An Assessment of Community Needs Assessment

We’re beginning to delve into the specifics of identifying a community’s needs. As we’re discussing this topic I think to myself, “yea I remember all of this from classes at Duke” but then it dawns on me…actually this is very different. What I recall from classes is how to ensure that you get a solid representation of the population when conducting a CNA, make sure focus groups have similar characteristics, gain trust, incorporate community leaders, and determine existing networks. What was fascinating though is that during these classes we more or less went in with the assumption that we already knew the answer. In a university setting, you get funded for researching a hypothesis thereby causing the researcher to be biased. It reminded me of the phrase “statistics is the best way to lie” because if you think you know the answer, you’re either consciously or unconsciously going to seek out those who will let you know what you want to hear. There are situations where your research uncovers that the real need is something completely different, but even still it usually still pertains to the same type of topic (i.e. health).
What was fascinating about this particular workshop is that I suddenly realized that in this type of Peace Corps Scenario, I’m truly going in with a blank slate. Because I’m working with the municipality, my only limitation is that it has to deal with a need identified by women. For the first time I’m not trying to just focus on health or just focus on a specific project like microfinance…the sky is the limit. I started to wonder why this topic was never really brought up. I clearly remember in class learning that the first step is to always conduct a community needs assessment, but because these were always in Global Health classes it was assumed that the need would be health related. But what is a poor student to do if she goes into a community and suddenly it turns out that what they truly want is a new school? There goes their funding? Or they continue to try to implement a health regimen that ends up not being adopted by the community because it’s a need identified by an outsider? I guess there really isn’t an answer and this topic probably falls into the ethical questions pile.
Either way, it was exciting for me to realize that I suddenly have a myriad of options and paths I can go down when dealing with development. I’ve always loved health and health care, but now I’m wondering if this experience will lead me down a different kind of path. Perhaps it will just reinforce my love for healthcare since it is incorporated in pretty much every aspect of life.
Anyway, we’ll see how my first community needs assessment goes once I get to my site. I’ll keep you all posted!