Participatory Needs Assessment in Local Communities. Methodological Aspects Cover Image

Participatory Needs Assessment in Local Communities. Methodological Aspects
Participatory Needs Assessment in Local Communities. Methodological Aspects

Author(s): Codrina Şandru
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Editura Universitatii Transilvania din Brasov
Keywords: participatory needs assessment; community; research-action; rapid participatory appraisal; participatory communal appraisal

Summary/Abstract: Participatory needs assessment (PNA) is a research method, based on the principle of participative democracy. PNA offers the right to speak to the people living within local communities and, furthermore, it attempts to place the problems and the solutions submitted by citizens on the decision-makers’ working agendas. Being often a first stage in the process of research-action, PNA is the most certain modality to find the community members’ perception on their collective needs, as well as their attitudes towards these needs. In this study, I describe the basic methodological elements of PNA and I show both the advantages and the limits of this method, with three cases from today’s literature.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 97-104
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: English