Effectively Engage Stakeholders
Stakeholder engagement falls on a spectrum and can range from informing your constituents about possible decisions on a program to empowering a community that is affected by a new policy with final control over what that specific policy looks like. Current guidance from the Executive Branch does not explicitly state the level of engagement required, though many existing instances of engagement fall somewhere between consulting and collaborating with stakeholders.
Informing and Consulting
Lower levels of engagement may be appropriate when an agency needs to provide updates on business processes or apprise stakeholders of change, such as a change in legislation that affects program delivery. In these cases, this type of information sharing is a way to build stakeholder trust through transparent communication.
For example, the Federal Register is a method of informing or consulting stakeholders. Federal Register comment notices are open to anyone with knowledge and access. The notices are one way for agencies to provide people outside of government the opportunity to leave substantive comments on proposed rules or notices. For those familiar with government processes, it is a well-established mechanism for providing input to the government, meaning specialists will often take advantage of the opportunity; however, it may not be adequate to reach non-specialist stakeholders, individuals with language or accessibility limitations, or those unable to meet time constraints required for filtering information provided through the Federal Register.
Involving and Collaborating
Agencies may wish to collaborate actively with stakeholders because they may need expertise that the agency does not have, have a specific regulatory requirement, or want to ensure that relevant or key stakeholders are involved in decisions that may directly impact them.
Collaborating with stakeholders can take more resource-intensive forms, such as developing a research-practice partnership (RPP). A RPP is a collaborative method of engagement that can effectively engage stakeholders. RPPs allow practitioners and researchers to form persistent, long-term relationships that bring a wider set of experiences into policy decisions and bridge the gap between data and decision-making.
