Identifying Sustainability Issues Using Participatory SWOT Analysis

The aim of this paper was to demonstrate how participatory strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis can be used to identify relevant economic, ecological and societal (EES) issues for the assessment of sustainable development. This is illustrated by the case of egg production in the Netherlands. Participatory methods are used to facilitate the exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge of all relevant stakeholders and to create a basis for implementation of the final results. It can be concluded that the combination of a brainstorming session and SWOT analysis with a heterogeneous group of stakeholders constitutes a useful tool to order and structure these listed aspects and to identify relevant issues for sustainable development. Final selection of EES issues from the SWOT analysis, however, required additional reviewing of the literature and consultation with experts from specific fields. Final EES issues selected in the case study of Dutch egg production include welfare and health, environment, quality, ergonomics, economics, consumer concerns, and knowledge and innovation.

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