Getting and Addressing Users' Needs Right: SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa's Approach
Abstract
Projects are innovatively designed with the good intention of solving a community's problems, but more often than not, the designers fail to consult the users of their innovations and end up implementing solutions that do not effectively solve the problems. In an effort to better understand and address users' needs, SERVIR, a collaboration between NASA and USAID, developed the Service Planning Approach. SERVIR's overall objective is to increase sustainable use of earth observation information and geospatial technologies in development decision making. One of the intermediate results towards achieving this is improved capacity of analysts and decision makers to use earth observation information and geospatial technologies.
The service planning approach involves a comprehensive needs assessment with stakeholders, which identifies the problems facing them based on information they share, assesses the existing situation (data and efforts by other institutions), what is needed to alleviate the problem and how best to achieve it based on available capacities and resources. It also ensures engagement with stakeholders and users of the service throughout the design and implementation process, increasing understanding of the issues that may otherwise not be captured and enhances ownership of the final outputs by the users and all concerned stakeholders. SERVIR, in 2017, developed a toolkit with samples for the approach, to guide in the identification (needs assessment and stakeholders mapping); design (overall concept, the activities for service including development of products and tools, trainings and data sharing and management) and monitoring and evaluation (theory of change) for the service. The toolkit is successfully being used in all SERVIR regions. Advantages of using this approach include ensuring the services have a strong user base and potential for impact, are technically accurate, reliable, and validated and also enhance their sustainability by ensuring the right skills and knowledge transfer and to the right people. Preliminary post training evaluations at SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa after use of this approach show more positive outcomes than before.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMPA54A..05W
- Keywords:
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- 0480 Remote sensing;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 4337 Remote sensing and disasters;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 6319 Institutions;
- POLICY SCIENCESDE: 6630 Workforce;
- PUBLIC ISSUES