A Guide To Assessing Needs

The earliest decisions that lead to development projects are among the most critical in determining long-term success. This phase of project development transforms exciting ideas into project proposals, setting the stage for a variety of actions that will eventually lead (if all goes well) to desirable results. From deciding to propose a sanitation project in South Asia to selecting approaches that strengthen school management in South America, these decisions are the starting place of development. This book is your guide to having assessing needs and then making essential decisions about what to do next. Needs assessments support this early phase of project development with proven approaches for gathering information and making justifiable decisions. Filled with practical strategies, tools, and guides, you will find that this book covers both large-scale formal needs assessments, as well as less-formal assessments that guide daily decisions. Included in the book is a blend of rigorous methods and realistic tools that can help you make informed and reasoned decisions. Use the tools featured in the book to conduct focus groups, develop surveys, prioritize needs, and lead group decision-making; developing a comprehensive, yet realistic, approach to identifying needs and selecting among alternative ways forward.

Making informed decisions is the essential beginning to any successful development project. Before the project even begins, you can use needs assessment approaches to guide your decisions. This book is filled with practical strategies that can help you define the desired results and select the most appropriate activities for achieving them.

"Sometimes a book appears on your desk that successfully defines a field. You look at the book and say "thank you." Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments is such a book. . . . This book is clearly grounded in program planning and is not an afterthought or add-on to some other field. . . . I am excited to see this book appear in print. It clearly fills a niche that has been empty for some time: a practical approach to learning about and conducting needs assessments. . . . This is a marvelous book that should make a significant contribution to the field." --From the Foreword by Nick Eastmond, Utah State University "While it has the depth and breadth to be used in a classroom, Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments is written simply and directly enough to be a hands-on guide for needs assessment users and practitioners. The framework proposed by the authors is excellent in that it is readily understood and focuses attention on the most important details/issues in needs assessment practice. The fact that they also present an explanation of so many tools, including examples, makes the book required reading for anyone intending to plan or contract for a needs assessment." --John Theiss, Director of Planning and Evaluation, Texas

Needs Assessment for Learning and Performance offers comprehensive coverage of the knowledge and skills needed to develop and conduct needs assessments and to analyze, interpret, and communicate results to clients and organizations. Though critical to planning any performance improvement system, needs assessments can feel abstract and vague to students who have not yet managed the process in a professional setting. This first-of-its-kind textbook uses a variety of real-world examples to connect major theories and models to effective principles for practice. Each chapter offers guiding questions, key terms and concepts, recommended readings, and case studies illustrating how needs assessment training can be applied. Graduate students and researchers of instructional design, human resources, performance improvement, program evaluation, and other programs will find this volume relevant to a range of academic and organizational contexts.

Go beyond traditional paper-and-pencil tests! This book provides a framework and practical ideas for assessing 21st century skills such as problem solving, collaboration, and creativity.

The assessment of needs and the process of planning care are central issues in modern social work practice. Skilled assessment of client needs and strengths is essential to effective planning and efficient provision of quality social work services including both counselling and personal care. The focus of this book is on the development of the skills required at each stage of the social work process: assessment, care planning, implementation and evaluation. Throughout the book a balance is maintained between the focus on client involvement and the role of the social worker in an agency. The latter part of the book addresses practical issues in developing new approaches to assessment and care planning: primary workers, individual support and managing change. Social work practitioners, managers and trainers and students on qualifying and pre-qualifying training will find this an invaluable aid to the development of sound and yet creative practice.

What assistance do disaster-affected communities need? This book guides humanitarian field staff in answering this vital question during the early days and weeks following a disaster, when timely and competent assessment is crucial for enabling informed decision making. Needs assessment is essential for program planning, monitoring and evaluation. In an emergency response, however, a quick and simple approach to needs assessment may be the only practical possibility--in other words, it needs to be "good enough". This guide does not explain every activity needed to carry out an assessment, but it describes the assessment process and provides a step-by-step guide through the process. It also contains a number of tools and resources that may be helpful when planning or carrying out humanitarian needs assessments. This guide is essential reading for field staff carrying out assessments after a humanitarian crisis; it should also be read by humanitarian policy makers, students, lecturers and researchers.