Data Collection Techniques and Procedures

In-depth interview was the main data collection method and was applied to different participants to address different research objectives. In-depth interviews with service users explored objective 1: the nature of orphan’s needs and their perception of service delivery. In-depth interviews conducted with policy makers addressed objective two, which sought to explore the influence of child related policies on orphan care service delivery. In-depth interviews with mainly national service providers addressed objective three whose aim was to assess quality of multi-sector service implementation.

The procedure for in-depth interview with all the participants included the following general pattern. Before the beginning of each interview, the participants introduced themselves and were reminded of the importance of giving consent and the key issues about the research in the information sheet. Demographic information was then collected. The interview or question guide was used throughout the interview. Simple and general questions were asked at the beginning to make the participants feel relaxed. Probes were used for exploring views, explanation or clarification of issues. Different interview guides were used for service users, service providers and policy makers, as well as interview guides for FGD with district and community service providers (appendices H, I, J and K). All question guides were translated into local

language. A sample of orphans questions guide translated into local language is presented in appendix L.

Before concluding the interviews, participants were asked to share their final views or ask questions before thanking them for their time. After the interviews and FGDs, a meeting was conducted with the research assistant to discuss the notes and form consensus on issues raised during the discussion related to content and methodology. Whenever possible, interview notes were summarised within the day of the interview.

This interview pattern was also used for interviewing caregivers. The purpose was to gather information regarding their caring experiences and the general information about the whole household. The interviews were guided by interview guide and probes were used throughout the discussions. All interviews were tape recorded using two digital voice recorders.

The interview topic guides (appendix H, I, J and K) were developed from two sources: the literature review and the conceptual frameworks. The literature review in chapter three provided the scope of needs and the effects of unmet needs on the lives of orphans and their households. The literature on service provision in Sub-Saharan Africa helped to develop the research questions and the themes. For example the roles of service providers and the policy makers and how the context influences both the policy and the service provision were sourced from the literature review in chapter four.

In addition, the Maslow theory of human behaviour guided the development of question guide for the interview with orphans and caregivers. The five level classifications of Maslow’s needs helped to identify the themes of the types of needs. From the terms which Maslow used, I developed open questions under each theme to interpret Maslow’s concept in line with orphans. Then I developed specific questions to align Maslow’s needs with needs that were identified from literature. These were used as probes for orphans and caregivers’ needs. Probes helped service users identify their areas of need. Table 5.9 shows how Maslow’s theory helped to come up with questions and probes.

Table 5.9 : Application of Maslow’s classification of needs on orphans needs.

Type of need Guidelines for applying Maslow’s theory to identify the needs of orphans

Specific Probes

Physiological needs

-Do orphans lack things that threaten their life such as food and safe water?

-Do orphans lack physical and material things that can help them to maintain their body systems and body temperature?

The need for nutritious food and safe water

The need for shelter and clothing

Security needs -Do orphans have a need for good health?

-Do orphans need any of these forms of security: emotional, physical and sexual?

The need for access to health services

The need for protection from abuse

Love and

belonging

-Do orphans need love and affection?

-Do orphans feel lonely, isolated and lack friends?

The need for friendship

Esteem needs -Do orphans value themselves, do they have self-respect?

-Do orphans feel valued by others? Do they feel that they are

important? Do they feel

appreciated?

The need for recognition and acceptance

Need for self- actualisation

-Do orphans feel the need to fulfil/achieve something in life?

The need to fulfil one’s aspirations e.g. education

The framework of quality of care guided the development of question guides on service delivery, using the elements of quality of care as adapted from literature (Maxwell 1992). See table 5.10.

Table 5.10 : Application of Conceptual Framework Elements.

There were some variations in the manner in which interviews were conducted with service providers, orphans and policy makers as discussed below;

a) Interview techniques with children

Orphans were interviewed to gather their lived experiences, to learn how the children understand, interpret, negotiate and feel about their daily lives (Greene and Hill 2005). D’Cruz and Stagnitti (2008) recognised that children are social actors with morals, status, values and rights and are therefore capable of participating in research and can share their personal experience. In-depth interview was useful and appropriate for children because it allowed each child to express their individual experiences freely,

Quality of service delivery

Guidelines on application of quality of Service & policy delivery

Accessibility How do service providers identify and reach out to orphans? Are service users provided with assistance to overcome distance, timing, information and cost challenges? What factors affect accessibility in service provision?

Acceptability Are services provided satisfying orphan’s preferences, values and culture? In what ways are orphans involved in service provision decision process?

Effectiveness Are appropriate and quality services delivered based on the needs of orphans? Are services improving orphan’s outcome? What factors affect service delivery effectiveness

Equity Are services provided fairly to orphans according to gender, age, socio-economic status and geographical location? What factors affect service delivery equity?

Efficiency In what way does service delivery processes minimise wastage and control for corruption. Are resources coordinated to deliver integrated services? What factors affect service delivery efficiency? Coordination Are policy and service resources coordinated? Are roles of policy

and service providers collaborated? Does effective communication take place among orphans care stakeholders? Are collaboration structures, committees functioning?

Comprehensiveness Are services needed by orphans provided or not? Do service providers address diverse and variety aspects of each need? Does service delivery plan to achieve service user self-sufficiency?

Continuity Are services implemented continually? Are services implemented on as a programme or on pilot basis? What factors affect service continuity

without being influenced by other children. Greene and Hill (2005) argued that data collection methods should suit children’s level of understanding, interest, knowledge and location. Further, it has been suggested that data collection with children should encompass a variety of methods and techniques to stimulate and maintain interest of participants as part of child-focused research (Nyonator et al. 2005; Greene and Hill 2005). To ensure child friendly environment with the orphans, various techniques were employed to stimulate interest, reduce fatigue and promote discussion. Farga-Malet et al. (2010) suggested that pictures could be used as prompts or to facilitate communication of sensitive issues with children. They also recommended asking children what they already knew, for example every day routine activities, use of simple questions, use of open ended questions and use of non-verbal cues.

First, pictures of various scenarios of experiences and a range of services were presented throughout the interview as they served different purposes. For example, pictures as prompts were used at the beginning of a different theme. The pictures provided a wide variety of issues that might be important in the lives of orphans. The pictures covered aspects of the needs of orphans and the type of services orphans might receive.

The pictures were also used for facilitating recall of events and the scope of services that were provided by the service providers. At times orphans had forgotten or were unsure of what was classified as a service. This was understandable because culturally people in the community were also used to helping each other and sometimes source of help was not explained to orphans. Hence, pictures with different types of services reminded them the existing services and assisted orphans to identify the services they received. Orphans also reported services they were not receiving but wished they were receiving. An effort was made to provide balance of services themes to avoid bias, hence positive and negative aspects were provided. The pictures were also used alongside the interview guide to facilitate a discussion and release stress. During the interview, when orphans visibly expressed distress, talking about the pictures relaxed them so that they continued with the discussion with ease. This was consistent with ethical precaution to protect the child as discussed in section 5.5.4

In general, interviews with children used simple language and the interview questions were asked indirectly, first about other orphans in the area before addressing their issues. In addition, the orphans were asked how they spent their day to give them chance to share their experience like a story with limited disruptions. This was the opening question at the beginning of the interview. This approach helped the child to distance themselves from emotional feelings associated with the experiences, even when asked to compare such experiences with their own.

Orphans interview guide did not include questions related to policy issues, as the researcher assumed that they were more directly knowledgeable about services. However, it was surprising that orphans shared their perceptions about policies that affected them, as discussed in chapter eight.

The setting of interviews with orphans was determined by their choice as well as for their security and comfort. Many of the interviews were conducted in their homes and some were conducted in a community-meeting place like a church or school. Since the interviews were done in the afternoon after school, it was preferred to conduct the interviews at home for their comfort and safety. Interview with orphans took short time between 30 and 45 minutes. At the end of interview, orphans were given school materials to thank them for taking part in the interview. Giving children incentives has been suggested as a good protocol so long as it does not bribe participants (Greene and Hogan 2005).

Initially, I had planned to conduct interviews with orphans alone; however with the use of pictures I involved a research assistant who was taking notes and taking demographic information. The field work involved two research assistants. The other research assistant helped with transcribing of data.

b) Interview at organisation level with policy makers and service providers

In-depth interviews provided adequate time to capture information concerning policies and services from each respective organisation. In-depth interviews with policy makers took shorter time between one to one and half hours whereas those with service providers took between one and half to two hours. Policy makers preferred to

conduct the interviews in their offices while service providers were flexible. As a result, some interviews were held in offices while others in any public places, including hotels. Office environments created competing demands between the interview and office work. At times, it was difficult for interviewees to cut off completely from their daily work hence, there were sometimes disruptions.

The researcher played both the roles of a facilitator and taking notes during the in- depth interviews with policy makers and service providers. The interviews were conducted in an informal conversational manner using an interview guide throughout the interviews. Interview guide helped to save time, to decide in advance relevant information and to keep the discussion focussed. Despite using different question guides for policy makers and service providers, similar themes were covered across all participants to enable cross case analysis. Interviews were tape recorded to concentrate on the discussions.

5.4.3.2 Conducting Focus group discussion

Focus group discussions were held with community and district service providers to address objective number three. This method was found to be appropriate to capture both the individual organisation’s activities as well as to capture information about coordination and collaboration networks.

FGDs were conducted by the researcher and a male assistant. The FGD opened with introduction of researchers and research participants and the purpose of the research. A circular seating arrangement was adopted to promote flow of communication. The researcher facilitated the establishment of ground rules for the FGD and obtained participants’ consent. The research assistant obtained participants’ demographic information. As the researcher, I facilitated the FGD using a question guide, continuously probed for more information, managed dominant and reticent participants, including participants’ feelings and reflected on the information with reference to the research questions. The assistant researcher’s role was to observe the flow of discussion, control digital voice recorders, observe non-verbal cues and take notes. The discussion was recorded using two audio recorders. FGD checklist was used

to guide FGD procedures. The discussions took between 1.5 to 2.5 hours. This was longer than the documented recommended time (Descombe 2007; Hennink 2007).

The discussions during FGD used similar probing techniques and skills as reported with the in-depth interviews. One focus group guide was used for district and community service providers to get a broader understanding of similar issues. However, there were some differences between the district and the community service providers FGDs.

The focus group discussion with the district orphan care committee consisted of six participants representing departments of Education, Health, Agriculture, Labour, Local Government and Social Welfare. The discussion took place in a conference room at the District Assembly and participants found this to be comfortable, since that was their usual place for meetings. To avoid a hierarchical relationship in FGDs in an effort to facilitate free discussion among participants, the District Commissioner was excluded from participating in the FGD. Instead, an in-depth interview was conducted with the district commissioner, focusing more on policy and management issues.

Community level FGDs aimed at finding out how services were implemented by the community multi-sector service providers at local setting. Each focus group discussion consisted of 6-8 participants and this was found to be convenient and facilitated the flow of communication so that all necessary components of service delivery were covered. FGDs took place in a neutral and comfortable place such as a school or a church, although two interviews took place at a CBO centre. These places provided undisturbed and familiar environment for the participants. The timing of the interview was agreed in advance considering that this was farming season. Most of the FGDs took place during the weekdays either in the morning or afternoon. Participants preferred to meet during weekdays because weekends were market days. Whenever necessary, participants were willing to adjust the timing. Local chiefs did not participate in FGDs because of their leadership roles. Instead, in-depth interviews were opted for local chiefs. The major problem with the community service providers was that there were too extreme types of participants, those who were dominating the discussions and those who were very quiet. The facilitator had to continuously control

the dominance and encourage quiet participants to contribute. Table 5.11 summarises the type of participants and the method that was used.

Table 5.11 : Research participants and data collection methods.

Type of participants Method of inquiry

Orphans In-depth interview

Caregivers In-depth interview

National service providers In-depth interview

National policy makers In-depth interview

District & Community service providers

Focus group discussions In-depth interviews

(Key selected community informants & Follow up)

5.4.3.3 Research Team and their Roles

The research team consisted of three people; me as a female principal researcher, and two male research assistants. My role in the research included designing the research protocol, developed research tools, facilitating all in-depth interviews and FGDs. After data collection, my role was analysing the data and writing the report of thesis. One research assistant travelled with me to the field when I collected data using FGDs with district and community service providers. His role was mainly writing interview notes during the interviews, taking demographic information and managing the sitting arrangement and observing any non-verbal communication. During the in-depth interviews with orphans, the research assistant also helped to take notes and to manage the presentation of pictures to orphans, which facilitated the discussions with orphans. The second research assistant helped with transcribing of data. The research assistants had no role in the analysis of data or writing of the thesis.