3.1 Introduction
3.2 The research design
3.3 The research instruments
3.4 Procedures for setting up the field work
3.5 Monitoring of the field work
3.6 Data analysis
3.7 Methodological issues
The broad purpose of this study, as explained in chapter 1, was to examine the impact of training on women's economic and social status along four dimensions: income, access and control of resources, status, and quality of life. It also sought to find out what constitutes effective training for women's micro-enterprise development and the nature of the relationship between training and credit.
As already outlined in chapter 1, the research strategy adopted was a series of case studies of projects and programmes providing training in technical and/or business skills supported by two large NGOs working in the field of micro-enterprise development, with a particular interest in targeting women. Initially, the members of the UK steering group within Intermediate Technology and ACORD were asked to select three projects each, two of which were to be the main source of data, and the third to provide supplementary data. Intermediate Technology identified India, Sri Lanka and Peru, while ACORD identified Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. However, it proved possible to only complete the research on four projects. Government restrictions on NGO activity in Eritrea meant that this case study had to be dropped and field work was disrupted in Sri Lanka after the initial round of interviewing because of lack of security in the research location. The findings therefore emerge from the remaining four case studies (Ethiopia, India, Peru and Sudan). Some data from the later stage of the field work in Sudan were also missing.
Local researchers were recruited by the relevant member of the UK steering group and the person appointed as research supervisor for the study in each of the countries (usually the Intermediate Technology/ACORD officer responsible for training). The research supervisor, together with field officers who were familiar with their female clients, was responsible for selecting the women to take part in the study.
The sample in each country was to consist of two groups, ideally ten in each. 9 These would be women who were about to undergo training and who constituted the focus of the study (Group 1) and those who had already received training, preferably at least six months prior to the start of the field work (Group 2).10 The first group was to be studied intensively and interviewed at regular interviews during the field work period, the second group less so. They were interviewed only at the start and at the end of the field work. Their inclusion in the study was intended to allow us to study the impact of the training over a longer period and establish the extent to which they were continuing to use the skills acquired during their earlier training. The Peru sample also included five men, as providing a comparison to the women in terms of how they made use of the skills acquired. However, it was decided at the research design stage that neither the budget nor the primary goal of the study would allow us to engage in a rigorous comparison of men's and women's micro-enterprises. This does not however preclude the relevance of such a study being carried out, and indeed the Peru comparative data was illuminating.
9 In the event, of the ten women in the Group 1 India sample one left the project soon after being trained and did not return until the last phase of the field work. In the Group 2 Sudan sample, there were only eight women.Finding even two small groups of ten women fitting the same criteria for inclusion in the study was difficult. In the Indian case, the NGO initiative was new and there were only ten women available for each group. In Peru it was difficult to find courses within the Intermediate Technology programme with a sufficient number of female participants willing to take part in the study (hence two courses were included, one in fruit processing, the other in bread making). In Ethiopia, the women who attended the business skills course had already been selected for training by their community-based organisation because they were defaulting on loan repayments or were not making good use of their loans. In the other case studies, women were identified who were willing to be interviewed and observed, or who looked 'interesting' or 'promising'. For the Group 2 samples, field officers had been told to ensure that a number of women were included who had become successful entrepreneurs as well as some who had failed. In the Ethiopian and Peru samples, the women were mixed in terms of their level of success or failure; however, in Sudan all but one of the eight women in this group had been moderately successful in what they had set out to do. 57 women (73 percent) of the total sample of 78 women were recipients of micro-credit at the time they received training (in some cases other members of the family also had a loan).10 In the Ethiopian case, the earlier training had taken place six months before the field work started, in the Indian case one year earlier, in the Sudan and Peru studies three to four years previously.
It should be noted that some women had received other types of training prior to the start of the study, e.g. in first aid, healthcare, nutrition, literacy and nursery teaching. A few had already attended courses in book-keeping or marketing. The role that prior training might have played in the development of their micro-enterprises was not investigated. Nor was literacy training. However, this latter is an important area to research, as very little is known about the role that literacy plays in such a context.
The requirements of the study, as determined by the research questions, meant not only monitoring the changes over time that occurred in the women's productive and non-productive activities as a result of the application of new skills but also isolating the impact of the training input from that of other inputs, in this case credit. The first requirement was met by the researchers conducting an exhaustive baseline interview with each woman in Group 1 before they received training, followed by a number of visits subsequent to the training (every two to three months) which yielded both interview and observation data on each woman. This also allowed the researcher to build up a detailed profile or diary about each woman. The field work period lasted between eight and nine months in each case, with the training for the Group 1 women usually taking place soon after the baseline survey was conducted. To meet the second requirement, the research team developed a follow-up interview schedule and a Socio-Economic Impact Matrix 11 (Appendix 2), on which the researcher recorded details of changes at each visit along a number of discrete dimensions, namely: activity, time, skills, resources, income and social impact.
11 This is based on the Gender Analysis Matrix designed by Rani Parker (1993) for training development workers.
3.3.1 Group 1 women
3.3.2 Group 2 women
3.3.3 The training
These consisted of the following:
· a detailed baseline interview schedule (A1) which was administered to each woman in the main sample just before they underwent training (or in some cases at the same time as they were receiving training). This consisted of both closed and open questions. The schedule was divided into six sections:
a. personal and household details, including details of all those who were living and earning in the household, who was head of household, the household's assets, income and loans, educational levels of each household member and any prior training or business support the woman had received· a follow-up interview schedule (C), administered to the women in the main sample at regular intervals, usually every two months. This was briefer than the A1 schedule and was designed to capture changes to the woman's daily life and in particular her business activities as a result of the training. It consisted of three sections:b. the woman's daily activities
c. the resources she was putting into her productive work at that time
d. her income at that time
e. the training she was about to receive and what she expected to gain from it
f. her status in the household, in terms of decision-making and her aspirations for the future.
1 changes to the woman's personal life, including changes in activities carried out, amount of time spent on each and membership of any group, changes in household circumstances, resources required for her productive work, uses made of skills acquired during training, changes in income, changes in external circumstances which might influence her productive work, what she does with any additional income, and what she sees as the way forward in her business.· a Socio-Economic Impact Matrix (SEM), which was used in conjunction with the follow-up interview schedule (C). A sample is provided in Appendix 2. Its six horizontal categories are: activities, time, resources, skills, economic outputs and social impact. Its vertical categories are: woman, men and household. The purpose was to condense the information obtained by administering the C schedule into a tabular summary of the changes experienced by the women in their working lives since the researcher's previous visit, and the impact that these changes had on her husband/closest male relative and her household. The researcher always completed the Matrix after the C interview had been held.2 changes to her husband's (or other male relative's) life as a result of changes to her life.
3 changes to other household members' lives.
In the case of Ethiopia and Peru three follow-up visits were made to the women (and three C schedules and matrices completed). In India and Sudan, there were four follow-up visits (although in the latter case, only five of the ten women received four visits). In all cases they were spread out over seven to eight months of field work, with the total field work period lasting eight to nine months.
· written profiles of each woman, which the researcher constructed over the field work period. This provided additional information to that gathered through the interviews, especially on complex factors in the household, community and wider environment which were either facilitating or impeding the woman's use of the knowledge and skills acquired during the training. It also allowed the researcher to record the difficult lives many of these women had experienced as well as her own personal impressions of the women and their attitude towards their business.
· an interview schedule (A2) to be used with the second group of women. This was a slightly modified version of the A1 schedule. It was administered at the start and end of the research period (with the exception of Sudan, where it was administered only at the start, as all the women in this group had been trained several years previously). The purpose of this schedule was to find out from a sample of women who had received training at an earlier date the extent to which they had found the training useful over the extended period, whether any increase in income had been sustained over time, and whether they were still applying the knowledge and skills acquired. As already indicated, this included some women who had developed successful businesses.
In the Ethiopian case, the training for this second group had taken place six months earlier, in April 1997, in India a year earlier, in September/October 1996, in Peru during 1994, and in Sudan at varying times but none later than 1995.
A series of B schedules were developed to gather information about the training process itself. These consisted of:
B1: interview with the field officer or person(s) responsible for determining training policy and arranging courses. Questions addressed details of the course currently being run, training objectives, selection of trainers and trainees, costs of training, training policy, strengths of formal and informal types of training, value of training compared to credit, and barriers to women acquiring skills and making use of any skills acquired.B2: interviews with the trainer or trainers responsible for the course. Questions covered the extent to which training objectives were being met, trainees' attendance and level of interest/motivation, the content of the course, the training methods used, the perceived role of the trainer, the trainer's personal assessment of the trainees' attitude towards skill acquisition and micro-enterprise development, and barriers to women acquiring and making use of skills being taught.
B3: observations of the training course. This focused on the topics covered, methods used (especially whether trainees were practising the new skills), the trainer's role, equipment and training aids available, numbers of trainees, level of trainees' interest and motivation, researcher's personal assessment of the value and relevance of the training to the trainees. The researchers observed a number of training sessions:
|
Ethiopia |
5 half-day sessions of formal training (business
skills) |
|
India |
2 days of formal training plus some observation of informal
training (e.g. at the cocoon market) |
|
Peru |
7 formal training sessions (all technical), plus one informal
(technical assistance) |
|
Sudan |
3 formal training sessions and 5 informal (business
advice) |
All the schedules and the Matrix were developed by the UK steering group. The baseline interview was developed out of one originally used in the Sri Lankan programme. Feedback and comments were received from the research supervisors in the countries concerned. Extensive notes were provided to the researcher on how to complete all the schedules, the Matrix and the field diaries. A member of the UK steering group was responsible for setting up the study in each country, briefing the contracted researcher and training her as required. While it was stipulated that the A1 and A2 schedules could not be modified in any way to ensure standardised baseline data, researchers were allowed to modify the C schedule. The Matrix also had to be completed as instructed by the UK team, as this was a key instrument of analysis.
Completed schedules and a progress report were submitted by the researcher at quarterly intervals. These were examined by the UK team and queries and requests for additional information sent back to the field. Particularly effective examples of the presentation of data on the Matrix by the Indian researcher were circulated to the others (see Appendix 3 for an example). The researchers were required to draw up a plan of visits for each quarterly period, this plan to be monitored by the research supervisor in question. (The data gathered was transmitted directly to the UK steering group and was not subject to scrutiny by local NGO officers).
At the end of the field work period, preliminary analysis was carried out on the data, based on an analysis of the answers to the questions contained in the schedules. Data were recorded manually for each woman according to replies given to each question, so that the preliminary analysis provided a separate but complete account of each woman's activities, thoughts on her business activities etc at the time of the researcher's initial visit and at each subsequent visit. In the Indian case, this preliminary written analysis did not give an account of each woman's replies because they were very similar. This was not surprising because the women were all working in the same field (silk reeling), came from the same village where most of their families were related, shared very similar experiences and were treated as a group for the purposes of training and credit by the local NGO. The group experience therefore formed the basis of analysis.
Quantitative data on income change proved problematic to analyse. The researchers had found it difficult to obtain an accurate figure for daily, weekly or monthly income (a not uncommon situation, see Kabeer, 1995). Many of the women involved in trading were unable to distinguish between turnover (gross income) and net profit. Sometimes they gave a figure which did not take their loan repayments (with interest) into account; sometimes repayments were accounted for. Some did not want to give the researcher an exact figure for fear of losing their loan (either because they were being too successful or not successful enough) and many did not want to reveal their real income in front of male members of the family. Sometimes they gave conflicting figures between one interview and the next and there was some confusion as to whether they should be reporting increases or decreases since the previous visit or since the first visit. Income could fluctuate widely between one day and the next. Despite the difficulties in recording income changes accurately, the table in Appendix 4 is an attempt to provide patterns of income for all the women on the four projects who were in productive work at the time the study started. For the Group 1 women, this records income changes at the time of each visit (two or three monthly intervals). For the first occasion these represented changes since the women were trained, and on subsequent occasions they represented changes since the previous visit. For the Group 2 women, the first visit recorded income changes in the period after they had received training, and the second visit recorded any subsequent changes in income.
The table in Appendix 5 represents an attempt to indicate the number of cases where there was a clear link between the training, increased income and credit. For the Group 1 women, the income change (increase or decrease) was that which occurred during the first four months of field work (for many women there was a subsequent decline); for the Group 2 women, the time scale was not specific but referred to the period following the training. In all cases, the income is assumed to be net of loan and interest payments.
During data analysis, information from the questions in the A and C schedules and the Matrices for each woman were condensed into broad categories of data according to the principles of grounded theory as applied to qualitative research, with progressive focusing leading to the emergence of the main findings.
These case studies were used as the basis of a three-day workshop held at the University of Sussex in September 1998, to which all members of the UK team, local researchers and research supervisors of the four complete studies were invited. Unfortunately the participants from Sudan were unable to attend because of the closure of the British Embassy in Khartoum at the time, which meant that they were unable to obtain visas.
At the workshop, the main findings of the research were extracted out of the four detailed case studies. These were used as the basis for the writing of the final report for DFID by Fiona Leach (Sussex University). A draft version of this report was sent in December 1998 to the participating researchers and research supervisors, and the other members of the UK team for comment. The final report was completed in January 1999. This Education Research Report provides a fuller account of the four completed case studies than was possible in that report.
The Matrix turned out to be a very effective tool for recording changes in the women's lives between one visit and the next. The Indian researcher added pluses or minuses to the summarised points so as to allow the reader to have a quick idea of whether the woman's situation had improved or not (see sample in Appendix 3). This researcher also produced four sets of consolidated data in matrix form to sum up the situation of the women as a group at each visit. This would not have been possible on the other projects because the women were all engaged in different activities.
The main problem reported by the researchers with the Matrix was the same as that reported above in 3.6. At times it was not possible for the women to accurately assess changes to their lives between one visit and the next, especially in terms of income gain or loss. Income used for business purposes and that used for the household could not easily be separated out. The woman could not necessarily remember what her situation was at the time of the previous visit. So figures recorded were often approximate.
The small size of the sample was problematic in terms of the reliability and the generalisability of the findings. In the Sudan group four different types of training (one technical and three business-oriented) were covered. In Peru two different types of technical skills training were covered. In the Indian Group 1 sample, only eight women received the formal training component, they received a much reduced programme of formal training to that of the previously trained group, and one woman left the village immediately after the training and did not return until towards the end of the research period. None of these changes could have been anticipated at the start of the research, nor those associated with the other countries originally included in the study (Sri Lanka, Eritrea and Sierra Leone). This points to the need to identify larger samples at the planning stage than the research design requires so that one can make allowances for the unexpected.
Practical problems of communication also arose. In the case of the Port Sudan programme, it could take two months for the completed interview schedules to reach the UK and this did not allow time for feedback and requests for clarification to reach the researcher in time for the subsequent visit. Changes in personnel in the two UK offices of the NGOs also complicated the research process.
