{"id":318,"date":"2025-10-07T12:39:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/?post_type=chapter&p=318"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:08:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:08:35","slug":"defining-what-is","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/chapter\/defining-what-is\/","title":{"raw":"11.3 Defining what is, what should be and for whom","rendered":"11.3 Defining what is, what should be and for whom"},"content":{"raw":"Needs assessment is a type of evaluation that provides information on the relevance of the intervention before implementation (ex-ante) or information about whether an existing intervention is still relevant, based on the analysis of socio-ecological characteristics of its implementation context (ex-post).\r\n
From a program evaluation perspective, needs assessment is the means by which an evaluator determines whether there is a need for a program and, if so, the nature and extent of that need and related implications for program services appropriate to address that need. Needs assessment is critical for the design of new programs, but it is also relevant for established programs when it cannot be assumed that the programs continue to meet the need or that the need has not changed. (Rossi et al., 2019, p. 31)<\/blockquote>\r\nNeeds assessment is a fundamental exercise to make sure programs contribute positively to solving a problem.\r\n
\r\n
Needs assessment is a process or a systematic set of procedures undertaken for the purpose of setting priorities and making decisions about programs and organizational improvement or allocation of resources. The priorities come from identified needs, which are measured discrepancies (gaps) between the current (what is) state of affairs of a group or organization and the desired (what should be) state in regard to variables of interest. (Witkin & Altschuld, 1995, p. 276)<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\nDefining \u201cWhat is\u201d and \u201cWhat should be\u201d involves identifying the target population (For whom?) and determining important elements from the context to take into consideration.\r\n\r\nRelevance is a relative concept and is determined by taking into consideration different elements, an important one being the population the intervention is intended to serve. Needs assessments can be conducted across country populations, large communities, small groups or more narrowly within organizations (Gupta et al., 2014). In this chapter, for simplicity, the group the needs assessment will include is<\/strong> called \u201ccommunity\u201d. It could include small communities defined by the population an organization serves, or larger communities up to a nation or the population of a country. Clarifying early who the relevant community is<\/strong> will help narrow<\/strong> down the scope of the evaluation.","rendered":"

Needs assessment is a type of evaluation that provides information on the relevance of the intervention before implementation (ex-ante) or information about whether an existing intervention is still relevant, based on the analysis of socio-ecological characteristics of its implementation context (ex-post).<\/p>\n

From a program evaluation perspective, needs assessment is the means by which an evaluator determines whether there is a need for a program and, if so, the nature and extent of that need and related implications for program services appropriate to address that need. Needs assessment is critical for the design of new programs, but it is also relevant for established programs when it cannot be assumed that the programs continue to meet the need or that the need has not changed. (Rossi et al., 2019, p. 31)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Needs assessment is a fundamental exercise to make sure programs contribute positively to solving a problem.<\/p>\n

\n

Needs assessment is a process or a systematic set of procedures undertaken for the purpose of setting priorities and making decisions about programs and organizational improvement or allocation of resources. The priorities come from identified needs, which are measured discrepancies (gaps) between the current (what is) state of affairs of a group or organization and the desired (what should be) state in regard to variables of interest. (Witkin & Altschuld, 1995, p. 276)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Defining \u201cWhat is\u201d and \u201cWhat should be\u201d involves identifying the target population (For whom?) and determining important elements from the context to take into consideration.<\/p>\n

Relevance is a relative concept and is determined by taking into consideration different elements, an important one being the population the intervention is intended to serve. Needs assessments can be conducted across country populations, large communities, small groups or more narrowly within organizations (Gupta et al., 2014). In this chapter, for simplicity, the group the needs assessment will include is<\/strong> called \u201ccommunity\u201d. It could include small communities defined by the population an organization serves, or larger communities up to a nation or the population of a country. Clarifying early who the relevant community is<\/strong> will help narrow<\/strong> down the scope of the evaluation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-318","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":312,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/318\/revisions\/683"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/312"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/318\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}