Session Plan

Session 5

Desires, Needs,

or Problems?

Understanding

the Difference

Rationale

As described in the rationale for the Assets and Deficits session

plan, development workers need to start with the positive, what

people have and can do, not what is missing. However, when working

with a community or a group within the community, at some point

we want to help them identify what they want to change. We may

ask about that in various ways: What would make their life better?

What would they like to change? What do they see as problems they

would like to solve?

Determining the difference between desires, needs, or problems is an

important distinction to make when prioritizing activities and projects.

It is difficult and confusing to try and prioritize a list of wants without

discussing what each of them is and then determining some way to

prioritize. Developing some clarity around the distinctions between

desires, needs, and problems should help us to communicate our

analyses more precisely and accurately. Sharpening our analysis and

clarifying communication of such distinctions is the goal of this

session. It is a precursor to the session on priority ranking.

Objectives

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

1.

Sharpen analysis skills for determining the difference between

desires, needs, and problems to help community members

determine what they have in relation to what they want and begin

an intentional process of setting priorities for action.

2.

Identify several different questions that community facilitators

can use to elicit a community's desires, needs, and problems.

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