POLICY SEA PROCESS METHODS
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tion concerning the policy-making process, should focus on information that identifies key stakeholders from a variety of groups in the reform process, and should seek to clarify assumptions about stakeholders’ power and interest in the decision-making process. Data from interviews—including scaled values assigned to the attributes, and relative rankings calculated accordingly—can be catalogued and presented in charts and matrixes, highlighting the following attributes: (i) the group itself, (ii) its interest (or salience), (iii) its influence (power), and (iv) its position on the reform. An important measure called “effective power” (the degree of power the stakeholder holds over other groups in relation to a reform area) can be determined by weighting a combination of a stakeholder’s salience and influence. The level of interest or salience is the priority and importance stakeholders attach to the sector or reform area. The level of influence depends on the quantity and type of resources and power that stakeholders can marshal to promote their position with respect to the existing policies and proposed reforms. Broadly, these attributes signal the stakeholder’s ability to block or promote reform, join with others to form a coalition of support or opposition, and lead the direction/ discussion of the reform. Stakeholder analysis therefore provides a sufficient understanding of the potential impact of reform on interested groups, the hierarchy of authority and power among different groups, and the actual perceptions of the reform among different groups, all of which are important if the reform and policy SEA are to be effective. Stakeholder data can be organized according to stakeholders’ relative power/influence and salience; this arrangement clarifies potential support for, or opposition to, the proposed reform. Often, a matrix can be used to organize and classify the stakeholder data. One form of matrix maps salience/interest and influence on the axes. This shorthand categorization and analysis indicates which stakeholders will gain or lose from a proposed reform, and whether they can significantly influence the process.
Methods Used in Environmental Priority Setting Key environmental and social issues, identified in the situation analysis, are presented to the stakeholders for the selection of policy SEA priorities. There are different ways in which to select priorities. For example, in Sierra Leone the SESA team employed a ranking method to define which environmental and social issues were most important. Larger-scope SESAs, such as WAMSSA, involved a combination of methodologies for the selection of environmental and social priorities. For WAMSSA, focus group meetings for government, industry, and civil society were held in the capital cities of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and mining