Perform a Situational Analysis

Approach

Situational assessment: an investigation into how the local socioeconomic, cultural and political climate influences a specific issue. A situational assessment can summarise the impact of, and contributing factors to, a health issue in a specific setting; considering how it occurs, why it occurs, and who it affects.

Advantages 

A range of existing information sources can be used to perform a situational assessment, including national policy and strategy documents, government reports, published and unpublished research, media reports and even narratives from community members. A situational assessment can be used for identifying appropriate, context-specific approaches for the prevention of a health issue. A high quality situational assessment will consider local needs and expectations, existing stakeholder presence, health system capacity and health system performance. 

 

Disadvantages 

Performing a situational assessment requires commitment from appropriate stakeholders for the collection, screening and analysis of relevant information. Once stakeholders have been selected, a stakeholder involvement plan should be drafted, clearly outlining the tasks and responsibilities of each individual. As searching, reviewing and organising information can be time consuming, stakeholder commitment may be difficult to obtain. It might be necessary to employ an expert and for the production of the situational assessment document, which can be costly. 

Situational analysis