Public participation, stakeholder engagement, and co-creation are all important concepts in sustainable development. They all involve the involvement of stakeholders in decision-making processes, but they differ in their levels of engagement and the way in which they are implemented. In this lesson we attempt to discuss the various differences between public engagement terms and the important prerequisites to meaningful engagement with stakeholders.
Public participation is the most basic level of engagement. It involves providing stakeholders with information about a decision-making process and giving them the opportunity to provide feedback. Public participation can be done through a variety of methods, such as public meetings, surveys, and online forums. It is a two-way collaborative problem-solving process with the goal of achieving better and more acceptable decisions. (IAPP 2007) . The desirability of public participation can be justified under the following four headings:

1) Democratisation
2) Legitimacy
3) Information Exchange
4) Tackling of Conflicts.

Stakeholder engagement refers to when an individual or group of people seek to address issues of public concern or policy in order to make a change in their community. It goes beyond public participation by involving stakeholders in discussions about a decision-making process. Stakeholders may be asked to provide input on the development of options, to evaluate options, or to make recommendations. Stakeholder engagement can be done through a variety of methods, such as workshops, focus groups, and advisory committees. Stakeholder engagement is however quite different to stakeholder management since engagement implies a willingness to listen and change outputs as a result of stakeholder engagement.
Consequently, it is important to understand the elements that differentiate between meaningful engagement from other types of public involvement, and the different types of stakeholder engagement tools used. These elements include :

  • Sufficient notification of the engagement activity/process;
  • Information that is comprehensible and accessible to the public;
  • A reasonable timeline for participation;
  • The appropriate level of engagement is utilised;
  • Sensitivity to public/stakeholder values;
  • The process is adaptive to the needs of participants and,
  • Results are transparent and communicated in a timely manner.

Different Levels of and approaches to stakeholder engagement

Benefits of co-creation

Conclusion

The involvement of stakeholders at the very beginning of the decision-making process beginning with the identification of the problem distinguishes co-creation from other participation initiatives. Co-creation also offers an opportunity for the integration of relatively new online and offline participatory tools and processes which help reduce public sector costs and increase stakeholder satisfaction.

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