A SWOT exercise (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) can help deepen the analysis of key stakeholders. A thorough understanding of the interests they pursue, the actions they can take in support of the campaign goal and the risks that they pose to the goal, is especially useful to devise tactics in campaigns for institutional change. For more information about SWOT see also SWOT analysis under Situation Analysis in this module.
Practical Instructions for Stakeholder SWOT analysis
1st step: List, on a flip chart, the key organizations and powerful individuals that are affected by or have an influence on your campaign issue.
2nd step: List relevant strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each stakeholder. The template below can be adapted to fit on large flip-charts or pin boards for joint brainstorming.
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Target/ involve/ignore |
Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Threats
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Opportunities
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Stakeholder A |
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Stakeholder B |
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3rd step: For each stakeholder, assess (i) what they mean to the campaign, i.e. the positive or negative actions they can take towards the campaign goals, and how important, potentially effective and likely it is they take this action is, and (ii) what the campaign means to them, i.e. what aspects of the campaign they are likely to support and which may antagonize them.