Methods of performing a community Needs Assessment
• There are various methods of assessing a community’s needs and
using the best method is essential together the correct information
that can assist community groups or organisations to make decisions
about allocating resources.
• Approaches used in community needs assessment
• There are five approaches commonly used in needs assessment
1) Existing data approach
2) Survey approach
3) Key informant approach
4) Community forum
5) Focus group interview
Existing data approach
• The nutritionist can use existing statistical data such as national vital
statistics to obtain information about the well being of people.
• This approach uses descriptive statistics such as census data, labour
surveys, income data, food consumption data, school and hospital
information
• Advantages of this approach
• The data are available, are relatively inexpensive, and are faster to
use than conducting an original study
• The nutritionist can benefit from the research of top experts in the
field which ensures high quality data
• The nutritionist will benefit from utilizing samples from larger
populations
Disadvantages of this approach
• The nutritionist must relate the data to a particular community’s nutrition
issues
• Many surveys deal with national populations so the nutritionist may
experience difficulty finding data for a well-defined minority subgroup
• There is potential of manipulating the data in such a way that the validity
and reliability of the original research is lessened
• Some research may involve very large samples and difficult statistical
packages
Survey approach
• This approach involve training or experience on how to create and
administer questionnaires.
• Data is collected through personal interviews, telephone surveys,
hand-delivered questionnaires or mailed questionnaires.
• The data are collected from a wide range of representative
community residents about issues pertaining to their well-being and
needs.
• The nutritionist should consider the following before deciding to use this
approach;
1) Cost of implementation
2) Time needed for completion
3) Individuals’ rate of refusal
4) The magnitude and type of training the supporting staff need to
carry out the survey
Advantages of this approach
• The entire population may be surveyed
• It provides an opportunity for many people to feel involved in the
decision making
• It works well in combination with other systematic needs assessment
techniques
Disadvantages
• It may be expensive
• It requires great deal of time and expertise to develop the survey,
train interviewers, conduct interviews, and analyze and interpret the
result.
Key Informant Approach
• The key informant approach requires the nutritionist to first identify the key
leaders, decision makers and professionals in the community e.g school faculty
and administrators, hospital administrators, church leaders, mayors,
commissioners, physicians who can identify accurately the priority needs and
concerns of the community.
• The nutritionist needs to compile a list of key informants’ names and decide how
to collect data from them.
✓As with survey approach , you will need to create a questionnaire for gathering
the information. Key informants would complete the questionnaire or be
interviewed to obtain their perception of the community’s needs.
✓ The information is then analysed and presented to the community.
• Advantages of the key informant approach
• The technique can be combined effectively with other techniques
• It is inexpensive
• It allows continuous clarification of ideas and information
Disadvantages
• An additional approach is needed because these results donot represent
the total community perspective
• The information obtained from this technique may be biased
Community Forum
• One or more public meetings are held and the participants discuss
the needs of the community.
• The nutritionist should create a list of questions to be used for the
group discussion.
• All members of the community, including key informant, should be
encouraged to attend and express their concerns about their well-
being and perceived needs.
Advantages of this technique
• It allows input from many individuals with different perspectives on
the needs of the community.
• It provides an opportunity for all community members to participate
in the needs assessment
• In-depth information can be collected
• It can be combined effectively with other technique
Disadvantages
• The information collected may be limited to thosewho agree to
participate
• Only those who are more vocal will be heard if the forum isnot
well moderated
• It may generate more questions than answers
Focus Group Discussions
• This approach involves selecting and interviewing people for their particular skills,
experiences or positions.
• Group discussions are then used to obtain detailed information about a particular
issue. The participants are representatives of your target population.
• The participants are asked to respond to a series of questions about a topic or an
issue. It is more effective to divide the participants into groups of 7-12
participants.
• The meeting is moderated by an experienced interviewer.
Advantages
• It can be used to expand the data obtained from surveys or existing data
• The data can be used to create surveys for future use
• It provides an opportunity to clarify ideas
• It stimulates critical thinking
Disadvantages
• It doesn’t give everybody in the community the opportunity to provide ideas
• It must be combined with another technique because data from this approach
may not be enough to get a complete picture of the issues
A framework for performing an assessment
• One person can carry out a needs assessment survey, but generally
the survey will be more usual if it is designed and carried out by a
group of individuals.
• This is particularly true if no one working on it has special experience
in the field.
• The following nine-step framework provides a useful guide for planning and
conducting a needs assessment:
1) Decide when to conduct the needs assessment and set up a committee that will
motivate community members to become involved in the needs assessment.
Then, develop a plan of action
2) List important issues or needs of the community. Decide what information needs
to be collected after reviewing available information
3) Determine the target population to be surveyed and how the data will be
collected.
4) Determine the availability of existing data and what information will need to be
gathered using a survey. Determine the cost estimates and the time frame
5) Identify and train the assessment team. Develop and pretest the questionnaire,
and then randomly select a sample of the individuals to survey.
6) Collect the data
7) Analyse the data
8)Interpret the results to identify priority needs, possible intervention
strategies, and resources
9)Present the results of the needs assessment to all the stakeholders
and the community
