Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder analysis is aimed at identifying and understanding stakeholders, their roles, interests, relationships and perceptions of problems. It is wise to clarify the main purpose of the stakeholder analysis from the start and agree on the criteria for assessing the stakeholders. Then list which criteria you will use to prioritise whom to involve. A participatory approach (in contrast to a purely academic analysis) enhances the forming of clusters of stakeholders who have a better understanding of each other and are willing to collaborate on certain issues. Discussions and visual outputs from the stakeholder analysis process should be recorded and shared within the project team and also with a wider group of stakeholders. A full analysis report, specific diagrams or summary documents should be considered as useful outputs for different audiences. [authors abstract]