[PDF] Community Development Toolkit - CommDev

Consultation Matrix3continuedSTEP 1Make sure all key stakeholders are includedfrom the list from tool 2 (Table 5, page 55).Update your stakeholder analysis wheneverchanges in the project or community occur.STEP 2Using the consultation matrix (Figure 3) atthe end of this tool as a guide, identifyappropriate consultation methods for eachstakeholder or group based upon their levelof interest and impact on the project. Whilehighly influential stakeholders who opposethe project will require detailed engagement,it is also important to consider appropriateconsultation methods for those who arehighly impacted but are not influential asthey will require equally important butdifferent engagement and/or support.The consultation methods you apply arelikely to fall within a broad continuum –from simply informing stakeholders of youractivities, to partnering with them inprogram design or integrating them intothe project’s decision-making process foractions that affect communities. The formsof consultation listed in the matrix are notexhaustive and must be informed by youroperational context – that is, if you operate ina conflict-sensitive area, you need to considerwhether the consultation approach you areconsidering will affect (either positively ornegatively) the existing tension. 24 Appropriateformats should also be utilized, for exampleusing audiovisual methods for people whoare not highly literate. Local languagesshould always be used, through aninterpreter if necessary.STEP 3Once you have defined the appropriateapproach to engagement for each group ofstakeholders, create a table summarizingthe approaches you have selected. Use theconsultation matrix to plan for consultationthroughout the life of the program,recognizing that stakeholders’ needs andinterests are likely to change.STEP 4Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness ofyour consultation activities (see monitoringand evaluation tools); revise your approachto engagement to reflect changing needs,circumstances and experience. Rememberthat consultation is an interactive processand that messages coming in fromstakeholders are just as important asthose going out.STEP 5Keep a record of consultation activities,including messages from and feedback tostakeholders. This will help you to keeptrack of who you have consulted and howoften, in order to neither neglect nor fatiguestakeholders. When agreements are reachedthrough consultation with stakeholders, itis always useful to generate a signed recordof this, whether minutes of a meeting or aformal agreement. All parties should receivecopies of such records, and the companyshould ensure that one is kept in itsdatabase.Lists of stakeholders contacted, records ofthe dates and nature of the contact andfeedback should be systematicallydocumented and filed in a database, whetherelectronic or paper based. People shouldconsent to notes or recordings being takenRELATIONSHIPS TOOLS24 See International Alert, Conflict-Sensitive Business Practice: Guidance for Extractive Industries, 2005.www.international-alert.org/resources/publications/conflict-sensitive-business-practice-guidance-extractive-industriesCommunity Development Toolkit59