Accurate assessment and usable measures of effectiveness are essential to success in stability operations. Improving the ability of a host nation (HN) government to deliver services expected by its populace is necessary to enhance the stability of a society, maintain the legitimacy of its HN government, and to allow the HN government to "out administer" local insurgency groups. Correctly identifying what the local population expects from its HN government is fundamental to developing plans and operations that will build HN government capacity, social stability, and undermine threats to the HN government and civilian populace like social instability or violent insurgency. The daunting tasks of identifying and crafting responses to the causes and consequences of weak or failed states require organized and methodical programs with accurate, measureable and verifiable results. In recent and current operations, the U.S. military and its interagency partners have been required to manage substantially increased levels of assistance to assist and ensure success of legitimate governments. In this complex environment, companies, battalions, brigade combat teams, divisions, and corps will perform assessments and collect data. Assessment framework allows for a common operational picture shared by U.S. military and government departments and agencies in the area of operations (AO). Knowing the fundamentals and purpose of assessments is key to providing quality products to assist campaign planning and support decision making. Listed below are some key points for success: * Know the AO, the people, and their customs. * Determine the perceptions of the local populace and understand how to influence those perceptions. * Know the history, government, and economic challenges. * Know the causes of instability. * Know or develop the plan to correct these causes and prevent their return. * Know how to measure effectiveness, analyze results, and adjust plans if necessary. * Know how to co.