Programme Overview

HAD recognises the necessity for a bottom-up approach when identifying the needs of local humanitarian actors to ensure that they have a central role in the design and planning of their capacity building activities that are fully tailored to job roles, level of knowledge, and training needs, which can later be detailed in a tailored capacity building plan. HAD uses various tools for conducting needs assessments such as the OCAT, TNA, and DNA, depending on our client’s needs, the local context, and the objectives of the assignment.

The Main Objectives

  • Organisational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT) – The objective of the OCAT is to score the institutional abilities, systems, procedures, and policies of the organisation/s against sector relevant benchmarks in 7 capacity areas. This offers a quantitative and comprehensive way of recording organisational strengths and weaknesses before and after a training and capacity building intervention to measure its impact on the organisation/s.

  • Development Needs Assessment (DNA) – The objective of the DNA is to identify an organisation’s specific areas of development to recommend relevant training and capacity building interventions to address them. The DNA is a more flexible and qualitative process that can be adapted to the objectives of the assignment, the local context, and the preferences of the organisation.

  • Training Needs Assessment (TNA) – The objective of the TNA is similar to the DNA, but this is aimed only at identifying training needs, often targeted to individuals or departments, rather than a comprehensive organisational development review.

What It Includes

Identify & Tailor

Identify the most appropriate needs assessment tool and tailor it to the objectives of the assignment, the local context, and the organisation being assessed to ensure it captures the most relevant data.

Data Collection & Analysis

Data collection through self-assessment surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs), and interviews with key staff members (KIIs). This is followed by analysis and verification of the data through cross-referencing the organisation’s responses to each method of data collection.

Review & Reporting

Preparation of a brief summary report to present the key findings of the needs assessment.

Who Is This Service For?

  • Organisations that are not aware of their development areas that need strengthening.

  • Organisations that want a training programme tailored to the exact needs of their local partners.

  • Organisations that want to develop a tailored capacity building plan.