Stakeholder analysis in urban-planetary health research: The Key Group Approach.

Area of Science:

• Public Health Research
• Environmental Health Science
• Urban Planning

Background:

• Engaging diverse stakeholders is crucial for addressing complex global challenges like disease prevention and planetary health.
• Significant challenges exist in stakeholder identification and recruitment due to system complexity, scale, and varied understandings of problems.
• Existing research methods often lack robust strategies for ensuring stakeholder representativeness in interdisciplinary projects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present a systematic approach for identifying and recruiting representative stakeholders in planetary health and urban development research.
• To provide a practical toolkit that assists research teams in evaluating stakeholder sample representativeness and alignment with program goals.
• To enhance the quality of stakeholder engagement in research aimed at improving urban environments and preventing climate-related diseases.

Main Methods:

• Developed through an 8-year research program, integrating a narrative literature review with program theory and emergent theory of change.
• Created 16 core stakeholder typologies, a database structure, a partner-focused checklist, and discussion points.
• The approach involves a step-by-step, three-round iterative process with a retrospective gap analysis for sample interrogation.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive toolkit with a step-by-step process, checklists, principles, and discussion questions for stakeholder engagement.
• Demonstrated application of the toolkit in a research study, highlighting its utility in analyzing sample strengths and limitations.
• The method facilitates understanding of stakeholder sample representativeness and alignment with program theory and mission.

Conclusions:

• The developed approach and toolkit offer a structured method for improving stakeholder representativeness in complex research areas.
• Tailoring the approach to specific research contexts is essential for effective stakeholder engagement.
• This methodology aids researchers in identifying and addressing gaps in stakeholder involvement, leading to more robust and inclusive research outcomes.