Four criteria commonly used in prioritizing issues for intervention are:
1. Impact – which health conditions and determinant factors have the most impact, in terms of size and severity, on the health functioning of the population?
2. Changeability – can the most significant health conditions and determinant factors be changed effectively by the intervention?
3. Acceptability – what are the most acceptable changes needed to achieve the maximum impact?
4. Resource feasibility – are there adequate resources available to make the required changes?

Obviously, consideration of prior-stated community priorities, ongoing community consultation, and involvement of stakeholders is essential at this stage of the assessment.

Once the organization has made the decision to intervene and has decided which issue to focus on, a more detailed needs assessment can be carried out on aspects relevant to that particular issue.

Before beginning any needs assessment, it is helpful to make a list of the pieces of information required, the source of each piece of information, and the means of gathering each piece of information. Many templates are available for the collection of this kind of information, a simple example is shown below:

Information Needed
Source of Information
Collection Method