Chapter Two: Project

identification and Project design

2.1. Project identification criteria: relevance, feasibility,

sustainability and eligibility
2.2. Need assessment and capacity assessment
2.3. Conducting a stakeholder analysis
2.4. Risk assessment and analysis
2.5. Analyzing the problem: problem tree analysis
2.6Analyzing the objectives: objective tree analysis
2.7Selecting your strategy/ strategy analysis
Project Identification
Defining the Problem

• It is hard to agree on a problem. The way you define a

problem determines how you will solve it. If you have the
wrong definition, you may come up with the right solution—to
the wrong problem!

• The way you define a problem determines how you will solve
it.
Project Identification
• A person may say, “I have a problem.” It is important to
distinguish between the basic or core problem and those at
another level. People sometimes define a problem as a goal. A
goal in itself is not a problem.

• A problem is a gap between where you are and where you

want to be, with obstacles existing that prevent easy
movement to close the gap.
Needs and Capacity assessment

• Another step in the project cycle is to identify an issue that a

project could address.
•
• This usually involves a ‘needs assessment’ which finds out
what community needs are and whom they affect.
•
• Only when we know what people really want can we develop
an effective project.
•
Needs and Capacity assessment

• The needs assessment is followed by a ‘capacity assessment’

to see what strengths the community has which it can use to
address its problems.

• The project should seek to strengthen any weaknesses. This,

in effect, starts with a capacity assessment by asking
community members to identify the resources they have and
then asks them how they want to use them in the future.
•
• The project can then aim to help the community achieve part
of its vision.
Needs and Capacity assessment

• Analyzing the present actual situation can be ‘problem based’

or ‘opportunity based’. It concerns identifying the priority
problems/ opportunities and their main causes, and
identifying the causes that can be addressed by the project
intervention.

• It is essential to understand the resources within the

community or from others that are relevant to tackling the
problems.
Needs and Capacity assessment

• It is important therefore that all citizens and stakeholder

groups get the chance to express the problems they
experience and recommend solutions.

• Discussions, opinions and clarifications by the problem

‘owners’ should be respected. This ensures that ‘ownership’
which is part of the project pre-feasibility is established from
people’s needs and requirements.
•
Needs assessment
• We might already have a good idea of local needs. They might
be quite obvious, or we might have become aware of them
during a past project.
•
• On the other hand, we might have no idea what a
community’s needs are. It is important to carry out a needs
assessment before planning development work, whether we
think we know what the needs are or not.
Reasons for conducting ‘Needs
assessment’
• The project should come out of what people say they want
and not from assumptions that we make.

• Sometimes the needs are not immediately clear or cannot be

easily understood.

• By talking to different people, we will be able to understand

how problems affect people differently. For example, poor
access to clean water may affect women more than men
because women have to walk a long way to fetch water.
Reasons for conducting ‘Needs
assessment’
• Circumstances change
• There may be new people in the community.
• There may be new needs.
• Old needs might have been addressed.
• Problems might be affecting people differently.

• Needs assessment gives people an opportunity to prioritize

their needs, which leads to a more sustainable development
project.
Reasons for conducting ‘Needs
assessment’
• The time spent carrying out a need assessment may vary
according to the contact we have had with a community in the
past. In general, needs assessment is done fairly quickly.
•
• At this stage, we are trying to gain an impression of needs and
who the project beneficiaries might be. We are not looking for
too much detail.

• Further research into stakeholders and causes and effects of

the problem is carried out during the design phase of the
project cycle.
Reasons for conducting ‘Needs
assessment’
•
• Try to talk to a variety of people, such as key community
members or representatives of community groups.
•
• Or use methods that can draw out the views of many people
in a short space of time, such as community mapping.
• We do not want to be raising expectations or wasting people’s
time. Make sure that the people we talk to include women,
men, girls, boys, the elderly, people with disabilities etc.
Tools we can use for needs
assessment
• There are many tools that enable communities to identify
their needs. A few tools are outlined below as examples of
some of the options available. These tools can be adapted for
the capacity assessment.

Examples of the tools include:

• Listening,
• Interviewing,
• FGD,
• Community Mapping etc
Possible types of needs in a
community
• Needs assessments usually reveal as many as four types of needs in
a community. They help give one an overall picture of the needs.

• Felt needs – Are usually indicated by participants in answer to the

question: “what do you need?” -Thoughtful questioning, including
questions about existing services and resources
•
• Expressed needs – Relate to what goods, services, knowledge, and
skills people are willing to use, seek, or buy in real life.
•
• Normative needs – Are indicated by “expert” opinion, and usually
reflect more objective standards or policy
•
• Comparative/relative needs – Relate to the level of need in a given
project area compared to other communities
Some information needed for needs
assessment
When conducting needs assessment, we may need to collect
information on:
• Population:
• Infrastructure
• Health
• Education
• Social beliefs, customs, religion, ethnicity, gender issue,
marriage and family structure
• Economics
• Material and human resources
• Opinions
• Knowledge
• Others…
Other information sources for needs
assessment
Other formal information sources for needs assessment could
also be:
• Need and capacity assessment
• Policy reviews and development plans made by central
government ministries
• Sectoral surveys by technical ministries.
• Survey conducted by local government (district and regional)
and other regional organization.
• Formal problem diagnosis and analysis exercises.
• Environmental and natural resource surveys.
• Reviews and evaluations of past projects.
Capacity assessment

• Communities should be encouraged to use their own

capacities and resources to address the problems they face.

• It is therefore important to carry out a capacity assessment

after needs assessment to identify strengths that the
community could use to address the problems they identified
earlier.

• The project, if needed, should focus on strengthening the

community’s capacities to address their problems. By doing
this, we are facilitating the community to address their
problems rather than addressing their problems for them.
Assets that can be used during
capacity assessment
Capacity assessment involves six types of assets:
• HUMAN: These enable people to make use of their other
resources. They include skills, knowledge, ability to work and
good health.
• SOCIAL: These are based on relationships and include
organizations and groups within the community, political
structures and informal networks.
• NATURAL: These form the local environment and include land,
trees, water, air, climate and minerals.
Assets that can be used during
capacity assessment
• PHYSICAL: These are man-made, such as building, transport,
water supply and sanitation services, energy sources and
telecommunications.

• ECONOMIC: These are things that people can use to sustain

their livelihoods, such as money and savings, grain stores,
livestock, tools and equipment.

Using participatory techniques, such as those used for the needs

assessment, ask community members to identify their
capacities. Remember to ask a range of community members, as
different people have different perspectives.