Dissecting Actors Mapping / Stakeholder Mapping

As a development worker, is Actors Mapping / Stakeholders Analysis important?

Do you ever wonder what would happen to you or your project if you jumped into implementing a project without seeking to understand who you will be working with or against, who you will be working for, or who will be affected by your interventions?

• Do you think the success of your project would be impacted?
• Do you think your personal safety/ welfare might be affected by your intervention?

What is Actors Mapping?

Actors Mapping is the process of identifying and seeking to understand the different actors / stakeholders in any setting / field/ scenario, as well as their relationships, and the possible impact they have on your peacebuilding/ development work or any other community process.

Understanding the actors in any setting should also give the development worker, project manager, peace and conflict consultant or program coordinators an insight into the people/ actors who might be affected positively or otherwise by the project.

Actors Mapping is, thus, a process that peacebuilders and facilitators of other community processes cannot afford to ignore.

Read how to conduct Actors Mapping / Stakeholders Mapping Here

How and Where To Do Actors Mapping

How, where, and how long the Actors Mapping is done by any development worker/ organization/ peace builder/ facilitator of community processes is up to their discretion.

The Actors Mapping Process can be carried out in a simple forum of the development workers only, or intensively in a forum that engages multiple actors/ stakeholders and uses Actors Mapping Tools to gather, process, and present information.

5 Reasons Why Actors Mapping is Important for any Intervention

1. Actors Mapping is part of the broader Context Assessment and Analysis in Development Work.

An introvert’s specialty, given his/ her ‘discomfort’ in a public arena, is to know WHO is present, WHAT their role is, HOW they impact his/ her presence, interaction, and outcome of whatever engagements the public forum aims at.

As development workers, project managers, peace and conflict consultants, program coordinators, peace workers, and facilitators of community processes, we should always wear an introvert’s glasses.

We need to use the lenses not for our own psych but for a better understanding of our actors, their involvement with our processes, and the possible foreseen or unforeseen impacts of each actor on our processes.

2. Actors Mapping is Part of Do No Harm and Conflict Sensitivity

Conflict sensitivity refers to the level of awareness of the intended input which could have intended/ unintended impacts on the project, the actors, the environment, etc. Do No Harm is a guiding principle in development work to minimize the unintended and adverse effects of development work.

Knowing the actors in a conflict or any scenario and acknowledging the power dynamics between them and yourself (or amongst themselves) is paramount to taking the appropriate course of actions in order to boost/ retain the dignity of every actor as well as reduce the chances of escalating the negative impacts that some engagements might cause.

3. Identify Potential Allies and Foes

In any form of development work it is most important to identify:

•  The actors who are for the same course as you (potential allies you can work together to achieve your peacebuilding goals).
• The actors who may view your work as threat to their well-being or livelihoods (these are the actors who might thwart your peacebuilding efforts directly on indirectly)

4. Identify External Actors/ Factors that have an Impact on your work

Peace work and development work are affected by more than the immediate actors or environmental factors.

An Actors Mapping exercise should help the development worker, peacebuilder, project manager, peace and conflict consultant or program managers visualize:

• Potential external actors (national government, international governments, treaties, funding agencies’ and their policies, etc.) whose minor or major changes might impact on the provision of goods/ services to the conflict-affected actors. Such changes may also affect (boost or curtail) the implementation of the peace/ development work
• Closely related external concepts that may affect the attitude or behaviour of some actors, hence affects the course of peace/ development work. This may include the political climate as well as natural occurrences/ disasters.

5. Look out for the welfare of the development worker

Let no one assume that you are everyone’s favourite just because you are working for peace or bringing development to a community.

It is important to understand privileges, stereotypes, and power dynamics.

You need to know what you are walking into or how your being (whatever nationality / ethnicity/ sex/ background/ race) may make you a target.

Kindly note that whereas you may not be able to alter your natural privileges like race, sex, ethnicity, etc. being aware of how these might be received by others (especially the actors in your field of work) should help you adjust your behaviour accordingly (only if it makes a difference).

Dangers of Skipping the Actors Mapping Process

1. Without a clear understanding of who the actors in a conflict context are or what their role in the (de)escalation of conflict is, peace workers / development workers, project managers and or peace and conflict consultants run the risk of under-estimating or over-estimating the power of some actors. Over or under-estimating some actors may not only inhibit the project from achieving its goal, but also fuel/ escalate the conflicts.

 Interventions could backfire if the peace worker/ development worker ignores or (dis-engages some actors who might be held in high esteem in their communities.

For instance, if a development worker ignores some actors, who the other actors identify with, the remaining actors may refuse to cooperate with the peacebuilder as they may assume that they may also be deemed dispensable at some point and, hence, ignored. The Swahili saying “ukiona mwenzako anyolewa, kitie chako maji” (in a tradition where mass head-shaving was common, the person next in-line would wet his/ her head as soon as the person before him/ her was getting his/ her shaving), holds true for all actors.

People expect the things that happen to the people they identify with to happen to them. Conflict actors judge the peacebuilder/ development worker by his/ her engagement with the other actors.

What are your thoughts on Actors Mapping?