Having lost the original stakeholder map that set me on this eternally fascinating path, I became far more diligent at saving and backing up my work!
I enrolled in the MPhil programme at the Energy Research Centre (UCT) in late 2014, and for most of the first year steadily built my data sets on excel spreadsheets. The data was made up of media tracking, contact information, research publications, policy updates and my own notes from public consultations from mid-2009 onward – all relevant to the finally gazetted Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2010.
In 2015 I began to prepare for writing up my dissertation and I soon realised that what I was missing was a visual tool to tell the stories I wanted to tell. Spreadsheets were simply not up to the task. I discovered a free mind mapping software and started to figure out its functionality while I continued to add to the spreadsheets. Later I would learn to safely enter the data directly into the software, but as a novice, I was not there yet.
The dissertation I submitted ultimately benefited from three sets of inputs: formal interviews with officials, civil society and academic colleagues who had been part of the IRP2010 engagement process, many solitary hours of re-reading and extracting relevant points from my personal notebooks covering 5 years of policy advocacy work. And finally, with my supervisor’s guidance I had discovered a theoretical framework that assisted me in organising my analysis: Advocacy Coalitions Framework Theory.
Taken together, I was then able to scientifically and reliably analyse and map a historic five-year period in our country’s energy transition and arrive at a set of robust conclusions without being overwhelmed by the quantum of data I was working with.
By this point I had retained my preference for manual analysis of the data, but I had now taken the important step of entering my analysed data into the software for visual reports. The result was a set of visually appealing, self-explanatory maps that clearly tracked the movements of diverse coalitions concerned with the country’s integrated resource planning process between 2010 and 2015.
While doing the work I had not even considered that no one else had mapped the stakeholders within South Africa’s energy sector in this way before. I was engrossed by the task and honing my skill in optimally utilising this superb tool. Once my dissertation was examined and the MPhil awarded, I began to share some of the maps, and it was only then that I realised how many others found them fascinating.
Between 2016 and early 2019 my workload was heavier than any I had ever experienced before, and so while I could not continue to expand my practice in building sector-specific stakeholder maps, I continued to use the software to think, plan and understand the many complexities and power relationships that I encountered. This
interregnum also allowed me to play with the functionality of the software. Mind mapping, especially utilising software that allows you to visualise data in countless formats, is an effective tool that can be used at any scale. Whether you use it to plan a project, to understand the complexities of any idea, or to map a complex system that must be understood as a basis for wise action, it will reward you with clarity of thought and a good sense of direction.
It was only in mid-2019 when an unexpected career break arrived, that I could finally turn my attention back to the energy transition sector as a whole and ramp up my skills on stakeholder mapping. I now took the next step in my journey – working only with the software.
Since 2019 I have been practising the art and science of collecting, arranging, making consistent and finally producing a holistic map of public sector stakeholders influencing South Africa’s energy transition. These maps are made up of several layers: the names of stakeholder organisations, the people who lead them, the partnerships among organisations and the programmes and projects undertaken by them and more.
I produced an initial update of the 2019 map in early 2023 and have now begun to produce annual updates. The most recent update published in August 2024, focused on strengthening the data contained in the area of Just transition and Climate Finance. I have also been commissioned to build related maps e.g. with a gender inclusivity lens and drilling down into various elements of the map in more detail.
The current version of the main public sector stakeholder map is equivalent to a rich broth which has benefited from years of brewing – built upon my memory of the first physical map, the data-fed maps that went into my 2016 dissertation, the 2019 software-only maps and subsequent updates.
If you are keen to draw on my skill in this area – whether to assist you with drafting a stakeholder map or calling on me to advise you on what to think about when mapping or even just how to begin, please feel free to be in touch and we can discuss what is possible.
