3.1. Project Identification Phase
Communication during this phase involves consultations with Government, bureaucrats, and sometimes, political leaders. Depending on the project context, visits to the project site and dipstick surveys and interaction with a cross-section of users and potential project affected parties (PAPs) in the project area may be required. If the project does not have a precedent or if the policy environment is evolving, additional communication initiatives within the Government on policy and funding support may be needed. This could be addressed through consultations or discussion papers.
During this phase, all stakeholders who affect the project (or get affected) during the course of the project life cycle should be mapped. Stakeholders in a PPP project typically include users, advocacy groups, PAPs, political leaders, Government officials, employees of Authority, developers, and the media.
The key outcomes of the project identification phase include:
• Reaching clarity on the project contours in terms of its scale and scope
• A preliminary assessment of the universe of stakeholders who need to be engaged with, both within the Government and externally, and
• The nature of support required from the Government in terms of policy and funding.
From a communication perspective, it is critical to evaluate and assess the intensity of communication actions required at the start of the project. Depending on the level of policy clarity, institutional context and project characteristics, the intensity of communication actions required during the implementation of a particular PPP project can vary significantly.
| The three tools, namely communication needs assessment, importance-influence grid, and behavioural analysis, which can help systematically analyse stakeholders with respect to their needs, expectations, views and support towards the project is discussed herein below. |
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| Tools for Stakeholder Analysis 1. Communication Needs Assessment - A CNA exercise systematically captures stakeholder views on issues pertinent to the project or to PPPs in general, benefits and concerns about the project, views on the public sponsor and prevailing service levels, by deploying a range of qualitative and quantitative methods. The scope and depth of a CNA exercise is context specific. A CNA exercise is conducted typically at the preparation phase of a project but may need to be repeated during subsequent phases of a project to confirm the continued validity of findings from earlier CNAs, particularly if development timeframes are long or if new developments induce a behavioural change. 2. Importance-Influence Grid - The Importance-Influence grid provides a useful approach to group and segment stakeholders in a manner that aids communication planning. 'Importance' relates to the degree of involvement of stakeholders in achieving project objectives. 'Influence' refers to the power that stakeholders could potentially exercise to control the decision-making process either directly or by facilitating or resisting the project's implementation. 'Positioning stakeholders' on the grid provides a guide for communication actions. Care should be taken to validate judgment with analytical rigour and inputs from the CNA while categorising and analysing stakeholders on this grid. Generally, it is necessary to keep the following thumb rules in mind. • Stakeholders of high influence and high importance should be closely involved throughout the project cycle to promote their participation and ownership. • Stakeholders of low influence and high importance may not have a role in decision-making, but may be affected by the project. Practitioners should ensure that their needs are met. • Stakeholders of high influence and low importance need to be carefully dealt with. In the absence of adequate information sharing and engagement, influential stakeholders, who may not be positively inclined, could potentially wean away support from the project. • Stakeholders of low influence and low importance are unlikely to be closely involved with the PPP project. However, they need to be kept informed to avoid mis-perceptions. 3. Behaviour Analysis - Behaviour analysis helps understand and deal with stakeholders' overall disposition towards the project.
Communication actions should achieve four important behavioural objectives. • Deal pro-actively with extreme perceptions: Even a small proportion of influential stakeholders such as political leaders or advocacy groups in extreme positions, viz. 'advocating' or 'opposing', can skew overall perceptions about the project. Identifying and engaging with such stakeholders should be the foremost priority. • Encourage project advocacy by the important and influential: The 'important' and 'influential' stakeholders should be invited to become project ambassadors. This tends to create a positive spiral and helps mobilise wider public support. • Address underlying factors leading to resistance: Communication actions should address underlying sources of resistance. These factors typically include mis-perceptions, lack of trust, genuine grievances and vested interests. • Win support of neutral/unaware: Such stakeholders should be kept informed. |
The above tools group stakeholders in a manner that helps initiate communication actions for each stakeholder grouping.