Needs Assessment involves identifying and prioritising human needs. These prioritised needs should guide the planning of service delivery programmes, inform plans for mobilising the resources needed to fund these programmes, and form the basis for budgets which allocate available resources to priority programmes.

a) Government officials conduct rigorous evidence-based research and data collection to identify relevant (human and environmental) needs. They identify priority needs and produce a ranking of needs.

b) A needs assessment document is produced and is disseminated for public inputs and subjected to rigorous and inclusive debate.

c) Civil society groups obtain copies of needs assessment documents, assess the prioritisation of relevant needs, and provide inputs on their priority needs.

a) Government officials explain and justify the prioritization of needs and engage with civil society groups, who assess the explanations and justifications offered and the evidence-base for the prioritisation and ranking of needs, and call for the re-prioritisation of needs (where necessary); needs are re-prioritised on the basis of evidence and inclusive deliberation.