Stakeholder Network Analysis Research Articles

Policy content and stakeholder network analysis for infant and young child feeding in India

BackgroundOver the last decade, infant and young child feeding (IYCF) indicators in India have improved. However, poor IYCF practices are still apparent, associated with pervasive high rates of child under-nutrition. Interventions to improve IYCF need augmentation by appropriate policy support to consolidate gains. The aim of this study was to identify opportunities to strengthen and support IYCF policies through a policy content and stakeholder network analysis.MethodsIYCF policies and guidelines were systematically mapped and coded using predetermined themes. Six ‘net-map’ group interviews were conducted for stakeholder analysis with data analyzed using ORA (organizational risk analyzer, copyright Carley, Carnegie Mellon University) software. The study was carried out at a national level and in the states of Maharashtra and unified Andhra Pradesh.ResultsThirty relevant policy documents were identified. Support for IYCF was clearly apparent and was actioned within sectoral policies and strategic plans. We identified support for provision of information to mothers and caregivers in both sectoral and high-level/strategic policy documents. At a sectoral level, there was support for training health care workers and for enabling mothers to access IYCF. Opportunities to strengthen policy included expanding coverage and translating policy goals into implementation level documents.At the national level, Ministry of Women and Child Development [MoWCD], Ministry of Health and Family Welfare [MoHFW] and the Prime Minister’s Nutrition Council [PMNC] were the most influential actors in providing technical support while MoHFW, MoWCD, and Bill Melinda Gates Foundation were the most influential actors in providing funding and were therefore influential stakeholders in shaping IYCF policies and programs.ConclusionWe identified a wide range of strengths in the IYCF policy environment in India and also opportunities for improvement. One key strength is the integration of IYCF policies into a range of agendas and guidelines related to health and child development service delivery at the national and state level. However, the lack of a specific national policy on IYCF means that there is no formal mechanism for review and monitoring implementation across sectors and jurisdictions. Another opportunity identified is the development of IYCF policy guidelines in emergencies and for tribal populations.

Policy content and stakeholder network analysis for infant and young child feeding in Bangladesh

BackgroundAppropriate infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices are essential for nutrition of infants and young children. Bangladesh has one of the highest levels of malnutrition globally along with sub-optimal IYCF practices. A supportive policy environment is essential to ensure that effective IYCF interventions are scaled up.The objectives of our study were to assess the support for IYCF in the national policy environment through policy analysis and stakeholder analysis and in so doing identify opportunities to strengthen the policy environment.MethodsWe used a matrix developed by SAIFRN (the South Asian Infant Feeding Research Network) to systematically identify supportive national policies, plans and guidelines for IYCF. We adapted narrative synthesis and descriptive approaches to analyze policy content, based on four themes with a focus on support for mothers. We conducted three Net-Map interviews to identify stakeholders who influenced the policies and programs related to IYCF.ResultsWe identified 19 national policy documents relevant to IYCF. Overall, there was good level of support for IYCF practices at policy level – particularly regarding general support for IYCF and provision of information to mothers – but these were not consistently supported at implementation level, particularly regarding specificity and population coverage. We identified gaps regarding the training of health workers, capacity building, the monitoring and targeting of vulnerable mothers and providing an enabling environment to mothers, specifically with respect to maternity leave for working women. Urban populations and providers outside the public sector remained uncovered by policy. Our stakeholder analysis identified government entities such as the National Nutrition Service, as the most influential in terms of both technical and funding support as they had the mandate for formulation and implementation of policies and national programs. Stakeholders from different sectors played important roles, demonstrating the salience of IYCF.ConclusionsAlthough there is strong supportive policy environment for IYCF, it is important that policies cover all populations. Our analysis indicated that opportunities to strengthen the policy environment include: expanding population coverage, increasing inter-sector coordination, improving translation of policy objectives to implementation-level documents, and the engagement of non-public sectors. In addition, we recommend explicit strategies to engage diverse stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of IYCF policies.

Physical rehabilitation in post-conflict settings: analysis of public policy and stakeholder networks

Physical rehabilitation plays a determinant role in post-conflict contexts to restore disabled citizens’ mobility and independence. While the main objectives of any physical rehabilitation programme are to ensure that the services provided are accessible and of good quality to meet existing needs, it is intended that the services need to be supported over the long term by public health and social welfare authorities. This article presents the results of a study conducted in three post-conflict countries on the relationships between the level of commitment of national governments to rehabilitation services and the influence of social networks on national policy related to physical rehabilitation. From a policy and resource standpoint, the environment in Nepal is the most favourable for creating leverage at the national level to influence the commitment of ministries in the rehabilitation sector, compared with Cambodia and Somaliland. Stakeholder network analysis in Nepal, furthermore, reveals a dominant civil society and private sector supporting rehabilitation services, including intense involvement of local organisations and user groups.Implications for RehabilitationPhysical rehabilitation is not on the top of the agenda of governments in fragile states.The commitment and involvement of national authorities in the rehabilitation sector is positively influenced by civil society and international organisations.The denser the social network of the rehabilitation sector is, the more influence the actors can exert influence over national authorities.

The sustainability of the Youth Olympic Games: Stakeholder networks and institutional perspectives

This paper explored the Youth Olympic Games’ (YOG) potential sustainability (survival and success) through an analysis of how actors exert various forms of pressure on the YOG. Given the impact of the Olympic Games and of youth on society, it becomes important to study the newest member of the Olympic Family. Combining stakeholder, network and institutional literatures, a case study of the first Winter YOG in Innsbruck (Austria) was built by means of observations and interviews. The stakeholder network analysis revealed three central stakeholders for the YOG’s sustainability: the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the media (press and broadcast), and the athletes’ parents. The institutional context was challenged by stakeholders’ changing levels of relative saliency, and notably by the parents’ emerging saliency. Practically speaking, YOG managers need to be diplomats in balancing pressures originating from the international (IOC) and local (parents) institutional contexts.

Networking for climate change: agency in the context of renewable energy governance in India

Climate change has disastrous impacts in the developing world and confronts countries like India with immense challenges. The dilemma of addressing these challenges encourages the appearance of new modes of agency. However, the extent to which new agents are able to address these challenges depends on several factors. The aim of this article is to examine these factors and how they affect the ways in which climate change-related challenges to development are tackled in the case of the Indian wind energy sector. By firstly examining the attributes and capabilities of the different actors and secondly applying a stakeholder network analysis, the article identifies different characteristics that support the effective and efficient deployment of wind energy in one Indian state and hinder it in another.

Enhancing Business Intelligence Quality with Visualization: An Experiment on Stakeholder Network Analysis

Business intelligence (BI) has gained a strategic importance in today’s global competitive environment. However, high-quality BI is not easy to obtain on the Web due to information overload and difficulty to present complicated relationships among various types of business stakeholders. Unfortunately, existing BI tools lack the capability of analyzing and visualizing such relationships and research on BI systems is sparse. In this paper, we review the current market of BI tools and related research, describe an approach to support the development of tools that provide high-quality BI, and report the findings of a user evaluation study of the prototype developed based on the proposed approach. The approach combines information visualization and Web mining techniques with human knowledge to enable business analysts to analyze and visualize complicated business stakeholder relationships. Results of an experiment involving 62 subjects show that the prototype significantly outperformed a traditional method of BI analysis in terms of efficiency, quality of BI, and user satisfaction. The subjects provided favorable comments and expressed strong preferences toward the prototype in most applications. This research contributes to advancing BI research and to providing new empirical findings for BI systems evaluation.

Social Network Analysis of Stakeholders in Green Tourism

This study aimed to analysis stakeholders associated with rural tourism development by a social network analysis. The study sites and stakeholders were selected through three preliminary studies in Japan. The questionnaire for the survey asked the subjects for demographic background, socioeconomic background and social relation characteristics that included six different social networks (work-interaction network, work-information-seeking network, work-decision making network, work-help network, personal-friends network, and personal help). The results from the social network analysis of respondents showed a significant correlation among the six different social networks. The highest correlation was between the work-information-seeking network and work-decision making network whereas the lowest was between the work-decision making and personal help networks. The reason the correlation between personal networks and work related networks was relatively lower than the correlation between work related networks appears to stem from the Japanese culture. In general, Japanese people do not ask for help from people other than their family members. In this regard, it can be said that their personal relations and work relations rarely overlap. Comparison between the responses of Shikaoi-cho respondents with Shintoku-cho respondents showed very interesting findings. Although there was no significant difference in the perceived successfulness of their rural tourism business, the density of each network among Shikaoi-cho respondents was constantly higher than the density of each network among Shintoku-cho respondents. In other words, the network structure of the rural tourism stockholders in Shikaoi-cho was much denser and more sociable/inclusive than that of Shintoku-cho respondents. Thus, the two communities where rural tourism was perceived successful presented different structural attributes in their social networks. Comparison of the demographic and socioeconomic attributes of Shikaoi-cho respondents and Shintoku-cho respondents showed the six attributes were significantly different. The respondents in Shikaoi-cho showed a higher density in each network, had fewer immigrants, longer length of stay in the community, higher income, higher ratio of income from rural tourism to the gross income, shorter period for running rural tourism business, and stronger motivation for “diversifying income sources” than the respondents in Shintoku-cho. In future studies, it is necessary to first compare a community where rural tourism has succeeded with a community where it has not succeeded. Second, it is useful to conduct studies with international comparisons, Last, researchers need to explore the occurrence of a variety of network structural characteristics in stakeholders of different rural areas despite a similar extent of perceived success in rural tourism development.