EMERGENCY NEEDS ASSESSMENTS

6.1 Overview and Function

Needs assessments are required to understand the impact of an event or crisis on affected populations: which populations are most affected, what their coping strategies are and which humanitarian interventions would most aid the population. An emergency needs assessment may be carried out during the first phase of a new emergency or when there has been a significant change to an ongoing emergency such as a sudden population influx.

The key objectives of an emergency needs assessment are to work towards ensuring that:

·       Humanitarian aid is needs based;

·       Humanitarian aid promotes rather than undermines safe local coping mechanisms;

·       The unique and respective needs of different populations have been identified and understood;

·       Decisions regarding humanitarian aid are based on verifiable information.

According to its mandate, which is based on its statute and resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly, UNHCR will coordinate and lead all aspects of humanitarian response in refugee emergencies, including coordinated needs assessments.

How-to Guide

For the initial needs assessment in a new refugee emergency, UNHCR should lead a “joint” multi-sectoral needs assessment, covering multiple sectors and including the participation of multiple humanitarian actors. In non-refugee emergencies, UNHCR may participate in similar multi-agency needs assessment exercises to which many of the principles described here will also apply.  For these exercises, UNHCR IM staff should familiarize themselves with the Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) methodology.  

Joint assessments are useful to establish a common understanding of the situation among actors and to maximize the use of available resources. As the emergency progresses, harmonized and/or sector-specific assessments may be undertaken. 

Note: Definitions used in the above chart are from the IASC Operational Guidance for Coordinated Assessment in Humanitarian Emergencies (March 2012).

Emergency Needs Assessment Process

Needs assessments are often situation dependent, and the design of the assessment will be affected by numerous factors. These include the level of humanitarian access, whether population movements are stable or dynamic, the amount of time and resources available for the assessment, and the types of interventions that might be made as a result of the assessment, to name a few.

Here are the basic steps for designing and conducting an emergency needs assessment (note that while listed in the general order of events many of these steps will need to run in parallel):

• Establish basic situational awareness;
• Identify purpose and types of decisions that require needs assessment information;
• Identify inter-agency stakeholders;
• Identify time and resources required for the needs assessment, including equipment, translators, data collectors and data entry personnel;
• Conduct a secondary data review, compile a 3W and identify remaining information gaps through a situational analysis;
• Decide how communities will be sampled;
• Design and test the data collection forms;
• Train the data collection team;
• Undertake primary data collection;
• Collate, clean and analyze resulting data;
• Disseminate data and information products; and
• Begin monitoring.

The general principles described in this chapter apply to any type of emergency needs assessment.  However, carrying out a needs assessment in urban areas can present unique challenges, particularly in the identification of geographic areas and populations to be surveyed.  Special considerations for urban assessments are included throughout this chapter. 

8.1.1 UNHCR roles and responsibilities

The UNHCR Representative in the country of the emergency is responsible for leading and coordinating the overall refugee needs assessment by establishing the required sectoral coordination. In an appropriate inter-agency forum, the Representative should request operational partners to nominate staff to participate in the Assessment Team (see below) for the needs assessment. A Needs Assessment Coordinator will need to be identified within UNHCR to follow-up and make contact with sector and/or organizational focal points. Sectoral leads and emergency coordinators will need to decide on the information required from a needs assessment in order to inform the operational strategy, while the Information Management Officer will provide support with assessment methodology, design, data collection, analysis and coordination.

8.1.2 The Assessment Team and Refugee Information Management Working Group (RIM WG)

An Assessment Team is a temporary working group of stakeholders who will manage a needs assessment.  Members of this team include operational leads who will decide what information is required for decision-making, interpret the results of the assessment and design interventions according to those results, as well as an Information Manager, who will design the assessment, select the sites to be assessed, compile the data and produce information products based on it.

Among the duties of the Assessment Team are:

• Agreement on time frame, data collection methods, cleaning and analysis of data and sharing and dissemination of results;
• Identification of an emergency referral system for urgent interventions needed that are uncovered during the needs assessment process;
• Agreement on minimum life-saving sectoral data;
• Finalization of assessment method and design;
• Site selection; and
• Coordination of resources, training and logistics.

The Assessment Team will need to identify the required resources to undertake the exercise in the field, based on the scale of the assessment to be conducted. Limitations on resources may affect the design of the assessment. The amount of resources spent on the needs assessment should never exceed 10 per cent of the value of the interventions that will be made on the basis of the assessment, and ideally the cost of an assessment will be much less than that.

The Information Manager may be called upon to compile an assessment registry and 3W (see below), coordinate needs assessment methodologies, ensure data compatibility and facilitate data sharing in the context of the RIM WG. The RIM WG is a forum for coordinating multiple assessments, sharing and tracking available data and keeping the assessment registry up-to-date. Needs assessment coordination functions should be included in the RIM WG TORs, included in the Information/Data Management section (Section 2) of this Toolkit.

8.1.3 Who to involve

In the first phase of a refugee emergency, a range of humanitarian agencies, NGOs, government counterparts and possibly donors may be involved in the initial assessment planning process, depending on the specific situation. However, partners involved in actually carrying out the assessment should only be those key actors responsible for overseeing and providing assistance in the first phase of a response. It is critical to involve WFP and other relevant partners in conducting emergency needs assessments when the population to be assessed is over 5,000 persons.

Identifying key stakeholders in an urban assessment context will likely require additional efforts to reach out to refugee focal points within the community. Urban refugees are often mobile and tend to cluster in the poorest areas of the city, and/or be dispersed over many locations throughout a city, making them difficult to identify. Refugee focal points will be crucial in identifying refugee locations, population and demographic estimates, new points of influx, vulnerable groups, infrastructure and security issues, coping mechanisms as well as needs which may change rapidly within an urban context. It is advisable to gather refugee focal point contact information with the support of the Protection or Community Services officer and to confirm or update information as appropriate. 

8.1.4 Establishing expected outcomes of the assessment

At the start of a needs assessment process, begin by asking these questions: What are the underlying causes of risk and vulnerability? Have these causes changed and, if so, how? How widespread is the problem – throughout the country (or countries) or in specific areas? How are the host communities coping with the situation? Which geographical area is the most impacted by the problems, and which affected group are the most at risk?  A crucial first step in the assessment process is to determine, and agree on, the operational data and information needed from the assessment to support intervention planning. 

Do not start a needs assessment process with the design of a data-collection form – that step comes in the middle of the process.  Many needs assessment designers make the mistake of starting with the design of the primary data collection form. However, doing so diminishes the likelihood that the needs assessment will be successful and yield actionable information. Simply put, begin by identifying the questions that need to be answered, not the ones that will be asked. 

8.1.5 Needs assessment logistics and equipment

When planning an assessment, it is vital that the logistical requirements of the field teams undertaking data collection are fully covered. Core equipment is essential, such as appropriate vehicles, first aid kits, computers, radio and/or satellite phones, GPS devices, cell phones and chargers with appropriate SIM cards and credit, along with flashlights, spare batteries for all equipment and physical maps. Ensure adequate food and water is provided for the teams particularly if supplies may be difficult to obtain in the areas to be visited. Also important are enough notebooks, pens, pencils and pencil sharpeners, as well as adequate copies of community interview guides with recording sheets, key informant guides and any materials required for participatory data collection techniques (flip chart sheets, felt-tipped pens, seasonal calendars, etc.). 

Secondary data review and situational analysis

According to the IASC Operational Guidance for Coordinated Assessments in Humanitarian Crises, a secondary data review provides valuable pre-crisis baseline information. The review, conducted by Protection Officer and Information Manager, should be derived from a spectrum of sources and including the following:

• Pre-existing conditions, which may have aggravated the impact of the crisis;
• Underlying vulnerabilities and pre-existing vulnerable groups;
• Existing threats (epidemics, climate, etc.); and
• Lessons learned from past crises in the same area.

Secondary data is any data that originates from outside of the needs assessment, such as data from the Government, monitoring data, etc. This includes data that is owned by UNHCR, such as registration or ProGres data.  Primary data is any type of time-bound data that is collected through completion of the assessment form during the emergency needs assessment. In addition to information from humanitarian partners already in situ, secondary data may be collected from or found through Relief Web, Alertnet, OCHA, HumanitarianResponse.info, media, blogs, crowd-sourcing, coordination meeting minutes, census data, etc. For additional references on conducting secondary data reviews, refer to the Information/Data Management Strategy section (Section 2) of this Toolkit. 

8.1.6 Compiling an Assessment Registry

As part of understanding the overall situational context, the Information Manager should ensure that an “Assessment Registry” has been compiled. The aim here is to identify what has already been assessed and areas of existing coverage that may not need to be included in the first stage of priority needs assessment. A template for an assessment registry is included in the Information/Data Management Strategy section of this Toolkit.  For country operations that have the UNHCR web portal, it may be possible to register needs assessments in an online “Needs Assessment Registry” rather than using the Excel template.

8.1.7 Compiling a 3W

Next, in order to inform an overview of needs, it will be important to understand and map existing services and capacities of the Government and operational partners, by type and location, in a detailed 3W.  As part of the secondary data review, a Protection and Programme Officer should work with the Information Manager to compile or expand an existing 3W for the operation. This can be done through a traditional 3W spreadsheet or, if time permits, through a 3W map, both of which will establish a profile for each administrative unit, highlighting service coverage,  or lack thereof, and areas for prioritization and inclusion in the needs assessment.

For an urban needs assessment the urban area will need to be broken into smaller geographic units that are agreed with local or national authorities and other partners, and discussed within the RIM WG and other coordination forums.  To avoid confusion, these units should be based on existing formal or informal boundaries (i.e. municipal administrative units or locally-known neighbourhoods) to the extent possible but where no sub-divisions exist a new system will need to be created.  

The demarcation of the city into these smaller units should be completed by the Information Manager working with the Protection and Programme Officer and cross-checked through focal points within the community. Once the city has been broken down into smaller segments -- districts, neighbourhoods etc. -- this information should be shared widely with the government and operational partners, and referenced when reporting and coordinating services.

For additional information on compiling a 3W, refer to the Information/Data Management Strategy section (Section 2).  To compile a 3W map of a city, please refer to the Mapping section of the Toolkit, (Section 16, Annex 5, ‘UNHCR Addressing Guidance’,) for practical advice on how to set-up a geo-referenced database. 

8.1.8 Situational Analysis

The output of a secondary data review, including the compilation of an assessment registry and 3W, should be a short situational analysis listing secondary data sources and major findings. Analysis of the gap between the findings of the secondary data review and the information required for decision-making should inform the design of a potential primary data collection exercise.  

Primary Data Collection

8.1.9 When not to collect primary data

Although a needs assessment should always be done in a refugee emergency, there are some situations in which primary data collection should not be conducted:

• When collecting data will put collectors or interviewees in harm’s way;
• When the results of the needs assessment will be incorrect or extremely biased, such as when interviewees do not feel secure enough to tell the truth or if external pressures are limiting the effectiveness of the needs assessment;
• When a population feels over-assessed and possibly hostile to additional needs assessments.

For the above situations, conducting a needs assessment through a secondary data review only --  without any new primary data collection -- might be the appropriate assessment approach.

8.1.10 Emergency referral system

Prior to conducting primary data collection, Protection Staff should establish for the Assessment Team a system for emergency referrals by sector with focal points identified. (See the Minimum Sectoral Data: Protection section (Section 13) for additional information on how to set this system up.) For example, referrals may identify a location, such as a collective centre, in need of a WASH intervention or may refer an individual for a life-saving intervention. The emergency referral process should be separate from, and made functional by the start of, the assessment exercise being undertaken in the field. Field data collection teams should be trained on how to escalate life-saving issues and urgent interventions uncovered during the assessment to appropriate service providers. 

Field data collection teams should carry with them the UNHCR Referral for Assistance (included as an annex in the Registration in Emergencies section of this Toolkit) for any cases encountered in need of emergency referral and support. Doing so will avoid having the required urgent action reports mixed in with needs assessment results to be submitted for data entry.

8.1.11 Assessment method and survey design

The unit of measurement for an emergency needs assessment should be at the community level rather than the household or individual level, saving time and reducing the volume of data gathered during primary data collection. Data collection techniques for community level needs assessments include direct observation, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.

The recommended unit of measurement for an urban needs assessment is a neighbourhood or district as discussed earlier.  An urban needs assessment may also benefit from the use of crowd-sourcing technology and/or the establishment of refugee call-in lines to solicit information, either in the emergency phase or later monitoring of the situation.

8.1.12 Participatory and AGD approaches in emergency needs assessments

Assessments must also be designed and conducted using participatory approaches which allow populations of concern to voice their opinions about their own needs rather than humanitarian personnel simply deciding for them. It is also important that needs assessments reflect an age, gender and diversity (AGD) approach, as the emergency will affect different portions of the population differently. Field data collection teams need to be gender balanced and trained on survey questions and participatory approaches prior to going to field locations to collect data.

Practical ways to include AGD and participatory approaches in needs assessments:

• Have separate focus group discussions for men, women, boys, girls, of different social strata. It can be advantageous to conduct these focus group discussions simultaneously so, for example, men do not also infiltrate the women’s discussion;
• For closed questionnaires or structured interviews, use key informants from different sections of society;
• When selecting villages or camps to be assessed, stratify the locations to reflect the diversity of their resident populations;
• Assess questions and themes that might be relevant to marginalized or less vocal segments of communities;
• Partner with specialized NGOs who work with hard-to-reach groups (i.e. elderly persons, disabled persons, children) to obtain information specific to their needs
• Engage with self-governance structures (i.e. youth committees, women’s committees) as sources for needs assessment information;
• Conduct a participatory ranking of problems and solutions, during which community members carry out the prioritization;
• Triangulate data from multiple social classes to illustrate how various populations experience during a humanitarian situation differently.

Ensuring community participation helps to minimize the potential of needs assessments and the resulting humanitarian interventions causing harm by undermining local coping mechanisms, neglecting marginalized social groups’ needs, and/or wasting resources on aid that is not required.

Data collection teams will have to specifically ask interviewees for their consent to use the information they provide for the needs assessment. Personal information can never be disclosed or transferred for purposes other than those for which it was originally collected and for which consent was explicitly given.  

8.1.13 Site selection

Although desirable, statistically representative site selection may not be possible when choosing which sites to assess in the first weeks of an emergency. For emergency needs assessments, diversity-driven purposive sampling is the preferred sampling method. Purposive sampling is aimed at sampling as many types of sites as possible. It involves first defining which selection criteria are important to consider according to the assessment objectives and second, visiting sites that represent a cross-section of these. Purposive sampling is recommended for rapid assessments because this process ensures that the assessment captures different types and levels of impact. An alternative to purposive sampling is representative sampling in which the population is divided into subpopulations (strata) and random samples are taken of each stratum.  Representative sampling is a more time-consuming process than purposive sampling.

Site selection for an emergency needs assessment should focus on sites based on gaps in existing knowledge, severity of impact, geography and characteristics of the refugee community etc. While considering geography and protection issues, attempt to select sites that represent the diversity of the situation, such as a mixture of urban and rural camps or sites, sites in the mountains and valleys, sites dominated by different ethnic or social groups, etc. For urban assessments, focal points within the refugee community may be able to help identify the locations of other refugees within the city, including hidden or vulnerable groups. Locations should be stratified by criteria that highlight potential differences in the impact of the emergency or the community’s ability to cope with that impact so that the assessment will provide as comprehensive a picture as possible.  

8.1.14 Reducing bias in needs assessment

A key consideration in the process of collecting primary data is the presence of bias. Bias refers to a systematic skewing of data collected. A biased sample refers to a sample in which all members of the population are not equally likely to be represented. A biased estimator is one that systematically over- or under-estimates what is being measured. Bias may occur because of under-coverage of some groups, large non-response rates among particular groups, or lack of access. 

Bias can arise from many sources including the community, Government sources, data collectors, interpreters (if used), key informants, ethnic groups and both sexes. The greatest limitation of any key informant interview is that it provides a subjective perspective on the crisis. Individual responses provide important information, but this will have both an individual and a cultural bias that needs to be considered when analyzing the information. Throughout the assessment process, consider whether the biases of the interviewer or informant may be influencing results, and adjust training or assessment methodologies accordingly.

To reduce the bias of any assessment, there are a number of things to remember. Communities are not homogeneous, and information should be gathered from sources that represent different interest groups, including marginalized persons. It’s important to define the different characteristics of people who are being consulted (e.g. those most affected by the crisis, internally displaced persons, minority ethnic groups, etc.) and record this when collecting data, including those groups that may not be represented. Ensure that the affected population is consulted directly and that all demographics within this population (women, children, the elderly, the disabled, and ethnic or religious minorities) are consulted. Particular attention needs to be paid to the poorest and most socially excluded people, as they are likely to be most affected by a crisis. 

8.1.15 Agreement on minimum life-saving sectoral data

Needs assessment questions should focus on gathering minimum emergency life-saving data required to inform the first phase of an emergency response.  All questions should relate directly to the priority operational information needs identified by the Assessment Team. 

When leading an Assessment Team in the prioritization of assessment questions, consider facilitating a group discussion using the Prioritization Graph, from Annex 2 of this section, which can assist with obtaining Team agreement on questions to include in the assessment.  Data elements that have life-saving importance and that are easy to collect should be the priority for an initial needs assessment.

Minimum and sectoral data sets presented in the protection, HIS, WASH, nutrition, mortality, shelter, CRI, environment and livelihood sections of this Toolkit also provide examples of the type and level of life-saving sectoral data that may be included in the an emergency needs assessment. 

8.1.16 Needs Assessment for Refugee Emergencies (NARE) checklist

Where possible, existing assessment forms should be used and amended as necessary. Some country operations will have developed an emergency needs assessment form during the contingency planning process that may be adapted and used. 

The NARE checklist is a highly customizable multi-sectoral needs assessment format designed to provide a basis from which to develop a country-specific assessment form according to the local situation. The Assessment Team can decide which data collection methodologies should be used and which topics should be the focus. NARE users are not obligated to do the entire assessment specified but can pick and choose from among the methods and themes depending on the time and resources available, the purpose of the assessment and the types of interventions that will be made.  Data collection questions in the columns/rows selected from the NARE may be further customized, suggested questions changed or omitted or new questions added. In addition to sector-specific contents, the contents of the “All Sectors” column and the callouts on population data management, security and logistics should also be considered. (See the NARE Checklist in Annex 7 for additional information on the types of data to collect as well as examples of questions to ask.)

Primary data-collection forms must be tested prior to undertaking the needs assessment widely in the field. This may be as simple as sitting with local colleagues to ensure that the interpretation of assessment questions is clear and that the resulting answers will be analysable.

8.1.17 Field team training

Needs assessment field team members should be trained on the following:

• Completing the needs assessment data-collection forms;
• Reporting problems with the needs assessments;
• Key informant selection;
• Observation techniques;
• Facilitating focus group discussions (if needed);
• Managing  community expectations;
• Data confidentiality principles; and
• Basic principles of the UNHCR Code of Conduct.

8.1.18 Data cleaned, jointly analyzed and agreed

It is important for members of the Assessment Team to agree on the process for cleaning, analysing and interpreting the assessment data prior to undertaking the data collection in the field. Data should be cleaned and entered into a spreadsheet at the end of each day by the needs assessment field team members. Where possible, data should be broken down by UNHCR standard sex and age groups. 

A shared communication strategy for the results will need to be discussed and agreed upon within the Assessment Team. In some situations, two versions of the assessment report – one for internal audiences and one for external audiences – may need to be produced. 

The results of an emergency needs assessment will need to be considered against any pre-existing contingency plans. Information gathered needs to be evaluated for its validity and relevance, the reliability of its source(s), and whether it corroborates other information.  Any evidence or suspicion of fraud, including falsely reported needs to either attract or deny aid to a particular location or segment of the population, must be reported to senior management.

Assessment results should be shared by the unit of analysis (for example, community level findings) unless there are protection concerns. The assessment results should be shared in a format that can be easily re-used by others and adheres to disaggregated data standards whenever possible. Emergency priorities, protection concerns and analysis produced by the needs assessment will provide the foundation for the emergency operations plan and will influence registration planning.

The Information Manager will want to ensure that any links between the assessment and ongoing monitoring needs are taken into consideration by the RIM WG and operational leads. For example, needs assessment information that shows severe problems with a particular sector or in a particular type of community can be used as a trigger to establish an ongoing monitoring system for those problems in those types of communities.  The accuracy of an assessment report should also be verified by the Assessment Team, with assessment limitations openly acknowledged in the final results.

In addition to the assessment report, the initial rapid assessment will contribute to camp profiles, SitReps and funding appeals, as well as other information products. A “refugee dashboard” – a one- or two-page visualization of key needs assessment information – may be produced to show the results.

Post-Emergency Needs Assessment: Monitoring and Detailed Assessments

Monitoring and more detailed sectoral assessments will continue following initial emergency needs assessments. Emergency needs assessments will set a baseline against which the situation may be compared in the coming weeks and months.