Needs Assessments in the Field of SSG/R

Disseminating the Findings and Recommendations: With whom the findings should be shared and how they will be disseminated should have been determined during the planning phase. This planning should also have included how feedback will be incorporated and who will be responsible for implementing the recommendations. In most cases, the findings will be delivered in written form as a report to the main stakeholders. If the results are to be shared more widely, the findings should first be shared with the stakeholders involved to obtain their feedback and to agree on how to address the recommendations made.

Feeding the Findings into Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: The results of the needs assessment should be analysed and fed into OSCE project and programme planning. In particular, the findings should inform the development of projects and programmes that the OSCE will prioritize for support, as well as the short-, mid- and long-term results, to which OSCE activities should contribute. In addition to the analysis of the data and the main problems identified, these findings should contribute to an understanding of relevant cause-and-effect relationships – for example, by means of a Theory of Change – and identify how the activities and outputs of the projects will lead to addressing the core problem identified or what results would be required towards the mid-term outcome and objective.

When developing UB and ExB projects and programmes that address the findings of the needs assessment, some of the data gathered should be included in the UB programme document and project logframe and the M&E frameworks: (1) to identify and measure project indicators for objectives, outcomes and outputs, (2) to identify risks and assumptions and (3) to generate baselines against which to measure progress and possible targets. Moreover, if findings from the needs assessment are relevant to other OSCE dimensions, and these were not involved from the outset, staff should ensure that these are appropriately shared with their colleagues so that they can also feed into their project and programme planning.

All these points will be discussed in the next module.