MeTA Multi Stakeholder Processes workshop for MeTA pilot countries in Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation, January 2010

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MeTA Multi Stakeholder Processes
Workshop for MeTA pilot Countries
Ghana, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Philippines, Uganda, Zambia
5 Power
Simone van Vugt/ Karen Verhoosel
Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation
January 2010
Power is itself a highly contested concept
Some see power as held by actors
(powerful and powerless)
Some see power as zerosum
(to gain power others must lose)
Some see power as ‘negative’ as in ‘control’
Others see it as more pervasive and embodied in all
relationships and discourses
Others see it as more fluid and accumulative
Others see it as more ‘positive’, as necessary for agency
and positive action
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And yet power is changing
Changing perceptions of public authority
– create new spaces for engagement, and new forms of
power within and between them
Changing relationships of the local, national and global
– alter understanding of where power is located and
where it may be exercised
Changing role of knowledge and expertise in a globalised
world
– creates new boundaries which affect whose voices
enter policy processes, and whose knowledge counts
within them
Exercise
Ranking!
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Power Cube
How do we assess the transformative
potential of new democratic spaces?
What are the possibilities of effective,
pro poor citizen action?
Whose spaces?
What levels of power?
What dimensions of power?
The Power Cube –
a tentative approach
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Closed or uninvited spaces
Bureaucrats, experts, elected representative
make decisions with little broad consultation or involvement
Closed /
uninvited
SPACES for participation
Invited spaces
People are invited to participate by various kinds of authorities
Closed / Invited
uninvited
SPACES for participation
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Claimed / created spaces
Spaces claimed by less powerful actors from or against
the power holders, or created more autonomously by
them
Closed / Invited Claimed /
uninvited created
SPACES for participation
PLACES of participation
Global
National
Local
Closed / Invited Claimed /
uninvited created
SPACES
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PLACES POWER
relationships
Global
National
Local
Closed / Invited Claimed /
uninvited created
SPACES
Visible: contests over interests are assumed to be visible in public
spaces
PLACES POWER
Global
National
Local
Visible
Closed / Invited Claimed /
uninvited created
SPACES
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Hidden: there are barriers that preclude the entry of certain actors
and issues
PLACES POWER
Global
National
Local Hidden
Visible
Closed / Invited Claimed /
uninvited created
SPACES
Invisible: power relationship is hidden through internalisation of
powerlessness or lack of awareness
PLACES POWER
Global
National
Invisible
Local Hidden
Visible
Closed / Invited Claimed /
uninvited created
SPACES
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Increasing the rights of citizens to have power over their own
lives requires change at every level and aspect of the power
cube.
Strategies for mobilisation and action should:
connect across all the spaces
– but how do civil society actors build alliances across the
spaces and strategies?
link vertically, as well as horizontally
– who represents whom across the levels? How are actors in one
space held accountable?
address the hidden and invisible forms of power in every space
and level
– does ‘professional’ campaigning at one level re enforce hidden and
invisible forms of power at another?
Power cube: strategies
Power cube explains different forms of power
Power cube also demonstrates inter linkages
Dealing with power usually involves more than one
strategy
Advocacy is but one of possible strategies
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Group work
In subgroups work on a case. Identify where citizen
participation takes place in different dimensions of the power
cube:
Spaces
Levels
Power relationships
To what extent are the spaces connected?
To what extent is there vertical and horizontal alignment?
To what extent are hidden and invisible forms of power
addressed at every level and space?
Possible strategies?
Importance and Influence Matrix
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Influence and importance (DFID)
List stakeholders
Draw out their interests in relation to problem
addressed
Assess the influence or power of the stakeholder
Brainstorm; take time to understand stakeholders
Combine influence and importance in matrix diagram
Identify risks and assumptions for stakeholder
cooperation
Determine how and which stakeholders should
participate in the project cycle activities
Definitions: influence
The power which stakeholders have over a project
to control what decisions are made, facilitate its
implementation, or exert influence which affects the
project negatively.
The extent to which the stakeholder is able to
persuade or coerce others into making decisions,
and following certain course on action
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Definition: importance
The priority given (by your organisation) to
satisfying stakeholders’ needs and interests
through the project
Likely to be most obvious when stakeholders
interests in the project converge closely with your
objectives
Variables affecting stakeholders’ relative power and influence
Within and between formal For informal interest groups
organisations: and primary stakeholders:
Legal hierarchy (command & Social, economical and political
control, budget holders) status
Authority of leadership (formal, degree of organisation,
informal, charisma, political, consensus and leadership in the
familial or cadre connections) group
Control of strategic resources Degree of control of strategic
for the project resources significant for the
Possession of specialist project
knowledge & skills Informal influence through links
Negotiating position (strength in with other stakeholders
relation to other stakeholders) Degree of dependence on other
stakeholders
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Influence and importance matrix
A. B.
high importance high importance
low influence high influence
the “victims” the ones that can make the
difference
Level of importance
D. C.
low importance low importance
low influence high influence
the “bystanders” the “irresponsible”
Level of influence
Relevant questions
Which problems, affecting which stakeholders,
does the project seek to address or alleviate?
For which stakeholders does the project place a
priority on meeting their needs, interests and
expectations?
Which stakeholder interests converge most closely
with policy and project objectives?
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Implications for your project
A: stakeholders in A require special initiatives if
their interests are to be protected
B: your project needs to construct good working
relationships with these stakeholders, to ensure
effective coalition of support
C: these stakeholders may be a source of
significant risk, and they will need careful
monitoring and management
D: these stakeholders are unlikely to be the subject
of project activities or management
Deciding on strategies
Decide on strategy for working with stakeholders in
view of the outcome of the analysis
Advocacy can be used whenever you want to involve
decision maker (person with power in public or
private sector)
Decision makers can be found amongst other
stakeholders in box B and C
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Influence and importance matrix
A. B.
high importance high importance
low influence high influence
the “victims” the ones that can make the
difference
Level of importance
D. C.
low importance low importance
low influence high influence
the “bystanders” the “irresponsible”
Level of influence
Group work: influence and importance matrix
Decide on case you want to work on (don’t spend
too much time selecting one!)
Describe problem target group (people you want to
help) and change you want to make
List stakeholders on post its (1 on each post it)
Select 10 most relevant and put them in matrix on
flip chart
If time allows: decide on possible strategies per key
stakeholder
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© Wageningen UR
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