The aim of this paper was to determine how the needs of the Serbian health sector have been identified by the main donor and its implementation partners. The conceptual and analytical framework was synthesized and developed from the literature review and based on The Sphere Project, WHO and World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine protocols/ standards. The investigation has been conducted in the context of the Serbian health care system by the analysis of the donor needs assessment practice between 1999 and 2003. The study was performed using qualitative approach - interviews and documentary sources. The results indicate that the health needs assessment (HNA) have been carried out by the studied international non-governmental organizations (NGOs); there was no adopted HNA guidelines; HNA teams con
sisted of medical doctors, local staff, with no training in HNA; knowledge and practice on the concept of Linking Relief to Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD) was on the very low level; finally, the identified needs influenced the project objectives but also, there were some non - identified needs that consequently lead to the failure in setting up the project objectives. HNA practice in identification of the real needs and priorities of the Serbian health sector show that there are ‘needs - influenced’ project designs, but the fact that not all stakeholders’ views that were taken into account could undermine the development process of this sector. Results of the study demonstrate a need of further research to quantify humanitarian health care support in Serbia in the current economic situation.
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