Food and Nutrition Surveillance and Response in Emergencies

1. Food and Nutrition Surveillance and Response in Emergencies Session 10 Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Nutrition Situation Analysis

2. Introduction • Analysis of elements of food chain and their interactions needs to be done to understand the whole spectrum of food and nutrition security • Formulation of strategies and design of effective interventions require comprehensive assessments and cooperation of a variety of disciplines

3. Introduction • Challenge is to create methodologies that are relevant, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive • Rapid Assessments are the new methodologies responsive to this challenge.

4. What is a Rapid Assessment (RA)? • Has origin and application in rural development research and nutrition research • A systematic activity designed to draw inferences, conclusions, hypotheses or assessments including the acquisition of new information during a limited period of time.

5. Characteristics of RA? • Offers the balance and interaction between (emic), local or indigenous perspective and the (etic), outside or experts perspectives from anthropological point of view • Pays attention to the cultural, traditional and social factors the target problems as well as knowledge of the beneficiaries.

6. Characteristics of RA? • Procedures are primarily direct observations, informal conversations, key informant interviews concerned with knowledge, attitudes and practice

7. How is RA Used? • To enhance the understanding of the rural conditions in their natural context • To tap knowledge of local inhabitants and combining the knowledge with modern scientific expertise BUT minimizing prior assumptions

8. Qualitative Methods • Focus Group Discussions • Observations • Key Informants • Case Histories/Studies

9. Focus Group Discussions What is FGD • A structured group process used to obtain detailed information about a particular situation Uses • For exploring attitudes and feelings • To draw out precise issues that may be unknown to the investigator

10. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) Composition of FGD • 6-9 participants brought together to discuss a clearly defined topic • Composed of homogeneous people representing a particular segment of population (e.g. gender, age social group-pastoralists, internally displaced persons)

11. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) Timing • A group session should last 1 to 1 and a half hours, maximum 2 hours. • Facilitator keeps discussion n track by asking a series of open ended questions to stimulate discussions

12. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) Advantages • Easy to undertake • Results obtained in a short time • Social interactions in the group produces freer and more complex responses • The investigator can probe for clarification and solicit greater details

13. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) Disadvantages • Groups are often difficult to assemble • Individual responses are not independent of each other • Group is hand selected therefore the results may not be representative of the general population

14. Observation Observations generates questions for further investigations • Attendance at participation in activities, formal and informal • Structure counting (quantitative) observation yields useful preliminary information on physical features • Structures, sample (quantitative and qualitative)

15. Observation • Transect. Offers an overview of the field site and structured observation on natural resource and human activity • Record who walked the transect and at what time • Helps build rapport with the locals

16. Key Informant Interviews Obtaining information from a community resident who is in a position to know the community as a whole, or a particular area of interest. • The person can be a profession person who works with the population you want information about, or a member of the target population • Key informants can be young or old

17. Key Informant Interviews Advantages • provides in-depth information about causes of the problem • Allows to clarify ideas and information on continual basis • Can easily combine with quantitative information

18. Key Informant Interviews Disadvantages • Informants may give you their own impression and biases • May have to be combined with other methods, because achieving representativeness of the total community is difficult • May overlook the perspectives of community members who are less visible • The information may be difficult to quantify and organise

19. Qualitative vs. Qualitative

20. Qualitative vs. Qualitative

21. Qualitative Methods Strengths • Provides vital information on attitudes and practice • Findings from qualitative research can be used to base qualitative research • Can easily combine with quantitative information

22. Qualitative Methods Weaknesses • Small samples invalidates generalization of results • Non scientific-

23. Quantitative Methods Strengths • Used to gather large amount of data • Features a high level of reliability • Findings can be tested using statistical means, helping one to be sure of its reliability

24. Quantitative Methods Weaknesses • Rigid approach and attempts to control all the variable factors that might influence findings • Inappropriate to measure human knowledge attitude and practice • Insensitive to complexities of human interactions

25. Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods • Blending of methods captures a more complete, holistic and contextual portrayal of the subject under study. • Weakness and limitations of each method are counterbalanced therefore neutralizes rather than compounding the problems

26. Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods • Coding responses to open ended questions generated from quantitative enquiries. • Using statistical methods to analyse ranked data sets arising from participatory enquiries i.e. creating frequency tables from the coded data

27. Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods • Using participatory techniques in exploratory studies to set up hypotheses which can then be tested through questionnaire based sample surveys. • Choosing a random sample and conducting a questionnaire survey (quantitative) to gain information on key variables for in-depth qualitative survey