Primary Purpose
Description
A situation analysis, or situation assessment, is the first step in any kind of public or stakeholder engagement effort. It is the step in which you gather information to determine the appropriate level of public participation for your project or decision. A situation analysis helps you understand the context of your project and the needs of your stakeholder community so that you may design an effective engagement process. The information obtained will help you to design a process that responds to the needs and interests of both the decision makers and external stakeholders.
Effective situation assessments can help accomplish the following:
1. Clarification of the problem or opportunity and the decision to be made;
2. Explanation of the agency’s approach to public participation;
3. Identification of stakeholders and their concerns, including hard to reach or marginalized communities;
4. Uncovering information gaps or misunderstandings so they can be addressed;
5. Description of constraints on the public participation process; and
6. Exposing issues that will need to be considered in the decision process.
Time considerations
Situation assessments can be limited and informal or intensive and time-consuming. The more detailed you are in your analysis, the more time consuming. However, more detailed analyses can also provide clearer direction for engagement.
An informal situation assessment might take as little as an hour or two. Informal assessments may be done by one individual or a small group. These informal assessments can provide a rough outline of the problem or opportunity, approach to public participation, different stakeholders and their concerns, information gaps, potential constraints to participation, and/or issues to address.
A more formal situation assessment might involve bringing in an outside researcher or facilitator to walk through a structured and systematic process. This process might include: gathering background documents; conducting interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys with agency staff and stakeholders; and producing a formal report that describes the issue or situation and recommends a course of action for effective public participation.
Regardless of how formal or informal, a situation assessment typically consists of two phases:
Phase 1: An internal assessment.
During this phase, agency staff clarify the problem or opportunity, define the decision to be made, identify the necessary and available resources for public participation, and promote internal agreement about the appropriate level of public participation and expected outcomes.
Phase 2: An external assessment.
During this phase, agency staff, partner organizations, and/or an outside third-party identify the full range of external stakeholders that should be engaged, start to identify how stakeholders perceive the situation and decision to be made, and consider how various stakeholders would like to be engaged.