What is stakeholder participation?
Stakeholder participation is the process whereby stakeholders – those with rights, responsibilities and/or interests in the project or programme – play an active role in decision making and in the consequent activities which affect them. It is essential that primary stakeholders (those who expect to benefit from or be adversely affected by the development activity) participate in this process. Participatory methods should be an integral part of any impact assessment. Firstly, grassroots participation leads to more widely accepted identification of impact goals and measurable indicators. Secondly, different stakeholders are affected by development in different ways and participatory methods enable better identification of who exactly is affected in which ways. Thirdly, such methods enable complex interactions between contexts, grassroots aspirations and strategies, institutional structures and enterprise interventions to be better understood. Finally participatory methods help to identi
