Developing a Taxonomy for Identifying Stakeholders in National ICT Policy Implementation

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) policies attract different stakeholders in the policy cycle phases. Whilst most studies on stakeholder analysis focuses on identifying stakeholders at the beginning of the policy process (ex-ante), we argue that stakeholders may change during the course of the policy process and hence the need to review previous policy stakeholders and identify new stakeholders in the subsequent phases of the policy process. The article proposes a taxonomy of ex-post stakeholder identification for ICT policy implementation phase. The taxonomy comprises the following steps for identifying stakeholders: categorise policy goals, list stakeholders, decide on stakeholders, categorise stakeholders, assign roles to stakeholders, highlight participation of stakeholders, manage stakeholders, and evaluate stakeholders. The taxonomy may be used by those responsible for recruiting stakeholders in the ICT policy implementation.