Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
I’m Maurya West Meiers, Senior Evaluation Officer at the World Bank.
As needs assessors, it’s useful to draw on other disciplines to inform our work, and today I’ll share some resources from the economics field. As a reminder, a needs assessment is a decision-making tool that justifies choices before they’re made, helping avoid decisions based on trends or individual preferences without supporting data. A needs assessment process ensures that you do not put the proverbial cart before the horse. Let’s look at some core concepts.
Needs are the gaps between current and desired results. Once a need is determined and prioritized, we should systematically consider all possible interventions to improve performance, justifying decisions with clear criteria tied to desired outcomes.
Needs assessment core steps, in summary, should:
Some solutions are straightforward, while others require more analysis, such as with the use of decision matrices. Still others need more rigorous considerations and analysis.
When considering interventions, always consider both benefits and costs for everyone affected—directly and importantly, indirectly. Drawing from economics, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) – or benefit-cost analysis (BCA) – helps assess the pros and cons of alternatives, guiding resource allocation for maximum efficiency, and it is useful for needs assessors to understand the main elements of CBA (not described in detail here, but resources are below).
Consider externalities, especially as we think about alternatives and the potential winners and losers – direct and especially indirect bystanders – of interventions. Too often the focus is on the winners and the good that can come from decisions, or the positive externalities. But as needs assessors, are we thinking about the potential losers or harms from the interventions and how governments, organizations or others might mitigate any negative externalities? For instance, when a city is trying to solve for transportation needs with the goal of moving more people faster with more options through the city, alternatives (such as adding light rail versus expanding bus routes) all come with costs and benefits and positive (e.g., light rail is cleaner for the local environment) and negative externalities (e.g., loss of trees and green space for neighbors in widening roads for light rail). If you have never taken an economics course – or it has been a while – there are many lessons from econ that can inform needs assessors.
If you are looking for some tools and a refresher on some of these concepts, check out the following.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Needs Assessment (NA) TIG Week with our colleagues in the NA AEA Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our NA TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on theaea365 webpageso that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by theAmerican Evaluation Associationand provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.