Stakeholder analysis will help you to:

• Identify people, groups and institutions that will influence your intervention

• Anticipate the kind of influence, positive or negative, they will have

• Develop strategies to get the most effective support possible for your intervention

How to use it:

Use the Stakeholder Analysis Matrix like the one below to help you step through the process:

• Stakeholder

• Stakeholder Interest(s) in the intervention

• Assessment of Impact

• Potential Strategies for obtaining support or reducing obstacles

Step 1

Organize group brainstorming. Identify all the people, groups, and institutions that will affect or be affected by your initiative and list them in the column under “Stakeholder.”

Step 2

Once you have a list of all potential stakeholders, review the list and identify the specific interests these stakeholders have in your project. Consider issues like: the project’s benefit(s) to the stakeholder; the changes that the project might require the stakeholder to make; and the project activities that might cause damage or conflict for the stakeholder. Record these under the column “Stakeholder Interest(s) in the Project.”

Step 3

Now review each stakeholder listed in column one. Ask the question: how important are the stakeholder’s interests to the success of the proposed project?

Consider the role the key stakeholder must play for the project to be successful, the likelihood that the stakeholder will play this role and the likelihood and impact of a stakeholder’s negative response to the project.

• Assign A for extremely important,

• B for fairly important, and

• C for not very important.

Record these letters in the column entitled “Assessment of Impact.”

Step 4

The final step is to consider the kinds of things that you could do to get stakeholder support and reduce opposition. Consider how you might approach each of the stakeholders. What kind of information will they need? How important is it to involve the stakeholder in the planning process? Are there other groups or individuals that might influence the stakeholder to support your initiative? Record your strategies for obtaining support or reducing obstacles to your project in the last column in the matrix.

Source: Managing For Quality – UNICEF