Management of external stakeholders influences in donor - funded irrigation infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Stakeholder management has become a very crucial management process in irrigation infrastructure projects. Out of all the stakeholders, external stakeholders’ influences are more significant and must be managed prudentially; otherwise, the project scope, time, and cost may change drastically. The dearth of studies related to managing the external stakeholders influences in the donor-funded irrigation infrastructure projects. Hence, an empirical study was conducted to fill this research gap by addressing how to effectively manage external stakeholders’ influences in donor-funded irrigation infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. The mixed research approach was used by incorporating 17 semi-structured interviews and two rounds of questionnaire surveys. The significantly influential external stakeholders, significant influencing strategies, and the significant managing strategies of the influential external stakeholders were identified through calculating MWR values using a 5-point Likert scale. Project affected parties (PAP) were demarcated as the most significantly influential external stakeholder among the 12 significantly influential external stakeholders. The influential external stakeholders were clustered as government institutes and the other external stakeholders. Seventeen influencing strategies by external stakeholders were identified as significantly influential, while six influencing strategies were specific to particular external stakeholders, and the rest were commonly practiced. Further, 22 management strategies were identified as significant, out of which 13 were specific to a particular external stakeholder, and nine were commonly used for managing the influences of external stakeholders in donor-funded irrigation infrastructure projects. Proper functioning of grievances readdresses committee (GRC) mechanism was recommended, especially for PAPs. Further, monitoring the progress of the government institutes duties at the planning and designing stage with applying key performance indicators (KPI) may facilitate timely reach the subsequent phases of the donor-funded irrigation infrastructure projects