by
  breaching embankments
• To identify opportunities and relationships to
  build upon in implementing a policy to help make
  it a success
• In many cases, success depends on building
  supportive links between stakeholders
• To identify groups that could be encouraged to
  participate in different stages
• E.g. in a rural livelihoods project, rural poor
  are key stakeholders. NGOs could be key to
  involve at different stages providing local
  knowledge and outreach

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Stakeholder Table
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Who should be involved in undertaking stakeholder
analysis?

• Undertaken with all stakeholders where possible
• Judgement needed if stakeholders are widely
  dispersed over an area
• But, need to guard against skewing analysis by
  failing to take account of different views simply
  because stakeholders may be hard to reach!
• Key Learning Point
• If in doubt, expand your planning horizon rather
  than exclude legitimate stakeholders

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Checklist for identifying stakeholders -
representativeness

• Have all primary and secondary stakeholders been
  listed?
• Have all potential supporters and opponents of
  the project been identified?
• Have primary stakeholders been divided into
  user/occupational or income groups?
• Have different types of female stakeholders been
  identified (using gender analysis)?
• Have the interests of vulnerable groups
  (especially the poor) been identified?
• Are there any likely new primary or secondary
  stakeholders that are likely to emerge as a
  result of the project?

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Group Exercise

• Working in teams of 4-6, complete a Stakeholder
  Table for YSDAP
• 30 minutes to complete
• Only list the main stakeholders (do not try to
  determine whether they are key, primary or
  secondary)
• Draw an outline table select up to 10 main
  stakeholders, using Post-Its. Complete each
  section in discussion with members of your group
• Check that no important stakeholders have been
  missed out if they have, add them in and
  complete the other columns
• Present findings group discussion

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Influence and Importance

• Influence is the power a stakeholder has to
  facilitate or impede the achievement of a plans
  objectives
• Importance refers to stakeholders whose
  problems, needs or interests are the priority of
  a plan
• EXAMPLE Rural livelihoods project
• Local politicians may have a great influence over
  the project by facilitating (or impeding)
  allocation of resources, while the rural poor may
  have very little power to influence the outcome
  of the project.
• At the same time, local politicians may have very
  little importance as far as the project is
  concerned (since it is not designed to meet their
  needs), while the rural poor are very important
  and central to it.

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Table of Importance and Influence
Example Rural Livelihoods Project
Key 1 very little importance/influence 5
very great importance/influence
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Importance/Influence Matrix
High Importance/Low Influence
High Importance/High Influence
Low Importance/Low Influence
Low Importance/High Influence
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Importance/Influence Matrix

• Boxes A, B, and C
• Key stakeholders have significant influence or
  are most important to meeting projects
  objectives
• Box A
• High importance, low influence require special
  initiatives if their interests are to be
  protected

• Box B
• High importance, high influence programme
  managers need to develop close relationships to
  ensure strong support
• Box C
• High influence, but interests not target of
  project. May block activities and could be
  risk to projects success.
• Box D
• Low priority but may need monitoring. Unlikely
  to be focus of programme

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Importance/Influence Matrix DFID Icitrap
Training Project
High Importance/Low Influence
High Importance/High Influence
Low Importance/Low Influence
Low Importance/High Influence
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DFID Icitrap Training Project

• Primary
• Lower income men and women smallholders
• Women
• Cash crop producers
• Forest adjacent dwellers
• Large landowners and cattle owners
• Fisher folk and processors
• Market traders
• Public service vehicle owners
• Secondary
• Ministry of Forests and Environment

• 10. Yram Fuel Wood Project
• Ekim Natural Resources College
• Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife
• Ministry of Agriculture
• National Cattle Breeding Programme
• Ministry of Water and Fisheries
• Department of Womens Development
• AFCON Nkonia
• Anglican Diocese of Ekim South
• Marivi Integrated Development Project
• EU
• World Bank
• Overseas training institutions

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Identifying Assumptions and Risks about
Stakeholders

• The success of a project depends partly on the
  validity of assumptions made about stakeholders
  and the risks facing the plan
• Planners must therefore identify (and assess the
  importance of) the most likely assumptions about
  each key stakeholder
• By assessing influence and importance of
  stakeholders, some risks will emerge from the
  matrix (particularly those in Box C low
  importance/high influence) but interests which
  are not in line with plan objectives. These may
  be blockers to the plan.

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Checklist for Identifying Assumptions and Risks

• What is the role or response of the key
  stakeholder that must be assumed if the project
  is to be successful?
• Are these roles realistic?
• Are there negative responses which can be
  expected, given the interests of the stakeholder?
• If so, what impact would they have on the
  project?
• How probable are these negative responses, and
  are they major risks?
• In summary, which likely assumptions about
  stakeholders support or threaten the plan?

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Other types of stakeholder analysis

• Whatever technique you use, it should be one that
  is useful and appropriate to the task/project
• Other types of stakeholder analysis tools
  include
• Participation matrix
• Impact/priority matrix
• Power and interest matrix
• Readiness/power matrix
• Problems/interests/linkages matrix
• Supportive/antagonistic/constructive/destructive
  matrix!

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Summary Participation Matrix (Icitrap Project)
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Risks and Pitfalls in Stakeholder Analysis

• Can go wrong
• No guarantee of success
• Jargon can be threatening
• Analysis only as good as information collected
  garbage in, garbage out
• Matrices can oversimplify complex situations
• Judgements often subjective
• Team working can be damaged if differences
  between groups, rather than common ground, are
  over-emphasised

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Methods for Participation

• A wide range of methods can be employed to engage
  the different stakeholder you have identified
• The analysis will also allow you to identify
  which are the most appropriate methods for each
  group for stakeholders
• Information giving/propaganda (media)
• Written
• Public meetings
• Surveys
• Workshops
• Public inquiries
• New media (Internet)
• Focus groups
• Citizens juries
• 
  deliberative participatory approaches

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Letters, Newsletters, Posters, Signboards

• Must be clear, relevant, accessible, attractive
• Whats the message?
• Whats the aim?
• Important to think about how to distribute the
  information
• Think about the target community

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Letters

• Formal method of communication
• Reaches large numbers
• Conveys an air of importance and perhaps more
  likely to be read
• Opportunity to convey an image of the
  organisation
• BUT
• Limited scope for making it interesting
• Will not reach those with reading difficulties

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Newsletters

• Valuable means of keeping stakeholders informed
  and in maintaining their interests
• Reach large numbers
• Inexpensive
• Opportunity to involve stakeholders in producing
  them
• BUT
• Interest can wane if not newsworthy
• Issues around literacy

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Posters and Signboards

• Can be used to convey simple information, timing
  of an event, or to make stakeholders aware
• Reach large numbers
• Design is all-important
• Placement is equally critical
• Signboards a useful way of answering
  stakeholders query of whats going on?
• BUT
• One-way

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Media Coverage

• e.g. Newspapers, TV, radio
• Local media can be highly effective - Newspapers,
  radio and TV can reach a large proportion of the
  population
• Overcomes the problems associated with written
  information
• BUT
• Message can be distorted or fail to come across
• May not be targeted at the desired audience a
  scattergun approach to communication

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Public Meetings

• Frequently the key element to governments
  consultation strategies
• Often ineffective and sometimes
  counterproductive to stakeholder participation
• Tend to be dominated by a vocal minority -
  difficult to build wider involvement
• Attendance often low
• Can generate rather than resolve conflict
• Certain groups may feel excluded
• BUT
• Can develop support around an issue if issue is
  clear-cut
• Useful as a way of summing-up the results of a
  consultation process, giving stakeholders a final
  word relating to that stage of a programme

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Surveys and Group Discussions

• Used as a means of
• Investigating concerns of a particular group
• Identifying options for action
• Informing policy making
• Assisting in the preparation of action plans

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Surveys

• Good at collecting opinions from individuals
• Capable of producing quantitative results
• Reach large numbers
• Capable of being structured to ensure results are
  representative of a particular group
• Often straightforward to undertake and analyse
• BUT
• Somewhat limited in the extent to which they can
  explore opinion in depth
• Can be expensive

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Group Discussions

• Valuable in that they can produce a collective
  answer to certain questions or to gauge peoples
  reactions to policy makers recommendations
• Can yield much more insight into particular
  issues
• BUT
• Will not produce quantitative data
• Views expressed may not be representative
• Require particular skills to be run effectively
• Involve more limited numbers

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Workshops

• Small group meetings used to explore issues,
  develop ideas and make decisions
• Highly effective mechanism for securing
  participation
• Used as an alternative to traditional public
  meetings
• Those attending quickly break down into small
  groups to discuss issues, rather than listening
  to presentations from officials

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Focus Groups

• Originally a market research technique
• Used to understand reasons for peoples opinions
• A controlled group discussion
• Group interaction key part of the process
• An extension of a focused, unstructured interview
  with small group of people
• BUT
• Difficult to analyse data common approach is to
  categorise data, based on key themes/concepts
• Limited numbers

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Citizens Jury

• Recent participatory approach to decision making,
  now widely used in Western Europe on a variety of
  issues (e.g. health care, GM crops, waste
  management)
• Decisions reached through interactive group
  discussions
• Involve use of expert witnesses to present
  information to jurors, allowing them to reach
  informed decisions at the end of the process
• Size ranges from 12, to 16-25 and larger
• Witnesses can be cross-examined by jury
• Jurors deliberate on information presented to
  them
• BUT
• Representativeness of jurors/bias
• Difficult to recruit balanced jury
• Witnesses could mislead jurors

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New Technologies

• Can create opportunities for bringing citizens
  into policy development process, through
  increasing communication between different
  interest groups
• Use of the Internet has been used to inform and
  interactively engage a wider audience
• Can be used as a means to facilitate a two-way
  communication channel, with IT and Internet
  literacy increasing all the time
• BUT
• Still considerable level of IT illiteracy/access
  to Internet
• May not reach target groups (especially in a
  development setting)