Direct Observation and Key Informant Interview Techniques for Primary Data Collection During Rapid Assessments

Observation and assessment of external information are so fundamental to human nature that it is difficult to describe their application to data collection methods in disaster needs assessments. To successfully understand the roles that observation and communicated information play in data collection during rapid needs assessments, it helps to consider two distinctions:  firstly, the difference between data and information; and secondly, the distinction between ‘normal’ and “strategic” interaction.

Systematic observation and consultation of affected populations to elicit community knowledge and perceptions during the  primary data collection aspect  of rapid needs assessments produces information. Assessment team members, while observing an affected community, will ask questions directly to the affected population through interviews and group discussion and of the affected area through observation. Only by using tools such as checklists do these information gathering processes generate data.