Situation Assessment & Process Design

Details

An assessment is a good first step in organizing a stakeholder process because it provides the information needed for the design of a process likely to meet the needs of participants. Whether carried out by a government official, a community leader or volunteer, a project proponent or a neutral mediator, the process proceeds in several steps, ideally in collaboration with interested parties:

• Identify the parties especially interested in or affected.
• Use convening criteria to interview these stakeholders about the issues of concern to them and what they stand to gain by participating in a consensus building process.
• Organize a consensus building process.
• Get feedback from those interviewed about the draft process design.

Information from the assessment helps to inform the process design, which addresses a number of questions such as:

• What are the issues in dispute?
• What is the objective of the process?
• Who will be involved? In what capacity?
• What groundrules will govern the process?

Results of an assessment and process design are sometimes summarized in a convening report.

Sometimes a stakeholder may initiate an assessment process – making a round of informal contacts to explore whether other stakeholders would like to work collaboratively on an issue and, if so, what kind of approach might work best. However, in situations where no on stakeholder is sufficiently trusted by all the other stakeholders to obtain candid answers to such questions, a neutral facilitator or mediator may be needed. A neutral convener can maintain confidentiality, allowing all stakeholders’ views to be integrated into the recommendations. In this way, the stakeholder process can be based on complete and accurate information, strengthening the conditions for constructive dialogue.

In addition, professional conveners are trained and experienced in effectively engaging diverse stakeholder groups and organizing constructive dialogue and negotiation processes. This can help provide an effective vehicle for subsequent discussions on the substantive elements of your project. If the stakeholders agree to participate in a consensus building process, they may ask this same neutral to continue to provide facilitation or mediation during project implementation, or they may choose a different neutral.