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The book is written as a user-friendly manual to yield the real basic needs in a community for the planning of community development projects and/or programmes. It uses the basic needs community development theory as point of departure and gives a step-by-step explanation of the community needs assessment process and how to prioritise the real needs in a community, using the focus group data collection technique. It also provides an example of the practical application of the unique Priority Index (P-Index) and Community Index (C-Index) techniques used to prioritise the basic needs in a community. The P-Index is a unique community needs prioritisation technique which is theoretically well founded and proven in practice. Using the qualiquantive measuring technique of the Schutte Scale makes it possible to quantify qualitative responses of needs among both literate and illiterate respondents, as well as across languages, with the same level of validity. The addition of the C-Index makes the comparison of results between communities possible and is also an excellent monitoring tool for measuring the progress in community development projects.

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De Wet Schutte (DPhil in Sociology). Community Development consultant and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Studies, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Cape Town, South Africa.

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