Health managers, especially in developing countries, need timely and accurate information on which to base their decisions. Yet many of the traditional epidemiological and statistical methods are not very well suited to an environment with extremely limited financial resources and with few people skilled in data collection and analysis.

For this reason, there is great interest in adapting traditional methods to conditions existing in countries, and in finding suitable alternatives to traditional methods. Since many of these new and adapted methods emphasize speed of execution, they have become known as methods of "rapid assessment". Rapid assessment refers to a broad collection of epidemiological, statistical and anthropological techniques which aim to provide accurate information quickly, at a low cost, in a simple format. There is special emphasis on providing information that can be useful at the local level.