Toward the end of 2008, several civil society colleagues gathered in the Project 90 by 2030 office in Kenilworth, to prepare for engaging with the country’s first Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) consultation process. This inaugural IRP would be a key policy instrument to drive the country’s energy transition away from coal dominance to greater investments in evidence-based climate-responsive supply options.
To ensure that we had a solid foundation prior to putting together our lobbying and advocacy strategy, we set out to plot over the next few weeks, the stakeholders who were active in the electricity planning, climate change and mining sectors. Our tools were: wall space (the largest clear wall in the office common area spanned about 7 metres), flip chart paper, Prestik and a stack of markers. With the flip chart paper up on the wall, we noted the different sectors, which entities were most influential within each of them, and then paused to think through what else should be added.
The next time we gathered, we decided to list the most influential people, coalitions or networks within each entity and what they were mandated to work on. This took a few sessions and benefited from several debates/good natured arguments. Over the course of a few weeks, given our diverse relationships and networks, we were able to add many names and soon the flipcharts were filled to capacity. We then began to draw lines of connection – who is accountable to whom, who relies on whom, where are the partnerships, where are policies and policy instruments linked… and so on.
Project 90 served as the secretariat for the Electricity Governance Initiative of SA (EGI-SA), a formal coalition of non-profit organizations, academic institutions, legal and research organizations funded by the World Resources Institute (WRI). As director of Project 90, I was nominated to coordinate EGI-SA. A cornerstone of our strategy was to build collaborative interest and effort. We set out to actively ensure that existing structures and networks that were focused on climate change response saw value in joining the civil society campaign to influence evidence-based decision-making for the country’s inaugural IRP.
As coordinator I was responsible for balancing the realisation of our strategy with the delivery of a number of measurable advocacy and lobbying activities. Our activities included producing sound research on electricity planning, ensuring that representatives of EGI-SA were regularly booked for public speaking and/or publishing articles in mainstream media, and of course, participating in the public consultation process for the IRP. All of these resulted in continued further stakeholder insights and our makeshift stakeholder map soon resembled a Jackson Pollock piece (or a dog’s breakfast – depending on your point of view).
The now messy but well-beloved flip chart sheets remained up on the wall for several months, becoming a talking point with the many visitors to the office in-between regular meetings of EGI-SA where more information was invariably added with each passing week. Soon it was time to dive into submission preparation and make full use of the insights we had gained into the stakeholders we were trying to influence and those working counter to our intent.
At some point the map was taken down, but not before I had started to try to create an electronic record of it. This took the form of an excel spreadsheet, which unfortunately was ultimately lost in a hard drive crash long before the wonders of Cloud backup.
In part two I will fast forward to how years later, I relied on my memory and some key conversations to revive at least some of the map and learned how to map with a more reliable software tool.
I will never forget the sight of that naturally evolving first stakeholder map and how it served to guide our effective work. Finding this tool helped me identify a lasting and effective personal method of making sense of context, complexity, people, purpose and connection – without being overwhelmed by the whole.
The task of stakeholder mapping absolutely benefits from collective insight – it is impossible for the drafter alone, to capture all the moving parts. Also, unveiling all who have a stake in and who work on any public interest topic is vital when working towards a more equitable common future.
There is another dimension I have come to appreciate: the moment when I step back from the detail and quietly observe the diversity and vastness of the tapestry that emerges when we really see all who have a stake in, and who concern themselves with, any public interest topic I can think of.
