Practices and Challenges of Stakeholder Engagement of United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) projects
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the stakeholder engagement practices and challenges of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) projects. International development projects emanated from their mandate and intended to improve the living conditions of the marginalized. But often criticized for their lack of gaining shared perception and agreement on the objectives of the project and lack of commitment to the project by all stakeholders involved. Recently though stakeholder engagement has been much emphasized in the context of international development projects. The main focus has been on identifying those who are affected by a project and actively involving them in the project life cycle in order to ensure that the project is responsive to the local needs and conditions. In this regard the research sought to assess the perception of key project personnel; identify the stakeholder engagement approach used; examine the factors that hinder or enable successful engagement and identify outcomes that arose due to stakeholder engagement. A mixed research approach was employed, both quantitative data collected through questionnaire from 32 project personnel and qualitative data through semi-structured interview from two key personnel were analyzed. The finding showed that the stakeholder engagement process is on developing stage, having in place strategy and process, yet have challenges in terms of communication and commitment from the multi-stakeholders involved. The study recommended improvements in the communication tool addressing language barriers, training the project team in people skills and the management to use a tracking mechanism for its stakeholder engagement performance and feedback to enhance regular corrective measures. In addition, the study directed future works to be conducted on stakeholder engagement that are not addressed in this research
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Keywords
International Development Projects, Effective Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Engagement Approach, Stakeholder Engagement Barrier