Engaging the local stakeholders in policy crafting and co-development of decision support systems can result in policies tailored for local socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics. The effective stakeholder’s engagement hinges on understanding their vision and expectation from the decision-making process, among others. SEVA is an open access tool developed by IIASA researchers for exploratory analysis of stakeholders’ roles and their visions.
The inclusive decision-making process can increase the sustainability of decisions and adopted policies, particularly for policies that address societal issues or have a social dimension. The inclusive approach to decision-making creates the opportunity to include different aspects of the issue being tackled as well as the existing knowledge. As such, stakeholder engagement is essential for informed decision-making and sustainable policy crafting, whether its tackling disaster risk reduction, climate adaptability or any other resilience building. Policies designed by including the stakeholders in the decision-making process can reflect the local social characteristics, since they include the concerns, visions, and priorities of local stakeholders. The first step in engaging the stakeholders in decision-making processes is to understand their roles, responsibilities, their goals and expected outcomes for decision-making, and their vision of the addressed issue.
The analysis of the stakeholders' characteristics and their vision is a crucial first step in stakeholder engagement for decision-making. The main goal of analyzing stakeholder characteristics and their vision is to explore and understand the different stakeholders involved in the decision-making process from different perspectives. In this manner, the stakeholder characteristics and vision should be analyzed with exploratory methods. The result of this exploratory analysis can be used to design the effective stakeholder engagement framework, analyze the diversity of included stakeholders, and construct hypotheses where necessary. The comprehensive analysis calls for including different aspects of the stakeholders’ characteristics as well as the potential decisions that are planned to be evaluated. However, the large dimensions of such data can pose a challenge in analyzing stakeholders' data.
Cooperation and Transformative Governance (CAT) released the first version of Stakeholders Exploratory Vision Analysis (SEVA), new tool for Stakeholders’ vision analysis. SEVA is a flexible web app for exploring the stakeholder’s characteristics and visions ant their relations. The first version of SEVA was developed and used as part of the stakeholder engagement efforts in Multi-hazard and Risk-informed System for Enhanced Local and Regional Disaster Risk Management (MEDiate) project. SEVA is designed to be a simple and practical practically usable for effective stakeholder engagements.
© IIASA
SEVA tool’s flexible interface
Read more about SEVA here.
To use SEVA, click here.
News
28 May 2026
Nexus of Sustainability: Springer monograph devoted to joint IIASA and Ukraine NMO project
Nexus of Sustainability: Understanding of FEWSE Systems II is a 2026 Springer monograph detailing the interdependencies between food, energy, water, society, and the environment (FEWSE). It focuses on risk management, robust modeling, and sustainable development, featuring recent research of the joint research project between IIASA and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU, Ukraine NMO at IIASA) on “Integrated modeling for robust management of food-energy-water-land use nexus for sustainable development”.
28 May 2026
CAT contributes to Expert Round Table on Climate Misinformation under MIP4Adapt
Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) contributed to the Expert Round Table on Climate Misinformation, organized within the framework of the MIP4Adapt initiative. MIP4Adapt (Mission Implementation Platform) is the central support mechanism for the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, aiding regions and local authorities in planning and implementing climate resilience strategies. It provides technical assistance, community building, and funding guidance to Charter signatories.
05 May 2026
Amazon understory forests show short-term boost in CO₂ uptake – but this comes at a cost
Tropical forests are one of the planet's most important carbon sinks – often also called "the lungs of the Earth". But their future in a high-CO₂ world remains uncertain. IIASA researchers contributed to a new study, which suggests even small understory trees in the Amazon may initially buffer climate change more strongly. Their long-term capacity to store carbon could, however, be restricted by nutrient availability, highlighting the vulnerability of these ecosystems under future climate conditions.