Factors influencing stakeholder participation in the strategic planning process

Participation has become a very important tool for the facilitation of development efforts. Various development agencies, governments and Non-governmental organisations have employed participation in its planning and implementation of development interventions. This has been because of the perceived benefits of participation which includes but not limited to improvement of participants’ capacities, skills and knowledge due to continues interactions and involvement in various development activities. Participation helps build strategic alliances and networks to support programme and projects implementation. Besides, participation helps improve decisions, development of better policies, plans and programmes that are practicable to local people. It is believed to promote ownership for sustainable development because decisions are taken based on broad consensus. It is most of the time assumed that stakeholders would participate automatically because they understand the benefit of development and the participatory process. But theory posits that other factors also influence participation, given especially the voluntary nature of participation. This study viewed participation as a means or a tool for organising, promoting and mobilising people as creative problem solvers. The focus was therefore on participatory planning process for the formulation of District Medium Term Development Plans (MTDP) or Strategic Spatial Plans (SSP) in the Ga West Municipality of Ghana. The main objective of the study was to understand and map out factors that influence the quality of participation in the strategic planning process. The research therefore delves into the factors that influence participation in the planning process and also investigated stakeholder mobilisation strategies, actions to facilitate self-organised initiatives and how it influence participation. The findings indicated that, indeed a lot of factors influence stakeholder participation in the strategic planning process. The provision of adequate financial resources and its timely release was perceived as the most influential because, respondents perceived funding as having a rippling effect on other factors including the number of stakeholders that are invited. It was stated that 35-40 stakeholders are invited to Zonal council planning meetings which in the view of respondents is not representative in a multi-stakeholder environment. The inadequate funding was tied to the delays in the payment of incentives, especially financial incentives like travelling and transport as well as sitting allowances. The study revealed that the Local government pay different incentives depending on the location of a meeting and this very much influence participation. The commitment of top management was also perceived as a very influential factor. The leadership is not very involved in the process and therefore funding, implementation of agreed strategies and the involvement of representative stakeholders is lacking. The inability to implement projects was a major factor that is believed to be discouraging effective participation. This situation is further increasing the distrust citizens have for the local government. The limited stakeholder involvement, inability to implement agreed strategies and its attendant distrust is becoming a vicious cycle which if not checked would jeopardise the already fragile participatory process. The research also revealed that Local government does not adequately mobilise stakeholders to participate. There is no comprehensive stakeholder list that is representative of all stakeholder groups that need to be involved. Documents and information on the process are not made available to stakeholders. Sensitisation is done during the planning meetings especially at the Zonal Council level planning activities. This was perceived as constraining participation as well as its quality. Cultural believes and values were however perceived as not at all influential because in the urban setting there were no dominant cultural practices Factors Influencing Stakeholder Participation in the Strategic Planning Process: The Case of Ga West Municipality iv and believes. The occupation or employment of stakeholders were perceived as slightly influential on participation. It was also found that, some communities are self-organising and initiating projects which are called self-help projects. The main supports given by the local government are financial and technical advice. This not withstanding however, the local authority is unable to adequately facilitate and support such initiatives. Requests for supports are delayed some for over two years; this was the experience of a traditional leader who I interviewed. On effective participation it was found that stakeholders are participating effectively at the 5th and 6th typology of Pretty (1995) which are functional participation and interactive participation. These notwithstanding stakeholders are not at all influential when it comes to the allocation of financial resources for programmes and projects implementation. On perceived ownership of the strategic spatial plan, respondents accepted ownership but could not assert fully that the document contained a lot of local knowledge.