The Multistakeholder Illusion

It is in response to "The Gap between Developers and Stakeholders" that so much emphasis is being put in multistakeholder processes in the past few years (although some grassroots activists will tell you that they’ve been doing it for decades without the fancy name). But like any hype and trend, the multistakeholder approach is often copied, replicated and partially or poorly implemented.

More often than not, this so-called multistakeholder approaches limit themselves to an “open” consultation (often by invitation) to gather information, listen to suggestions and at best assess the needs of the communities to be served. But as soon as these consultations are complete, it’s like the sperm entering the egg and the cell transforming itself. What was presented as an open multistakeholder process turns into a closed process where the authorities and the experts analyze the information gathered, determine priorities and design solutions isolated from the rest of the stakeholders or with a limited group of them.

With luck, once the design process is complete, the solutions are presented to the community for comments and evaluation.