Where the power lies: multiple stakeholder politics over natural ...

To understand better what types of relations exist among and between stakeholders, we
can use the following questions as our basis for analysis:
Why do stakeholders appear to agree with issues that they are violently opposed to?
Why do they not contest decisions made without their approval?
Why do some stakeholders support actions or decisions that clearly go against their
interests?
What are the trade-offs made between and among the stakeholders?
How far are stakeholders willing to compromise their interests for the common good?
Answers to these questions are not always easy to come by. Quite often, one must employ
various methods and operate in many situations or arenas where stakeholders interact to
understand what is going on. Thus it is important to recognize that though we are often
preoccupied with observing dynamics among stakeholders in the public domain like meetings
and seminars there are other places, situations or arenas where stakeholders meet which
are unofficial, less public and often difficult to access. One needs to get a sense of how
vibrant these hidden arenas are and the extent to which the politics played out in private
end up in the public arenas. Researchers and development practitioners often operate in
artificial arenas and miss the informal, impromptu arenas where the real discourse that
precedes decision making happens. The arenas where the outsider can operate are also
limited by factors like gender, status, ethnicity, or age group. For example, in societies
where gender roles are very clearly defined, it is difficult to go against these social restrictions
where one has to be the right gender to move around or even to speak. In Box 10, we
describe some of the arenas where negotiations and bargaining occur in Romwe, Zimbabwe.
Box 10. Impromptu arenas in Romwe
At social events like funerals, church meetings, and weddings, local stakeholders
sometimes start discussing issues that are pertinent and interesting to you. Often
you may be standing close by and you hear stakeholders speaking among themselves
about the very issue you have been wishing to discuss at a more public meeting. It is
not always easy to ‘sidle’ up to them and participate in the discussion or even to just
listen. Sometimes you hold a meeting and stakeholders do not participate or discuss a
particular issue and you use your powers of facilitation but get nothing, then suddenly
you hear them talking about it in another, very unlikely situation. For instance, you
may be walking from the bus- stop and meet up with a few stakeholders or that you are
waiting to collect water at the borehole, standing in line at a clinic or just before the
meeting starts. I think it is very frustrating to feel that there all these dynamics
going on around you and you cannot capture it or be part of the discussion. The other
frustrating experience is the so- called impromptu meetings or back- to- back- meetings,
where stakeholders will meet to discuss a specific issue unrelated to your interest and
then suddenly they decide to also discuss the issue that you are interested in. Now how
can anyone predict when that discussion will happen, it means you just have to attend
all meetings or events, and when you do, you hope one of them will be one of these backto-back
meetings that yield some relevant data (Witness Kozanayi 06-2001).
Coming across some of these arenas is largely coincidental with the suggestion from
some researchers that coincidences can determine how many relations one is able to see
and analyse (Wels 2000). Thus it can be coincidences of networks, coincidences of meeting
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