Data Collection

 

Data Collection

Introduction

Having explained the rationale for the choice of focus countries for this study and having provided general background on each of the five countries in chapter

2,this chapter documents the process followed and the choices made for new data collection in the five focus countries—Algeria, the Arab Republic of Egypt,Morocco, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Republic of Yemen. Documenting these choices is important because much of the effort under this study in terms of staff time and study costs consisted in collecting and analyzing new data in the five countries—that is, household surveys and qualitative focus groups as well sin-depth household interviews and key informants interviews. But documenting these choices is also important to clarify what the study can and cannot do—what it can inform us about, but also what it cannot inform us about given the data’s limits in terms of representativeness as well as the types of questions asked and to whom.We first describe briefly the nature of the household survey questionnaire,and especially the questions in the survey what it enables us to do, as well assume of its limits. In each of the five focus countries the same household survey sw as implemented, with only minor adaptations to take into account country characteristics. The survey questionnaire included a total of 17 sections, many of which were designed to gather background information on household members.But the three chapters that have been written in this study using the household surveys focus on the questions related to household perceptions of climate change, coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies, and finally both temporary and permanent migration.Next, we explain how the household survey sites were selected in each of the five countries and how the survey samples were constructed in each subarea. Weals provide a few comments on weights and on some of the challenges encountered during survey implementation. Data collection was not easy. In Egypt,Syria, and the Republic of Yemen, the quantitative and qualitative fieldwork was interrupted by the 2011 Arab Spring events, causing delays of weeks and, winsome cases months, with frequent interruptions in fieldwork once the data gatherings resumed. While these events did not appear to affect responses in the survey, the teams implementing the survey had to be flexible in order to adapt.In addition, in the Republic of Yemen interviewers faced some intimidation and threats to their physical security, which caused further delays in data collectionthere. Finally we provide background on the objectives of the qualitative data collection,as well as the process followed and techniques used, such as probing nonspecific questions. As was the case for the survey data collection, data collection was challenging in some countries. In the Republic of Yemen the deteriorating security conditions made focus group recruitment very difficult, which led to switch from focus groups to in-depth interviews for that country. In Algeria,focus group recruitment was hampered by local suspicion. Time constraints and worries about the spread of Arab Spring dynamics prevented sustained efforts at focus groups recruitment, so that in that country as well the team opted for interviews. We also discuss the approach used for interviews with keyin formants, who included government officials as well as researchers and representatives of nongovernmental and international organizations. The structure of the chapter follows closely the above discussion. After explaining some of the characteristics of the household survey questionnaire in section two, section three is devoted to the process followed for collecting the household survey data. Section four discusses the qualitative data collection through focus groups in Egypt, Morocco, and Syria, and in-depth interviews in Algeria and the Republic of Yemen, as well as interviews with key informants.A brief conclusion follows.