Who Is a Stakeholder?

Types of stakeholders

Definitions

Stakeholders Identification

Stakeholders are those involved in and/or affected (negatively or positively) by the outcome and the impact of an action, project, programme.

Project team and expected beneficiaries and others directly targeted by the action intervention are key stakeholders. They are the ones who directly stand to benefit or lose from actions or who warrant redress from any negative effects of such operations. 

Indirectly Affected Groups Many individuals or institutions may be indirectly involved or affected because of their technical expertise or public and private interest in actions, policies or programs, or they may be linked in some way to those who are directly affected. Such stakeholders may include different organizations, , various intermediary or representative organizations, private sector project/programme purposees, and technical and professional bodies.

We can create two main categories of stakeholders: 

• Internal Stakeholders   :   persons belonging to the project team

• External Stakeholders   :   project sponsors, beneficiaries, and other persons involved in and/or affected (negatively or positively) by the outcome and the impact of an action, project, programme.

Government is always a key stakeholder. The government is the primary decision maker and implementer of policies and projects.  

external stakeholders can include:

• People who will be affected by an endeavour and can influence it but who are not directly involved with doing the work. In the private sector, examples include managers who are affected by a project, process owners, people who work with the process under study, internal departments that support the process, the financial department, suppliers, and even beneficiaries.

• People who are (or might be) affected by any action taken by an organization or group. Examples are parents, children, beneficiaries, owners, employees, associates, partners, contractors, suppliers, people that are related or located near by. Any group or individual who can affect or who is affected by achievement of a group's objectives.

• An individual or group with an interest in a group's or an organization's success in delivering intended results and in maintaining the viability of the group or the organization's product and/or service. Stakeholders influence programs, products, and services.

• Any organization, governmental entity, or individual that has a stake in or may be impacted by a given approach to environmental regulation, pollution prevention, energy conservation, etc.

• A participant in a community mobilization effort, representing a particular segment of society. School board members, environmental organizations, elected officials, chamber of commerce representatives, neighbourhood advisory council members, and religious leaders are all examples of local stakeholders.

project major takeholders roles table

external link: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder

Attention ! Sometimes one uses the term stakeholders to refer to programme beneficiaries. But stakeholders in fact are all those whose interest is affected by the programme, including those who earn from activities (suppliers etc.) and even those who lose from it (e.g. monopolies, exploiters of people's ignorance, etc.)