Assessing community healthcare needs: lessons from Africa

This article describes participatory approaches to needs assessments for community profiling in developing countries. It reviews the literature on compiling community profiles, provides an insight into conducting these in developing countries, and draws out lessons for those contemplating community profiling in the UK. The author's experience of primary health care in Africa shows that involving communities in the collection and analysis of data improves the value and quality of information, and the appropriateness of the programmes that result.