Interest Groups and Organizationsas Stakeholders

Any development intervention that seeks to
change the rules of the game will produce
winners and losers. Existing stakeholders with
entrenched interests in the previous system will
have major interests in determining how
attempts at institutional change will affect their
power and interests. Thus, the task manager’s
ability to understand and engage or neutralize
stakeholder interests during project design and
implementation is essential for the success of
interventions posited on changing conditions
on the ground.
Traditionally, World Bank staff have used
stakeholder analysis at the level of the individuals
affected by interventions. However, it
is the analysis of groups and organizations—
both inside and outside government—as
stakeholders to processes and outcomes that is
critical to the success of any policy reform. It is
through stakeholders within government that
any reform will be mediated. Groups of stakeholders,
both within and outside government,
mediate access to resources and power and
produce forms of stratification and obstacles to
empowerment.