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Centre for Sustainable Agrifood Systems

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STARTProject Development Toolkit

Workshop tool

Stakeholder analysis & matrix

Use this when you want to understand everyone who can affect or is affected by your project, and how much attention each needs.

Where it’s used:Step 2: Identify partners

How to use it

While mapping collaborators, start looking into the other stakeholders who matter to your project. For each stakeholder, note:

  • Role, e.g. collaborator, funding body, future user, consultant, competing research group, policy maker
  • Contribution to outcome: positive, negative or both
  • Decision-making power: influential or not
  • Interest in the project

Roles include, but are not limited to: collaborator, contractor, influencer/champion, disseminator, beneficiary, policy maker, competing researcher/institute, informer/consultant, knowledge provider, regulator, future user, founder, funding body, future consumer and early adopter.

Then place your stakeholders in the stakeholder matrix to understand each stakeholder's importance versus influence. Level of importance is the priority given to satisfying the needs and interests of each stakeholder. Level of influence is the power a stakeholder has to facilitate or impede the achievement of your project: the extent to which they can persuade or coerce others into making decisions and following a certain course of action.

Stakeholder matrix: importance versus influenceA two-by-two matrix. Vertical axis: level of importance, the priority given to satisfying the needs and interests of each stakeholder. Horizontal axis: level of influence, the power a stakeholder has to facilitate or impede the project. High importance and low influence: the victims of the problem, e.g. future users. High importance and high influence: the difference makers. Low importance and low influence: the bystanders, e.g. contractors and consultants. Low importance and high influence: important to remember, e.g. international collaborators.High importanceLow influenceThe “victims” ofthe problem(e.g. future users)High importanceHigh influenceThe “differencemakers”(people who can makethis a success)Low importanceLow influenceThe “bystanders”(e.g. contractors,consultants)Low importanceHigh influenceThe “important toremember”(e.g. internationalcollaborators)Level of importanceLevel of influenceImportance: the priority given to satisfying the needs andinterests of each stakeholder.Influence: the power a stakeholder has to facilitate orimpede the achievement of your project.
Stakeholder matrix: importance versus influence (handbook p. 11).

Source: START Triple-I project development tool kit, pp. 10–11.