CESH Blog - Decoding Complexity: Stakeholder Mapping for Effective Research Strategies
It was in February 2013, and I had just come across a tender for a contract to provide some services to the hospital I was working for. (Excuse the likely conflict of interest.) I was excited at the prospect of picking up a business idea I had failed to launch a few years prior. I immediately started drafting the application, looking for a partner, identifying our potential competitors, and attempting to project likely policy changes that might affect our ability to pay back the greater part of the start-up capital. That was followed by listing many other players we would need to succeed, including defining our customer(s), suppliers, service providers to subcontract, potential financiers and regulatory authorities. Continuing how the business idea unfolded would be a story for another platform, but that was my first brush with the concept of stakeholder mapping/analysis. It was an unpolished, unsupervised, random, hit-and-miss kind of analysis.
Fast forward to 2024, I was now a doctoral researcher at Karolinska Institutet and implementing some of my study plans that required me to take the lead, from designing to executing research within our project on national and transnationalĀ biobanking*. My global health training had primed me enough to know that I needed to do stakeholder mapping and analysis to get a clearer picture of what I was getting into. In collaboration with our partners in Uganda, Senegal and Ethiopia, we drafted a list of current and potential stakeholders. My recent exposure to some of the Tools for Action developed and curated by the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH) has provided a clear framework for stakeholder mapping, much like placing a pinš on a well-detailed map. Framed in the contexts of Multisectoral collaboration and Innovation and Technology for Health, the information is delivered practically and concisely (I say that subjectively after reviewing the tools several times).
The challenges we face and strain ourselves to find solutions for in global health today are difficult to define, let alone solve, to the point that they have inherited the term āwicked problemsā. Engaging multiple sectors and cadres becomes a necessity for developing and implementing lasting solutions. Stakeholder mapping and analysis is one approach that can help define these sectors and cadres, especially in the initial phase of a project or product.Ā
Conducting stakeholder mapping and analysis stems from a realisation that some pieces of the puzzle one seeks to solve lie in other people or entities. It extends beyond your product or project to developing an interest in the intricate details of those who stand to gain or lose a stake when your product or project succeeds or fails.Ā
In my work with biobanking and diagnostics research in African countries, the stakeholder mapping tool has helped me identify who is doing what in each country, both presently and historically. This helps avoid duplication of efforts and discover potential partners and mentors from whose work we can build and learn from their lessons. Through well-coordinated collaborative efforts, biobanking can become a powerful tool for addressing public health challenges and fostering scientific innovation in Africa.Ā
The stakeholder mapping and analysis tool that CESH developed may have been designed with multisectoral collaboration or innovation and technology for health in mind, but it applies to many contexts beyond health. If you are a student and stakeholder mapping is part of your work processes, please donāt hesitate to use this toolkit.
*Biobanking is a system of collecting, storing (sometimes redistributing), and using biological samples for future biomedical research purposes
Written by: Phuthumani Mlotshwa
Edited by: Faith Hungwe, Ilayda Sen & Mufaro Muzondo