At a Glance
In Step 7, you will work with community or organization representatives to review the data collected and its analysis, identify needs, agree on prioritization of these needs and plan action(s) to address them.
Tools to Help
Who is Involved
The Facilitator of the needs analysis should conduct this work, with support from the Steering Committee.
Output
The cycle ends when the stakeholders agree on who will address what need, how and when the group will check in to learn about the progress of actions taken, and when to begin a new round of review for the same group of performers.
1 How to Get Started
The first step in summarizing your findings is to capture the needs you identified for the population as a whole, and for any specific groups of interest such as gender, age, or geography. The Needs Summary Table is a great tool to help lay out these needs visually for consideration by the Steering Committee.
2 Next
Once the Committee has reviewed and agreed with the identified needs, it’s time to consider which needs you will agree to address, who will consider what options are strategically and practically viable to address each need, including creation of an SBCC strategy, and the general timelines for that work. The Priority Matrix and Action Tracker will let you build that information for each identified need. You will likely want to start by identifying which needs are the most critical for delivery of services and that, if not resolved, can block the delivery of any services whatsoever. These should be your top priorities—needs like safety, supplies, and any other component that affects the work to such an extent that minimum standards of service delivery cannot be met until they are addressed.
3 Then
Consider which identified needs should be addressed if resources are still available after meeting critical needs. In general, those needs that interact with others are usually excellent candidates for their good use of funds and effort in solving multiple problems. Be sure that you are equitably addressing needs across each of the essential factors, since addressing all the needs in only one area is unlikely to raise performance overall. Keep in mind that addressing the underlying reasons behind each need will be important in the design and implementation of an intervention to address it.
4 Finally
The Steering Committee should work as a team to identify a logical owner for each need as well as a timeframe for assessing the impact of actions taken. Setting up this accountability for Committee members is essential for ensuring the work will get done and that the team truly feels the communal engagement with one another and can enjoy the successful outcomes as a team.
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