Economic Development Department

Stakeholder Engagement Framework

April 2015

Table of Contents 1. Context ................................................................................................................................................ 3

2. Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................ 3

3. Purpose ................................................................................................................................................ 3

4. Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 3

5. Stakeholder strategy ......................................................................................................................... 4

5.1 Set a vision ......................................................................................................................................... 4

5.2 Conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise................................................................................. 4

5.3 Preparing engagement goals, tactics, and format .................................................................. 7

5.4 Formats ............................................................................................................................................... 8

5.5 Monitoring the effectiveness of partnerships.............................................................................. 8

6. Recommendation ............................................................................................................................. 9

7. References .......................................................................................................................................... 9

1. Context

Partnering with stakeholders, especially those in the business environment, on shared

objectives for delivery of public infrastructure/ public services and other special projects, is

becoming increasingly difficult. In all probability, these difficulties can be attributed to the

fact that in the Western Cape alone there are 182 registered business representative

organisations, with 48 in the Heidelberg district alone, there is also a steady increase in the

number of sector specific organisations and because the big organised business

organisations like Chambers of Commerce and Business Unity of South Africa (BUSA) mostly

represent the interest of big business, the small and medium businesses, who make up the

majority of the economy, is now also organising in different associations across the City

(Expat Cape Town, 2015).

2. Problem Statement

There is no one platform to discuss common problems and shared interests with business and

other stakeholders. Also, there are so many stakeholders and possible partners out there, it is

challenging for the City to decide on whom to partner with on what programmes and

projects to get the maximum impact.

3. Purpose

This report functions to feed suggestions into corporate engagement framework on

partnering with business and other stakeholders.

4. Discussion

The City of Cape Town (CCT) recognises that it can only achieve its goals through the

collective efforts of many actors. The CCT also recognises that programs and projects

implemented in partnership increase the collective knowledge, skills, reach and experience

to an issue or challenge.

Comprehendible from above, the CCT is of the view that partnerships are mutually

empowering relationships, in which all the parties focus on mutual growth, organizational

development, institutional strengthening and above all, on achieving impact.

The CCT has many partnerships, however there is little to no strategic way of identification

and selection of partners, hence the effectiveness of the partnerships and the impact of the

partnerships are questionable.

It is thus strongly suggested that identification and formation of partnerships should be

managed strategically.

At the outset of partnership formation it is suggested that the City consider the following

principles:

Partnerships should be formed with organisations with shared visions and values.

Prospective partners/stakeholders should have complementarity of purpose and

value added.

The relationship between the partners should be based on transparency and mutual

accountability.

There should be clarity on roles and responsibility of the partners.

Parties should also have a commitment to joint learning on roles and responsibilities.

Extensive research identifies the following as a good range of steps to follow in the

development of a stakeholder engagement strategy. The steps are outlined below.

5. Stakeholder strategy

5.1 Set a vision

By setting a vision the City clarifies the specific organisational and sustainability

objectives it tries to achieve. This step thus involves understanding the motivation

behind engagement.

5.2 Conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise

Stakeholder mapping is a collaborative process of research, debate, and discussion

that draws from multiple perspectives to determine a key list of potential partners

across the entire stakeholder spectrum. Mapping can be broken down into four

phases:

5.2.1.1 Identifying and listing relevant groups, organizations, and people

Type of stakeholder Organisation

Organised Business Business Chambers

Provincial Small Business Chambers

Western Cape Small Business Employers Organisation

City Improvement Districts/

Special Rating Areas

Blackheath CID, Central City CID etc.

Sector specific Economic Development Partnership, Special Purpose Vehicles

Cape Town Partnership, Wesgro, Accelerate Cape Town, GTP etc.

Area specific stakeholders Greater Tygerberg Partnership, The Business Place Philippi

5.2.2 Analysing and understanding stakeholder perspectives and interests

Once a list of stakeholder has been identified, it is useful to do further analysis, to

better understand stakeholder relevance and perspective.

MORRIS suggest a list of five (5) criteria to help analysed each identified stakeholder:

Contribution: It is assesses whether the stakeholder has information, guidance, or

expertise on the issue that could be helpful to the City.

Legitimacy: Assesses how legitimate is the stakeholder’s claims are for

engagement.

Willingness to engage: Assesses how willing the stakeholder is to engage.

Influence: Assesses the level of influence the stakeholder has on say for instance

other businesses, organisations, NGOs, consumers, investors, etc.

Necessity of involvement: Here one determined whether the stakeholder is an

entity that could for instance derail or delegitimize the process if they were not

included in the engagement (Morris, 2012:10).

The above mentioned five criteria will be used to create and populate a chart with

short descriptions of how stakeholders fulfil the criteria. Values are then assigned (low,

medium, or high) to these stakeholders.

Stakeholder

Contribution

Legitimacy

Willingness to

engage

Influence

Necessity of

involvement

Business

Chambers

High:

Knowledge in

X

issue is of

value to EDD

High: Directly

affected by

our

activity

High:

Proactive

group that is

already

engaging

Low:

Relatively

unknown

group

Low: Not an

outspoken

Partner

Western Cape

Small Business

Employers

Organisation

High Low High Low Medium

WCEDP Medium Low High High Medium

TBP High High Low High High

Expertise Willingness Value

5.2.3. Mapping and visualization of relationships to objectives and other stakeholders

Mapping stakeholders is a visual exercise and analysis tool that you can be used to

further determine which stakeholders are most useful to engage with. Mapping allows

you to see where stakeholders stand when evaluated by the same key criteria and

compared to each other.

Here a quadrant is drawn using two axes labelled “low” to “high”. The criteria, now

grouped as “Expertise”, “Willingness” and “Value” will be added to the criteria chart.

After the criterion is assigned to an axis, discussions and debates within the group that

determines stakeholder will have to be facilitated. This group will determine in which

quadrant each stakeholder falls. What is then left is to plot the stakeholders on the

grid using small, medium, and large circle sizes to denoting their “Value.”

5.2.4 Prioritizing and ranking stakeholder relevance and identifying issues

It is not practical and usually not necessary to engage with all stakeholder groups

with the same level of intensity all of the time. Being strategic and clear about whom

you are engaging with and why, before jumping in, can help save both time and

money. The next phase then encourages one to look closely at partnership issues and

decide whether they are material to the City’s objectives, then ranking then

accordingly. An example is illustrated below:

Willingness

Exp

ert

ise

Circle size =

value

Cham

bers

WC Small

business

employer

org

B

u

si

n

e

s

s

c

WCEDP

Low

Lo

w

High

High

Stakeholders

Issues/Main objectives

Link to what objective of

the City

Priority

Ranking

Accelerate

Cape Town

Represents the views of corporate business

in the Cape Town city region by mobilizing

the collective resources and expertise of

members, and campaign for policies and

practical measures to create a robust,

sustainable and inclusive economy in the

region.

Economic Regeneration

Programme

3

Central City

Improvement

District

(CCID)

Set to enhance the physical and social

environment of the area.

Informal Trading &

Markets Programme

2

National

Small

Business

Chamber

Dedicated to the success of small business

South Africa and help small businesses to

grow, learn, network, connect, be inspired

and have fun.

Small Business Services

Programmes

1

This will assist in the identification of the most relevant issues and the most relevant

stakeholders. By working through the four steps in the mapping process a robust,

relevant, prioritized stakeholder list/ prospective partners would have been

developed.

5.3 Preparing engagement goals, tactics, and format

The Previous step (identification of the strategic objectives and prioritization of

stakeholders enables one to deeply examine stakeholders to understand their

interests, concerns, and positions) and this prepare ones better to define a choice of

engagement tactics. Here engagement tactics refer to high-level descriptions of how

one approach stakeholders/ partners. Three approaches are considered: engage,

inform and communicate.

During this exercise one will revisit the mapping to identify which quadrants

stakeholders fall into. Here it is required to re-rank the stakeholder list using the

engage, communicate, and inform tactics quadrant.

5.4 Formats

Once the appropriate tactics are determined, the format of the partnership

agreements must be considered. Examples of possible tactics format relations are

shown below:

Tactics Formats

Engage (high priority)

Collaborative Partnership

Research collaboration

Communicate (medium priority)

Funding Survey

Mass email or newsletter

Social media

Conference

Inform (low priority)

Marketing campaign

Sustainability report

Publication

News coverage

5.5 Monitoring the effectiveness of partnerships

As partnerships are not an end in themselves, but rather a formation to achieve goals,

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plays an important part in partnerships as without M&E

partners cannot evaluate their impact on the ground. To be sustainable, partnerships

Communicate

Stakeholders with a low willingness to

engage and/or a high level of expertise

but who have not yet participated in

dialogue with the City. Communicating

more with these Partners will help them

value engagement.

Engage

Stakeholders with whom engagement is

necessary.

Inform

Stakeholders who seek information only

instead of a conversation

Communicate

Stakeholders with a high willingness to

engage and/or a low level of expertise

but who have not yet participated in

dialogue with the City. Communicating

more with these Partners will help them

value engagement

must respond to their agreed upon goals and their own individual goals and objectives.

Indicators that measure the effectiveness of partnership will ensure that impacts are

maximised, it will provide guidance on where to improve performance, prove the

partnership’s rationale and provide feedback on meeting objectives.

An example of Partnership evaluation is the Partnership Assessment tool created by four

United Nations organisations. This tool measures the key indicator of a successful

collaborative process — the partnership’s level of synergy and provides information that

helps partnerships take action to improve the collaborative process. It also identifies the

partnership’s strengths and weaknesses in areas that are known to be related to synergy

— leadership, efficiency, administration and management, and sufficiency of resources

(UNglobalimpact, 2007:6)

6. Recommendation

Facilitate discussion on strategically selecting partners.

Input into discussions around effective and results driven business.

Propose that the ED put forward to the Mayoral Leadership towards an approach to

deliver effective and results driven business.

Facilitate a conversation on developing a system for Monitoring and Evaluating

partnerships that enforce standards, sets targets, data collection strategies and

reporting.

7. References

Expat Cape Town. 2015. Business Associations in South Africa. Available at:

http://www.expatcapetown.com/business-associations.html. Accessed on 10 March

2015.

Morris, J. 2012. Back to Basics: How to Make Stakeholder Engagement Meaningful for

Your Company. Available at: http://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Five-

Step_Guide_to_Stakeholder_Engagement.pdf. Accessed on 20 March 2015.

UN Global Impact .2007. Enhancing Partnership Value - A Tool for Assessing

Sustainability and Impact. Available at:

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/news_events/8.1/partnership_assessment.p

df. Accessed on 12 March 2015.