1. Mapping
stakeholders and
policy environments
A Presentation to
TTI PEC Anglophone Africa Workshop
28 April 2014
Nicholas Benequista

2. Why map policy
stakeholders?
• Informs strategic and tactical decisions about
research and communication.
• Helps think tanks to be better interlocutors –
and better translators.
• Is a valuable form of research itself - a window
into larger issues – and essential for policy
analysis.

3. So where to start?

4. • What are the attitudes or misconceptions your
research has the potential to change or dispel?
• Which specific policies does your research have
the potential to influence?
• What are the issues that divide opinions in the
policy debate? What ideological direction is the
policy currently trending toward?
• Who supports the policy trend strongly,
moderately? Who opposes it? Which supporters
and which opponents are allied?
Begin with your researchers

5. • What are the different points through which
policies on this topic pass to become approved
and implemented?
• Which other actors informally influence those
policy paths? NGOs, activist groups, CBOs,
etc?
• Have you interacted with any of these actors?
How? How strong is your relationship with
them?
• What major events occurring in the next
eighteen months have the potential to influence
the policy environment?
More questions for
researchers

6. Define the issue and policy
• Angolan Decentralisation Policy
• Decree Law 02/07
• Budgetary Units
• Social Consultation and Coordination Councils
• The topic of decentralization is not
ideologically controversial, but the practice
can be, especially with regard to who is
selected to participate in the new forums

7. For more information
• Mapping political context, by ODI
• Successful communication: a toolkit for
researchers, also by ODI

8. Go deeper
• Desk-based: Find and read what you can on the
organisations and institutions your researcher
describes. You’ll find more as you investigate.
• Snowball: Ask the researchers who they think would
know more about the policy environment, and interview
them.
• Consultant: Hire a consultant who is involved in the
policy debates to carry out the mapping for you. The
mapping itself can be an opportunity for influence, and
these translators are crucial.
• Mapping Workshop: Get the right people in one room
for a few hours of participatory stakeholder mapping.

9. • Discursive changes: changes in language usage
• Procedural changes: changing how something is done
• Content changes: the actual letter of the law
• Attitudinal changes: changes in the perceptions of key
stakeholders
• Behavioural changes: changes in the way something
is achieved or approached
What is your policy
objective?

10. Techniques for stakeholder
mapping and policy context
analysis

11. Questions a policy mapping
can answer
• What is the problem that requires a policy
response?
• Who are the stakeholders in this problem and
what’s at stake for them?
• What are the various sites or venues where this
policy debate is occurring?
• How does the research need to be framed to be
relevant the current debate?
• How are you connected to all this?

12. Stakeholder Analysis
Interfaith
Mediation
Centre
Supreme
Council
For Islamic
Affairs
Christian
Association
Strategic
Empowerment
& Mediation
Agency
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Regional
Govts
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Emirate
Councils
Academic
Associate
Peace
Work
DFID
National
Institute
For
Policy
2007
Movement
Federal
Govt
Congress
For each actor,
write 1-2
sentence s
summarizing
their policy
interest/position
.

13. Who influences policy?
• Agenda setting: Donors, multi-laterals, regional
blocs, social movements, lobbyists and interest
groups…
• Decision-making: State officials, legislators,
congressional staff…
• Implementation: State agencies, NGOs,
private firms…
• Evaluation: Internal auditors, external
evaluators, civil society, the media…

14. Stakeholder analysis table
and matrix
Stakeholder Type of
stakeholder
Your
relationship?
Level of
influence: 1-
5
Disposition
towards
policy X
Actor A Advocacy None 3 Opposed….
Actor B Government Cooperative 4 Supportive…
High Power
Low Power
Low Interest High Interest
Interfaith
Mediation
Centre
Supreme
Council
For Islamic
Affairs
Christian
Association
Strategic
Empowerment
& Mediation
Agency
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Regional
Govts
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Interfaith
Mediation
Com’s
Emirate
Councils
Academic
Associate
Peace
Work DFID

15. Policy Axes/Areas
Service Delivery
RightsNaripokkho
Nijera Kori
Samata
BSK
KN
Grameen
Brac
ASA
Proshika
Basic Needs
Social Mobilisation
ASK
RDRS
Buro
Tangail

16. Policy Network
ClosedInvitedCreated
SPACES
Public
Consultation
Ministry
Of
Health
World
Bank
Funasa
Funasa
Regional
Offices
Indigenous
Missionary
Council
SSL
Indigenous
Groups
Municipal
Health
Secretariats
Implementing
Orgs
CEBRAPE
President
Party
Politics
National
Congress

17. Spaces for participation
• Created
• Invited
• Closed

18. CACS
President &
Prime Minister
Ministry
of Territorial
Administration
Ministry of
Planning
Ministry of
Finance
ADRA
National Assembly
(4th Commission)
Cabinet
& Party
Meetings
Decentralization
Working
Group
UNDP,
World Bank,
& Donors
National
NGOs
Provincial/
Municipal
Government
Regional
CSOs
Budgetary
Units
Civil
Society
Conferences
Closed Invited Created
ACTORS
SPACES
C
I
T
I
Z
E
N
S
Decentralization
And Local
Government
Program
International
NGOs

19. CACS
President &
Prime Minister
Ministry
of Territorial
Administration
Ministry of
Planning
Ministry of
Finance
ADRA
National Assembly
(4th Commission)
Cabinet
& Party
Meetings
Decentralization
Working
Group
UNDP,
World Bank,
& Donors
National
NGOs
Provincial/
Municipal
Government
Regional
CSOs
Budgetary
Units
Civil
Society
Conferences
Closed Invited Created
ACTORS
SPACES
C
I
T
I
Z
E
N
S
Decentralization
And Local
Government
Program
International
NGOs

20. CACS
President &
Prime Minister
Ministry
of Territorial
Administration
Ministry of
Planning
Ministry of
Finance
ADRA
National Assembly
(4th Commission)
Cabinet
& Party
Meetings
Decentralization
Working
Group
UNDP,
World Bank,
& Donors
National
NGOs
Provincial/
Municipal
Government
Regional
CSOs
Budgetary
Units
Civil
Society
Conferences
Closed Invited Created
ACTORS
SPACES
C
I
T
I
Z
E
N
S
Decentralization
And Local
Government
Program
International
NGOs

21. CACS
President &
Prime Minister
Ministry
of Territorial
Administration
Ministry of
Planning
Ministry of
Finance
ADRA
National Assembly
(4th Commission)
Cabinet
& Party
Meetings
Decentralization
Working
Group
UNDP,
World Bank,
& Donors
National
NGOs
Provincial/
Municipal
Government
Regional
CSOs
Budgetary
Units
Civil
Society
Conferences
Closed Invited Created
ACTORS
SPACES
C
I
T
I
Z
E
N
S
Decentralization
And Local
Government
Program
International
NGOs

22. Other techniques
• Force-field analysis
• Problem-tree analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Triangle analysis
• Netmapping
• See Tools for Policy
Impact by Rapid
• Policy entrepreneurship
• Power analysis
• Drivers of change
• See “Mapping Political
Context” by RAPID

23. Angola - Recommendations
• ADRA may want to use its contacts with the
Decentralisation Working Group, especially the
Ministry of Territorial Administration and UNDP, to
help develop its policy messages from the research
to create a policy brief for top policy makers.
• ADRA could facilitate discussions by screening PVs
at a series of meetings bringing together local
actors, perhaps starting in Benguela, where it has
allies in the government.
• ADRA may want to partner with local media outlets
or international media NGOs (e.g. BBC World Trust)
to get out messages via broadcast?

24. Mapping Kenyan
stakeholders

25. Desk-based review
• Reviewed nearly 50 relevant documents
• Two categories: constitutional analysis and
political economy
• Sector-specific summaries for health,
agriculture, education, and trade
• Issues of donor bias

26. Desk-based conclusions
• TTs needed if increased public participation to
succeed
• Parliament likely to continue its rise
• Private sector actors important, but which?
• Single biggest question is how devolution will
affect the public policy process
• Need to better understand the impact of Kibaki-
era reforms

27. Policy mapping workshops
• 3-4 half-day workshops
• “Chatham house rules”
• Which sectors?
• Least understood sectors?
• Most strategic sectors for influence?
• Sectors with current research?

28. Participant selection
Parliamentary staffer How many of each?
Ministerial official Honorarium?
Para-statal officer Who invites?
County government official
Civil society representative
Private sector representative
Donor representative
IEA researcher
Who else?
Who else?

29. Workshop: Step 1
• Choose a recent policy proposal of
high importance for the sector.
• How did that policy proposal end?
Approved, modified, rejected?
• What were the consequences of that
decision for the sector?
• Who benefitted? Who didn’t?

30. Workshop: Step 2
• List all of the stakeholders with an
influence or interest over that specific
policy.
• Government offices
• County-level offices
• Civil society groups
• Private sector groups and companies

31. Workshop: Step 3
• Sort the list of stakeholders
according to when they emerged.
• Which of these have appeared since
2002?
• Which are older?
• Which stakeholders are emerging now?

32. Workshop: Step 4
• Rank the stakeholders according to
interest and power matrix.
• Which of these actors has gained
power?
• Which of these actors has lost power?
• Who has taken more interest in policies
of this nature?

33. Workshop: Step 5
• Rank the top five most powerful
stakeholders according to the four
stages of the policy process.
• 1) Agenda setting, 2) Formulation, 3)
Debate and passage, 4) M&E
• Who influenced these stakeholders?
• New relationships of influence?
• Any recent changes in the order?

34. Two Challenges
• Challenge donor-driven understanding of the
public policy process.
• Find a strategy for policy engagement that really
works for you – not something imported from
Brookings and ODI - and arm yourselves with
the evidence to defend your approach.