Who will participate in the dialogue?

Different political systems may have different requirements or traditions related to who will be invited to meetings to discuss policy issues and to how many people will participate. It may not be possible or desirable to deviate from these requirements or traditions. Nonetheless, the arbitrary or biased selection of participants should be avoided as far as possible, and careful consideration should be given to who will participate in a policy dialogue.

A policy dialogue should include people with relevant expertise and perspectives. Identifying an appropriate range and mix of people may require several steps, including:

1.    Mapping the stakeholders (i.e. creating a list of categories of people, groups or organisations) who have an interest in the policy issue. These could include:

• Policymakers – including elected officials, political staff and civil servants – at national and sub-national levels of government. These people may be based in departments other than Health or Finance
• Managers in districts or regions, healthcare institutions (e.g. hospitals), non-governmental organisations, and other relevant types of organisations
• Civil society groups – including consumer groups, health professional associations, industry associations, and other relevant groups
• Researchers in national research institutions, universities, and from other countries

 
2.    Mapping the experts (i.e. creating a list of the types of experts needed) relevant to the policy issue. This group could include, among others:

• Researchers from different disciplines
• Health professionals from different professions and specialities
• Civil servants and managers from relevant programmes
• Professionals and consumers with practical experience

3.    Finding people with expertise in political, policy development, and group processes to map the different factors that need to be understood, and ensuring that participants are able to bring an understanding of diverse factors such as the:

• Regulatory and institutional constraints
• On-the-ground realities and constraints
• Values and beliefs of those who will be affected
• Underlying incentives, influence, and authority within and among key interest groups
• Social, political and economic factors beyond the health sector that affect the problem and potential solutions
• International factors that affect the problem and potential solutions, including the influence of donor strategies, actions and aid modalities

4.    Finding individuals who are able to represent relevant stakeholders and viewpoints and who have the relevant kinds of expertise. Relevant stakeholder organisations can be asked to assist with the identification and nomination of individuals. Specifying the types of people who will be needed in terms of their expertise or viewpoints, and in terms of specific selection criteria for participants (see below) is important. It should also be made clear whether participants are partaking in their official capacity as representatives of an interest group or in their personal capacity. Although some individuals may be associated with particular interest groups they may, in fact, only be representing their personal interests or concerns. A list of criteria for selecting participants can be sent to stakeholder organisations when asking for nominations and this should stipulate their required skills, including their ability to:

• Articulate the views and experiences of a particular constituency
• Engage with participants drawn from other constituencies and listen to them
• Appreciate the value of scientific and other types of evidence and understand the role of evidence in informing decisions
• Champion the implementation of options to address the problem within their constituencies

5.    Selecting those individuals who will be invited

6.    Inviting individuals to participate: Asking for several nominations from each stakeholder group may help to select the most appropriate people. Some individuals, such as health professionals or researchers who have become policymakers or managers, may fill more than one role. They may, for example, be able not only to represent a stakeholder perspective but also to provide relevant expertise and an understanding of the important factors as a result of their previous experience. Finding a group of people who have the desired range of perspectives and expertise can be achieved by first generating a list of recommended individuals and then selecting those to be invited from this. This selection process might also allow other potentially important characteristics to be considered, such as the geographical representation of participants.

When deciding on the number of invitees, a key consideration should be the need to balance the representation of all key constituencies with the full and active participation of all those involved. The ideal size of a group will depend on a variety of factors including the range of stakeholders who have an interest in the policy issue, the nature of the policy issue and the types of expertise that are needed, and the national traditions and culture. Having more than 18 participants may create coordination problems and limit the extent to which they are able to participate.^1,3,4,5,6 However, it may sometimes be desirable to include more people. There are at least two key ways of coping with larger groups. The first is to include some people as full participants and others either as observers or as participants who will contribute in restricted ways (they may, for example, only provide a specific type of expertise when this is needed). The second way is to break up the participation into smaller discussion groups which then report back to the main group. It is important that this feedback process is managed well since it can easily become tedious and time consuming. The reports to the main group should be succinct, focus only on key issues, and not be an attempt to summarise everything that was discussed in the small groups. Assigned ‘rapporteurs’ could meet prior to reporting back to the large group, perhaps during a break, to synthesise the outcomes of the small group discussions. This feedback can facilitate follow-up discussions on those issues that warrant most consideration.

Another way to increase participation while at the same time limiting the number of those involved in the dialogue process, is to ask those who were nominated but not included (due perhaps to there being too many nominees or because they were unavailable at the time) to comment on the policy brief. If this is done in advance of the dialogue, their additional relevant comments could also be included.

Once the key individuals have been identified, care should be taken to ensure that they are both interested and able to participate. Attention should therefore be given to:

• Selecting a convenient date and checking that participation is unlikely to be affected by the timing of other potentially conflicting events
• Setting the date well in advance
• Ensuring that the dialogue starts and finishes at convenient times, factoring in the duration of travel to and from the chosen venue
• Selecting a convenient location and venue
• Inviting participants well in advance
• Ensuring that the dialogue is convened by organisations which are widely perceived as relevant and that the invitations come from the appropriate people within those organisations 
• Ensuring that the invitation letter will appeal to those invited

The invitation should be brief and compelling. Consideration should be given to attracting participation by including and ensuring that the following will appeal to those invited to the dialogue:

• The organisations that are convening and hosting the dialogue
• The title of the dialogue
• How the dialogue will feed into the policy development process
• Clear, achievable and relevant dialogue objectives
• The range of invited participants
• The agenda and format
• The expected dialogue outputs
• Direct invitations by telephone may help to ensure participation

This page was last updated November 2011.