Stockholder Analysis

The two key objectives of stakeholder analysis are:

- to improve the effectiveness of policies and projects, by explicitly considering stakeholders interests, identifying and dealing with conflicts and considering the potential for compromise
- to better address the distributional and social impacts of policies and projects by assessing separately the interests of, and impacts on, different stakeholders, with consideration also being given to trade-offs between different objectives.

Stakeholder analysis is particularly relevant to environmental or natural resource management problems for a number of reasons:

- the boundaries of these systems and problems cut across social, economic and political units, making it likely that a large number and variety of different stakeholders will be involved
- environmental problems are frequently associated with externalities, costs borne by stakeholders other than the decision-maker, so need to be looked at holistically
- many natural resources are held as common property or opne access with multiple users
- temporal trade-offs between present and future uses of natural resources are important
- natural resources may have competing incompatible uses.

A variety of key concepts and procedures for stakeholder analysis have been proposed. One version, primarily for practical design of aid projects, stresses the distinction between primary stakeholders who will directly benefit from (or be harmed by) projects, and secondary stakeholders. Primary stakeholders in a rangeland project might be, for example, commercial ranchers and traditional pastoralists; secondary stakeholders would include various ministries, parastatals, private input suppliers and the donors. This version goes on to stress the different potentials of stakeholders to affect project success, and their different degrees of interest in so doing, and the sorts of participation the project will require of them.

Another version involves more sustained analysis (which can use both qualitative methods like PRA and quantitative methods) to identify stakeholders and their interests, and then the potential conflicts and trade-offs that can occur. Conflicts and trade-offs can be categorised as:

- macro-macro (e.g. between policy objectives)
- macro-micro (between national and local interests)
- micro-macro (between users of a resource and those who suffer the externalities), and
- micro-micro (between different sets of local users)

Once identified, and if data is available, trade-offs can be considered quantitatively using tools from environmental economics.

Key References

DFID, 1993. Guidance Note on how to do Stakeholder Analysis of Aid Projects and Programmes, London, DFID.
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/public/what/advisory/group7/pdf/sddstak1.pdf. Click here to view Acrobat file

DFID, 1993. Note on Enhancing Stakeholder Participation in Aid Activities, London, DFID.
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/public/what/advisory/group7/pdf/sddstak3.pdf. Click here to view Acrobat file

Grimble, R., Chan, M-K., Aglionby, J. and Quan, J. 1995. Trees and Trade-Offs: A Stakeholder Approach to Natural Resource Management, IIED Gatekeeper Series No.2.

Grimble, R. and Wellard, K. 1997. Stakeholder Methodologies in Natural Resource Management: a Review of Principles, Contexts, Experiences and Opportunities. Agricultural Systems, Vol.55, No.2 pp.173-193.

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