A case study of the practical use of the institutiogramme to determine relevant activities and relationships between stakeholders in South Africa and Surinam.

During a seminar on February 5, 2008, Dutch members of the Sport for Development network made an institutiogramme to determine the relevant activities and to identify the types of relationships between stakeholders in South Africa and Surinam. The seminar was organised by NCDO and hosted by the Royal Dutch Football Federation.

An institutiogramme is a visualisation of the relations between actors active in a certain field (sector, geographical area, etc.). It helps to identify the relevant actors in the respective institutional environment and identifies their relationships. It allows for the reasons for good relationships between actors to be identified and for further forms of collaboration and co-ordination to be determined.

It also emphasises relations that require improvement or that need to be newly established.

The advantages of using an institutiogramme are:

  • It helps to reduce the chance of forgetting/excluding actors who can (help) achieve the programme/project purpose;
  • It helps to take advantage of possibilities and limitations of competition and co-operation;
  • It helps to identify and include stakeholders who have key network positions and skills;
  • It creates a common understanding of the institutional setting.

 

In two workshops facilitated by MDF, the following questions were answered:

  • What are your current activities in South Africa/Kenya?
  • Can you group the activities according to objective, theme and target group?
  • With which partners do you need to cooperate?
  • Which activities are you planning in the future in South Africa/Kenya?
  • When you look at the matrix of activities, organisations and partners: how can you coordinate activities and join efforts to maximise results?

 

The two downloads illustrate the results of the workshop exercise. Making an institutiogramme therefore reduces the tendency to design and create parallel structures. Several opportunities to collaborate were identified