Disaster Needs Assessment – 2 Community Group Discussion (CGD) Format

Instructions

• The objective of CGDs is to understand the needs and priorities of regular people affected by the disaster.

• It is not to collect individual opinions but rather to find the main challenges, the main problems, the issues affecting the group as a whole.

• There should be one male and one female meeting in each assessment site. Male and female groups are held separately to understand different needs and also because some subjects are sensitive.

• If differences between groups1 exist it may be necessary to have separate male and female discussions with the various groups present.

• A CGD is not as rigid as a Focus Group Discussion and has been found to be more appropriate to disaster settings.

• Even though this is a discussion, closed ended responses have been provided to assist data entry. Allow the group the opportunity to come up with their answer and then select it if it is already listed, do not read out the list of options. If an answer is given which is not on the list make sure you enter it (don’t just select “other” without including what the “other” is).

• Usually in CGDs there will be one or two people who are will talk the most. This is OK as long as they are not just presenting their own concerns but rather those of the group as a whole. It is important to try and include others in the discussion and to look around and ask if others agree or disagree with the statements being made (sometimes this will be obvious because they will be nodding or shaking their heads!).

• Some questions have the option “no consensus” and some have “do not know”. Use these only as a last resort after trying to find the most common answer for most people.

• Wherever the option “other” is used, the assessment team MUST record what the answer is.