Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
i
ii
Zimbisa is a trust that was established in January 2014 with the goal of helping Zimbabwe achieve sustained economic growth and reduced poverty. It works towards this goal by facilitating improved public-private dialogue (PPD). Effective dialogue is key to establishing broad ownership of the national economic transformation agenda. It also helps ensure policies are designed to support business, raise investor confidence and ultimately to facilitate increased economic growth in Zimbabwe.
Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) have a vital role to play in these debates. But to maximise their impact they must base their advocacy on technically sound and inclusive research, as opposed to emotive argument. That is what this document – Zimbabwe’s first ‘BMO Research Manual’ – is intended to help with.
As well as helping BMOs contribute to debate, improved research can also help them gain new members and improve the service provided to existing members. Businesses who join BMOs expect research and information that informs them about their operating environments. They want research that can inform their decisions on business strategy, investments and product development among other things.
Unfortunately, many BMOs’ financial constraints make it challenging to invest sufficiently in research. Many BMOs have limited staff, with few or none focused on research. This challenge is particularly pronounced among ‘lower tier’ BMOs, but even larger ones – who do have some dedicated resource – are severely constrained. As a result, the private sector’s contribution to debate is too often poorly informed. It is not based on robust research. And too often it is based on poor member consultation.
To help turn this situation around this research manual presents tools and techniques that can bring a lasting change to how BMOs deliver services to their members. This manual is grounded in an understanding of the real challenges faced by BMO’s in Zimbabwe. It draws on the conversation at a workshop in November 2015 and has been co-created with BMOs themselves. Wherever possible it includes case studies from Zimbabwe, presenting the pockets of excellent practice which already exists.
The manual cannot exhaust all strategies and tactics necessary for BMOs to transform their research capacity. But it does provide some practical ideas about where they can start improving their research capacity. We sincerely hope you will find this manual very useful.
Dakarayi MatangaZimbisa BMO Component Manager
PREFACE
iii
Our sincere gratitude goes to the following individuals and organisations that contributed in the co-creation of this manual, by providing technical support, case studies, ideas and other valuable content:
• All participants at the Zimbisa BMO Workshop on ‘How to Provide your Members with Research as a Service’ held at the Bronte Hotel in Harare on 30 November 2015
• Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)• Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC)• Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC)• Zimbabwe Applied Arts and Crafts Association (ZAACA)• Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF)• Philly Desai
This document was developed with the support and advice of Kivu International.
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
iv
CONTENTS
1. Why should a BMO conduct research?
2. What is effective BMO research?
3. Choosing your research priorities.
4.Using research for advocacy
5. Information for your members: an “easy win”.
6. Surveys
7. Other Research Techniques To Consider
8. Packaging and dissemination
9. Funding and resourcing research
Annex: some useful templates
page 2
page 3
page 5
page 9
page 11
page 14
page 20
page 26
page 31
page 32
1
2
Carrying out research can help BMOs improve the service they provide for their members. Evidence suggests that both existing BMO members and potential new BMO members value research. In one survey two thirds of businesses stated that they considered “conducting research and providing policy analysis” an important service from a BMO.¹
Responding To Your Members
¹ 2014 Probe Study, “BMOs in Zimbabwe - Market Study of Membership” To download the report see the Resources page on www.zimbisa.org
WHY SHOULD A BMO CONDUCT RESEARCH?
1
Providing information for your members
Supporting a BMO’s plans for developing new ‘products’
Supporting a BMO’s advocacy
Giving a voice to your members’ views
Supporting a BMO’s future planning
For example, researching information on developments in their market or on the legal and regulatory environment, which could help influence companies business strategies or investments;
For your members – helping you understand how to better respond to member’s needs.
It is important to be clear what the objective is for the research before starting as different objectives can require different methodologies.
For example, using research to assess the impact of a policy change on your members;
For example, surveying your members’ views on an issue and then publicising the results. This could include different parts of your membership. For example, female headed enterprises;
For example, research on potential new members for your BMO: how could you attract new members?
Objective for BMO Research
3
You will want to ensure that your research is good quality. But what does this mean for a BMO? How you judge the quality of research will differ between projects. There are, however, some criteria that can be used to judge the quality of research.
Criteria For Effective Research
WHAT IS EFFECTIVE BMO RESEARCH?
2
Research, put simply, is the process of gathering and analysing information. A research technique, or research method, is a tool for collecting and analysing information.
There is a broad spectrum of research – ranging from research that is low cost and can be turned around quickly, to the more sophisticated, often resource-intensive, and long-term research, traditionally undertaken by academics. In this manual, we focus on the former. This is because BMOs operate in the “real world” and are expected to conduct research that responds to new policy developments and changes in the business environment in real time.
BMOs have to be realistic about the type of research they can undertake, as they are often resource-constrained. As such the manual focuses on simple research tools used to gather and analyse “secondary”, or already existing, information. This tends to be easier than gathering “primary” data, or the generation of new information. Note that simple, well timed, and clearly communicated research can be just as effective as the more sophisticated and long-term research. Both have a role to play. BMOs need to play to their strengths: your work needs to be credible and defendable, but BMOs are not university departments and nor should they be!
Box 1: What is research? Keeping it simple.
4
Credible: see below on ‘sources of credibility for BMO research’;
Timely: often BMO research will link to a “real world” event (e.g. a response to the Budget), so it can’t be late!
Effective research is:
Part of an on-going conversation with members: ultimately BMO research is for your members’ benefit;
Relevant: it should be on an issue which matters to your members (and potential members);
Clear and accessible: there are no prizes for looking clever: research must result in easy to understand outputs.
Tip: These criteria apply to both research that you carry out yourself and also research which you commission from elsewhere. One important skill for a BMO is judging whether someone else’s research is good or not!
Tip: Don’t over claim for your research: because of the time-pressures and resource constraints BMOs face there will be limits to the type of research you can undertake. It is much better to be upfront and honest about the limitations of your methodology. This is much better than someone else criticising your work!
5
The choice of what research to carry out is the most important decision you will make. If you decide either to focus on the wrong issue or to use the wrong research method this will mean that the research will not help your BMO.
The decision about what to research is particularly important for BMOs in Zimbabwe who have tight budgets and limited capacity. It is vital to prioritise effectively.
The Most Important Decision About Your Research
CHOOSING YOUR RESEARCH PRIORITIES
3
Ensuring credibility is important for your research. Credibility for BMO research, however, does not mean the same as for academic research.
As discussed above there are different types of research from the simple, quick turnaround research that draws mainly on secondary sources, to the more academic, which will often involve primary research. Both forms of research need to be rigorous and robust. But the standards applied will be different: for instance, by definition research that has to be turned around quickly will not go through formal academic peer review, which can be very time consuming. In this case BMOs will need to innovate to come up with quicker forms of quality control – by asking a relevant policy expert to review a piece of work, for example.Surveys are another example: academic research will tend to use large sample sizes and sophisticated ways of identifying respondents (sampling techniques) to conduct surveys. By contrast a BMO might use a quick online survey to generate a snapshot view of its members on a particular issue. Both types of survey are credible forms of research, even if they adhere to different standards of rigor. The key, as mentioned above, is to acknowledge the limitations of the approach adopted.
There is a final important point to be said about BMO research credibility. Credibility can be derived from different sources. The most important of these is that you represent the voice of your sector.*
Box 2: BMO research and “credibility”
* We deliberately use the word “sector” rather than “member” here because for a BMO to have credibility they need to represent a sufficient proportion of businesses in their sector. For example, if a BMO has only 15% of the businesses in its sector as members this casts doubt on its legitimacy as the voice of the sector and this reduces credibility.
6
CASE STUDY 1DECIDING ON RESEARCH PRIORITIES - THE ZNCC MACRO-ECONOMICS SUB-COMMITTEE
A number of BMO’s in Zimbabwe have specific processes to help make informed decisions about what research to carry out. One example is the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, which has a sub-committee – the Macro-Economic Sub-Committee – which has, as part of its terms of reference, the role of identifying priorities for research. Alongside responsibility for “economic research and development through a think tank”, this committee also focuses on important interrelated issues including both “promoting ZNCC position on Macro-economic policy framework projects”; “production of business news and economic information for the business sector” and “dialogue with key stakeholders (i.e. government, labour, civic community and business parliament) on macro-economic issues.”
Having the same sub-committee focused on providing information for members and leading on dialogue with stakeholders is an interesting model. It makes it more likely that the research prioritised will not be ‘research for research’s sake’ but linked to the core objectives of the BMO, such as better informing its members.
A number of BMO’s in Zimbabwe have specific processes to help make informed decisions about what research to carry out.
BMOs have to be realistic about the type of research they can undertake, as they are often resource-constrained.
So how should BMO’s make these decisions? This manual is intended to help. But a BMO should also have a good internal decision making process, which forces you to think hard about what your priorities are.
12
When you are deciding what to research, it is useful to draw up a list of potential pieces of research. If you can only carry out one piece of research, being able to choose from 3-5 options helps increase the chances of making a good decision. Some questions which might be helpful when considering options include:
Give Yourself Options
Does this research respond to your members’ priorities? Is it topical?
How do you think it would score against the criteria for “good BMO research” (see section 2)?
Is it going to be possible to develop an affordable and practical research methodology? (Sections 5, 6 and 7 help in making this judgement.)?
Is there a risk of trying to be too ambitious? A common mistake is to try to do too much;
Are you considering the interests of all your members when prioritising potential research? Less high profile small enterprises and marginal groups such as women may sometimes inadvertently be given lower priority.
Tip: think about “road-testing” your research idea(s) with some “critical friends”. This would involve asking external experts whether they think that your proposed research is a good idea. This could include policy experts or other researchers. It could also include some of your members. If they do not think the proposed research is a priority you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
7
8
CASE STUDY 2ZIMBABWEAN EXAMPLE OF BMO CONSULTING WITH MEMBERS TO HELP DECIDE ON RESEARCH PRIORITIES
The Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) is a member-owned organization which was formed in 2013. Its main objective is to promote and develop the production of milk and dairy products in Zimbabwe, and to advance and protect all sectors and categories of producers. ZADF uses research for a number of reasons which include developing technical member services and preparing evidence for participation in Public Private Dialogue (PPD).
In April-May 2015 ZADF carried out an outreach exercise around the country to understand the issues affecting their members. The outreach targeted a total of 17 Milk Collection Centres (MCCs) and was able to meet with 403 farmers (255 men and 148 women) who participated and gave their views. MCCs are cooperatives used for aggregating milk produced by smallholder farmers at district level. ZADF has about 1,120 members and of these 120 are medium to large-scale farmers, while the rest are in the small scale category. Although small scale farmers do not account for the bulk of the milk produced in the country, they constitute a significant number of people who derive a livelihood from dairy farming.
Over 80% of the sentiments raised in the outreach pointed to the need for ZADF to focus on the “Cost of Doing Dairy” in Zimbabwe. ZADF then commissioned a study focused on demarcating existing dairy models in Zimbabwe; and illuminating their cost drivers with a view to assessing how farmers in the small and intermediate scale models can be assisted to grow their businesses. By participating in ZADF’s outreach therefore, members were able to decide on the BMO’s research priorities. The member outreach was also the first ZADF had carried out since inception, bringing it closer to its members.
Over 80% of the sentiments raised in the outreach pointed to the need for ZADF to focus on the “Cost of Doing Dairy” in Zimbabwe.
(Above) ZADF members participating in ZADF’s member outreach
9
When Zimbisa held a workshop with BMOs in November 2015, they told us that they were interested in using research for advocacy.
By advocacy, we mean a BMO seeking to influence government policy or decisions made by other important stakeholders, such as the private sector. For example, a regulation may be having a negative effect on your members and your advocacy goal is to negotiate for the reform or removal of this regulation.
Achieving policy change is difficult. It can happen in different ways. Sometimes it can be very direct – a BMO advocates for a specific policy change and the government decides to do it. But sometimes it can be indirect – a BMO raises the profile of a problem that its members are facing and provokes public debate on the issue. This debate then leads to government making a policy change.
Research will only ever be one part of a successful advocacy plan. BMO’s also have potential influence over policy-makers because they represent their members. What you say can matter, even if it is not based on research.Research can help though. For example, it can:
What You Asked For...
What Is Advocacy?
How Research Can Help With Advocacy
USING RESEARCH FOR ADVOCACY
4
Demonstrate how your members are affected by policy: this could include researching how a policy is not being effectively implemented or also look into why some policies may have unintended consequences for businesses. In particular, it could highlight the effect of policy on groups who sometimes lack a voice and power, such as poorer women.
Demonstrating the scale of a problem can help “focus policy makers’ minds”: for example, if a policy reduces economic growth or government revenues demonstrating the scale of this impact can be powerful.
Using research to develop a new policy proposal, which a BMO then advocates for: a BMO might proactively carry out research and advise government on policies that will contribute to their sector growth strategies. This could include comparative research to identify ‘good’ policies or practices in other countries and tailoring them to the local context.
10
CASE STUDY 3ZIMBABWEAN EXAMPLE OF USE OF RESEARCH FOR ADVOCACY
As highlighted in the ZADF case study above, members engaged through the outreach process prioritised the “Cost of Doing Dairy” in Zimbabwe as the major concern, and this became the organisation’s advocacy priority. Recognising that sound engagement on this issue could only be done using evidence, ZADF then commissioned a study focused on demarcating existing dairy models in Zimbabwe; and illuminating their cost drivers.The research process itself depended heavily on the technical expertise and institutional memory on the dairy sector which already existed in ZADF’s Executive and membership. The whole exercise gave them a fuller picture of the challenges, needs and aspirations of smallholder farmers’ issues and more confidence to address them in collaboration with their key stakeholders.
In this regard, the BMO used the research findings to host their first ever Dairy Multi Stakeholder Indaba in December 2015. The meeting was presented with fact based evidence on the cost of doing dairy on different scales of farms in Zimbabwe to show diverse stakeholders the challenges the industry faces; and start discussions on what all of them can do to contribute towards a more viable dairy industry in Zimbabwe.
Sound engagement on this issue could only be done using evidence.
Tip: your research must be part of a wider advocacy plan. This means thinking about three things in particular.
First, is there an “influencing point” which your research is intended to target? This might be a government decision making ‘moment’, such as the National Budget;
Second, who are the decision makers and influencers and what research might help convince them to change policy? In other words, it is helpful to “get into the mind” of the decision makers to help decide what research might be effective. Importantly, your knowledge of who the key stakeholders are will often evolve as your project does – you’ll learn more about who your key “advocacy targets” are;
Third, communicating your arguments clearly. Section 8 has more details on this. But remember that policy makers are busy people and will not read a long report.
11
Providing information for your members does not need to be difficult. There are some low cost and easy ways of providing useful information to your members.
One way of thinking about this is to think of your BMO as a funnel, as in the diagram below. Here, the role of the BMO is to take existing information and data and funnel it to their members in an easy and accessible form. The motto here could be: “borrow, don’t reinvent the wheel.” Adopting this approach is good for BMOs who have very little money and few other resources.
The existing information that BMOs can use, “repackage” and disseminate to their members can include information and data on:²
• Developments in specific economic sectors;• Government policy, legislation and the
regulatory environment;• The wider business environment, for example
data on macro-economic developments or financial data.
The table below gives some example of sources of information. It covers both Zimbabwean sources and international sources. This is not intended as an exhaustive list and for each BMO the list of possible sources of information will differ. A useful exercise for every BMO would be an assessment of what sources of information might be useful for its own members.
“Borrow, don’t reinvent the wheel...”
What Information Do Your Members Want?
Sources of Information
INFORMATION FOR YOUR MEMBERS: AN “EASY WIN”
5
BMOEXISTING INFORMATION YOUR MEMBERS
² Zimbisa’s research found that relatively few businesses are accessing potentially useful existing forms of information. For example, in Zimbisa’s 2015 Business Environment Research Product (BERP) Survey only 25% of businesses surveyed were using the CZI Manufacturing Sector Survey. It was even less for other sources of information. Only 12% were using the ZIMSTAT Business Tender Survey and 10% were using the CV People Survey. Fewer than 10% were using any of the World Bank Ease of Doing Business report, the Zimbabwe Labour Force Survey or the FINSCOPE consumer survey.
BMOs may think of themselves as ‘funnels’ taking existing information and data and channeling it to their members in an easy and accessible form.
Consumer Surveys
GovernmentGazettes
MacroeconomicRevieiws
Sector SpecificBulletins
MediaSummaries
Monetary & Fiscal PolicyStatements
Type of Information Sources
Sector specific
Government policy and legislation
Wider business environment
Pick the Ministry that is directly linked to your sector from the Government of Zimbabwe Portal http://www.zim.gov.zw/ministries
TFC Capital Monthly Financial Sector Bulletin is a useful example of a sector specific output. (Email [email protected] to subscribe.)
The Government of Zimbabwe Portal provides access to various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) http://www.zim.gov.zw/ministries
Bills and Acts can be found on the Parliament of Zimbabwe website www.parlzim.gov.zw
Fiscal policy and related matters from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development website www.zimtreasury.gov.zw
Monetary Policy and various economic reviews (quarterly, monthly, weekly) from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Website www.rbz.co.zw
Veritas provides excellent free information on the work of the Parliament of Zimbabwe and the Laws of Zimbabwe, and makes public domain information widely available. http://www.veritaszim.net/
ZEPARU’s Economic Barometer publishes comprehensive economic data quarterly. See www.zeparu.co.zw
For media summaries, try Zanj Financial Network (Zfn) (email [email protected] )
FINSCOPE consumer survey. For the 2014 survey see http://www.finmark.org.za/finscope-zimbabwe-consumer-survey-2014/
International: World Bank Ease of Doing Business reports. See http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports
International: The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Reports. For the latest see http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2015-2016/
International: Afrobarometer surveys Zimbabwean public opinion, comparing it with other African countries. See http://www.afrobarometer.org/
12
13
CASE STUDY 4LIVESTOCK AND MEAT ADVISORY COUNCIL REPACKAGING EXISTING INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS
Zimbabwe’s Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) provides high quality information its members. LMAC’s members are interested in information ranging from current market information to trends in trade and production statistics. They are also interested in how government policy or other changes – such as disease outbreaks – will affect their businesses. In order to respond to these needs, LMAC provides information for those working in a range of sectors from Poultry to Pork and from meat processing to stock feed manufacturing.
Much of the information provided is a ‘repackaging’ and dissemination of existing information. The sources drawn on include government data and publications, trade data collected by other organisations and intelligence gained by LMAC – for example when they attend workshops. LMAC also distributes bulletins produced by other organisations, such as the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA), to members. LMAC is skilfully drawing on what is already out there, not seeking to reinvent the wheel. It is collecting the information itself and then ‘funnelling’ it out to members via email, its website, newsletters (Livestock Today) and through other channels.
LMAC has received good feedback from its members as well as from government and non-governmental organizations.
Note: The full range of sources used by LMAC include: DLPD; DLVS; AMA; Dairy Services; ZIMSTAT; ZIMRA; SARS; ZPA and SMA Quarterly Returns from members; UNCOMTRADE; ITC Trademap; Government Gazette; National Budget and Monetary Policy Statement; any other information from members; meetings and workshops attended by LMAC members.
LMAC is skilfully drawing on what is already out there, not seeking to reinvent the wheel.
Tip: Repackaging existing information to make it accessible is important. When your BMO is acting as a “funnel”, repackaging the information and presenting it as assessable as possible is important. The information is unlikely to be useful for your (very busy) members without editing it down and presenting it in a more accessible form. Some of the tips in the “In Detail” section number 4 on page 29 may be useful here. The good news is that repackaging information in this way is far easier, cheaper and less time consuming than carrying out most other forms of research.
14
When Zimbisa held a workshop with BMOs in November 2015, participants said they consider surveys to be an important research tool that they have either used in the past or plan to use in the future. In response, this research manual dedicates a section specifically to this research tool.
Surveys are questionnaires that are used to capture primary, or new, data. For a BMO they can be used for a number of purposes, including:
• Finding out what your members want: for example, you may survey your members on how satisfied they are with the services you provide.
• Better understanding of your members’ views in order to help with advocacy: you might use a survey to better understand the views of your members on a proposed policy or regulatory change. This could be used as the basis of subsequent advocacy work.
• Surveying non-members, or the public, to help generate useful information for your members: for example, a survey to gain market information on the changing demand for a product; or using a survey to see whether public opinion supports the membership view on a particular policy.
There are a range of different types of survey, from a non-representative survey of members or the public designed to provide a snapshot of opinion on a given issue, to a formally representative poll designed to allow you to infer the views of a group of people (e.g. a country population) by surveying a sample of this group.
Furthermore there are a range of different models for carrying out surveys, from internet-based models to traditional face-to-face interviews. Each type of survey and model has its own pros and cons.
What You Asked For...
What Can BMOs Use Surveys For?
A Menu of Survey Options
SURVEYS6
A representative poll is important if you want to be able to use a sample of a particular group to say what they think about a particular issue (for example X % of the Zimbabwe population believe Y). But representative polls are expensive to run and take a lot of time to carry out. Moreover, it isn’t always necessary that a survey is scientifically representative of a group;
For BMOs the key will often be to use a survey to demonstrate what your members think about an issue. When this is the goal the important thing will be to make sure you get a good response rate from your members to the survey;
Surveys carried out over the Internet (see SurveyMonkey at www.surveymonkey.com) or via a mobile phone (see Voto Mobile at www.votomobile.org) can be carried out much more quickly than face-to-face surveys, but of course, this method is restricted to those people who have access to the internet/mobile phone.
15
You will need to make a decision about which specific approach to use depending on both the purpose of the survey and the resources you have at your disposal.
If you have the money available, it can be best to commission research from an expert organisation. They will have the technical expertise to design and implement a good survey. However, this can be costly.
Surveys can be very useful ways of understanding the different views or experiences of diverse groups of respondents.
This includes different age groups; different income groups; differences depending on where firms are located, or where people live; different size of firm and so on. One important demographic dimension to consider is gender: How are women’s views or experiences different to those of men? And how do female headed companies’ experiences differ to their counterparts led by men? Some points to consider when designing and implementing a survey include:
• Is there any risk of a selection bias towards men? This occurs when the survey includes a disproportionate number of men.
• Are there any specific questions which you want to target towards men or women?
• When it comes to analysing the data from a survey, which issues do you most want
to explore from a gender perspective? This will inform your analysis.
One specific point, when surveying the public, is whether you focus on households or individuals. If a survey samples its respondents based on households then there is a risk that men, often the head of the household, will dominate responses. Sampling based on individuals is more likely to give you representative samples of both men and women, and therefore allow you to accurately explore gender differences.
A similar issue may arise when surveying firms. If you are interested in the views or experiences of employees then it may be necessary to randomly sample within the firm, instead of simply asking each firm to nominate one employee. (Where a survey is focused more on strategic decisions made by businesses – for example, an investment decision – then what is likely to matter more is the seniority and role of the interviewee, rather than their gender).
Box 3: Assessing Gender Differences Through Surveys
Disaggregating survey findings by gender is a useful way of understanding how the experiences of female-headed companies differ with their male-led counterparts
16
You can also carry out your own survey. If you decide to do this, there are a number of points to consider. Without careful thought about the design of your survey and how to deliver it you risk failing to get useful results. For example, without careful thought at the start you risk getting a low response rate. Points to consider include:
What is your core research question? Being clear on this will help you know if you are asking the right people the right kinds of questions;
In order to answer your core research question, who is the “target group” that you are interested in the views of? Researchers sometimes call this target group your population. An important question is whether is it possible to identify the target group and contact some of them. Some target groups are relatively easy to reach (your membership for example) but others may be more difficult (for example, all farmers in a specific province of Zimbabwe). Do you want to focus on particular groups, such as women? Being able to identify your target group matters because;
… you then have to “sample” some of the target group. Sampling is the process of identifying who you want to contact from your overall “target group”. If you are carrying out a survey to find out what your members think about a particular issue then your sample in this case is your membership and the key will be to try and get a good response rate from members. If, however, you want to carry out a representative survey (for instance of the population as a whole, or of a particular business sector) then you need to use more sophisticated sampling techniques. The most common is selecting via a random sample from your target group. For example, this could be achieved by taking every, say, 100th person/household/company in your target group;
1
2
3
IN DETAIL #1: CARRYING OUT YOUR OWN SURVEY
Tip: commissioning surveys still takes expertise and skill. Don’t think that just because you have paid another organisation to carry out a survey that it will be good. Your BMO will still need to be an “effective commissioner”. This means:
• Being clear in your Terms of Reference about the core question, or questions, you want the survey to probe and who you want to survey and why. Remember you will have more knowledge about the issue being surveyed. The expertise the polling company has is they know how to phrase and frame questions in a clear and non-leading way;
• Remaining engaged as the survey develops: for example, a survey should be “piloted” to test it out. Ask to both see and discuss the pilot’s results;
• Being able to interpret the results. It is no use having good new data if you cannot then interpret them and present them in a way appropriate for your key audiences.
17
Be clear about who you want to answer questions: it can matter a lot who you ask to fill in a survey because some people will give more accurate information than others. In a household, do you want the father, mother or any household embers to fill out the questionnaire? In a company do you want the CEO or any member of staff to fill it out?
Are you interested in qualitative or quantitative data? Surveys can be used to gather both qualitative and quantitative research. It is important to decide which you want, or what mix of the two you want, and why;
Design is everything: drafting questions which will get you generate objective results: you have a set of choices about how to design a survey. The most important is what type of question to use. Here options include:
a. “Open questions” provide an opportunity for the respondent to give their views in a more qualitative way. They ask a question that requires a relatively complicated answer and then provide space for a written response.
b. “Closed questions”, which have a number of possible answers in a list for respondents to choose from.
c. “Ranking scales”, which can help find out the level of importance attached to something. Respondents asked to put a list of options in order (e.g. when asking farmers what the most important barriers to expanding their markets are).
d. “Sliding scales”, can help find out the strength of feeling on an issue. A series of statements are provided and then respondents asked how much they agree or disagree on a sliding scale. This is usually: 1 = strongly agree; 2 = agree; 3 = neither agree nor disagree; 4 = disagree; and 5 = strongly disagree.
Always remember to provide a “Don’t know” option, or an “other” for open-ended questions.
4
5
6
18
Tips: avoiding common mistakes in survey design. All surveys are different and there are few hard and fast rules. But some common mistakes to avoid include:
Don’t
have a sequence for the survey which does not make sense or which can prejudice the way they respond to the rest of the survey.
make questions unclear or “open to interpretation”.
Ask long and complicated questions – keeping things simple is key. Don’t use jargon and abbreviations (if you use abbreviations you must say what they stand for). Don’t use double negatives e.g. do you favour or oppose not continuing with a particular policy.
include biased or “leading” wording in questions. This can skew your results and also reduce the credibility of your results. In a survey a larger number of respondents will “favour” the question “Do you favour or oppose the country signing an economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)”, while a smaller percentage are likely to say “favour” to this: “Do you favour or oppose the country signing an economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) even if it meant that local industries might suffer from the influx of cheaper goods from the EU and compete at par with technologically advanced MNCs?”
make the survey too long overall – people get bored and will stop answering accurately if a survey goes on too long.
CASE STUDY 5SURVEY CONDUCTED BY A BMO IN ZIMBABWE
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) is the leading organisation for industry in Zimbabwe and runs several Business Environment (BE) surveys every year. Part of their core business is to, “proactively engage Government with recommendations on key economic issues, and provide members with economic analysis,” which involves carrying out regular surveys for evidence-based proposals. One of their well-known surveys used by business in Zimbabwe and which has conducted for more than 20
Do
test your survey design, including against all the points made above, by carrying out a pilot. This can be vital in picking up any problems and then ironing them out. For example, a leading Zimbabwean market research organisation, PROBE Market Research, always pilot their surveys to make sure questions make sense.
19
years is their annual Manufacturing Sector Survey. In 2015 they launched a quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) and Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) with technical cooperation from ITC and funding from European Union (EU).The BCI uses key indicators to develop a composite index which measures levels of business confidence in Zimbabwe:
• Economic situation of the establishment;• About the manufacturing sector of the establishment;• Economic situation of the country; • Investment; and• Profitability.
In terms of sample selection, their target population is manufacturing establishments or enterprises active at any time during the period covered by the survey, including any forecast period. They used the Stratified Probability Sampling method based on the national establishment distribution of the 2011 Enterprise Survey of the World Bank (WB) for Zimbabwe. The data is collected between July 2015 and September through self-enumeration, telephone and in-person interviews with either a paper or electronic questionnaire with 88% (283) completed questionnaires which is impressive.
They are able to produce survey results disaggregated by sectors, size of business and regions surveyed, over and above the overall BCI.
The composite business confidence index for quarter one 2015 stood at -33.9 for quarter-on-quarter and -37.2 for year-on-year. The general rule is that a value above zero indicates business optimism, a value below zero, pessimism, and 0 indicates neutrality. The figure thus indicates that respondents feel pessimistic about the prospects of their companies/organisations (in 2015). This indicates the view that overall, business managers feel the situation is worse off than it was in the previous quarter as well as in the same quarter of 2014.
The CZI runs several surveys each year, such as the Manufacturing Sector Survey and Business Confidence Index (BCI).
20
In addition to surveys, there are a number of other research tools you could consider. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. In the table below we set out a menu of options, and include comments on both when to consider using different options and some issues to consider for each of them.
Other Research Tools To Consider
OTHER RESEARCH TECHNIQUES TO CONSIDER
7
Research Tool When should you use it? What issues need considering?
Large scale surveys or polls: for example with a nationally
representative sample.
Seminars and workshops: small group discussions with experts
and key stakeholders.
Focus Group Discussions: typically around 10-15 people having a moderated discussion
about an issue.
When you need robust and rigorous insights into what a particular group (e.g. the public or businesses) think. It can help achieve a range of purposes from advocacy to understanding
members’ views.
See “In Detail X” below for full details. In short these can be used to: develop solutions to problems, generate new ideas and to engage a range of different stakeholders. They are also good opportunities to commission and
‘road test’ papers.
Focus groups are generally used either when you want to find out why people think something or when you want to probe an issue
in more detail.
Focus groups can be used to provide quick insights that can
be used for advocacy.
A large representative poll can be costly. They require a high
degree of technical skill.
See section 6 for details on options.
It is important to be clear about the objective of a seminar or workshop. An additional challenge is making them engaging and interesting, i n c l u d i n g t h ro u g h go o d presentations/speakers. And finally planning is critical! (See
“In Detail X” for further detail).
There are far less resource intensive, but still require expertise to conduct well. Questions include: how do you recruit participants? and how should you
guide & record discussions
The results are just qualitative and not as ‘robust’ as is the case with a survey with a large sample
size. Don’t over claim!
21
Research Tool When should you use it? What issues need considering?
Elite/ “key informant” interviews: unstructured or semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders.
Desk-based literature reviews.
They can be used to gain in depth information and add weight to your argument by allowing you to cite the views of influential figures. If you interview the right people it can be a “short-cut” to knowledge. They can also be used for for advocacy, both because they help you understand what key people think and because one interviewee may refer you onto another influential person.
See “In Detail #2” below for full details. In short, they can serve a range of purposes, from (i) providing scope to a new issue, to (ii) exploring possible answers
to a problem.
Will you get access to the people who matter? You’ll need to think about how to approach people with the maximum chance they
will talk with you.
Elite interviews also need to strike a balance between being structured and free flowing. Typically you should use an “interview guide”, to direct a conversation, but leave as much space for the interviewee to talk.
A literature review assumes, of course, that the literature exists.An important consideration for a BMO is what type of literature review is most useful. Generally it should not just be of the academic literature. Instead it should include a range of sources and does not necessary have to
be comprehensive.
Notes: (i) For a good additional resource that has comprehensive information on all types of qualitative research methods see http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/develop-a-plan/main; (ii) An excellent source to learn more about “desk-based literature reviews” can be found at http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/manual_guide_proced/wfp203200.pdf (iii) a good source that clearly outlines conduct of focus group discussions and sample questions http://www.eiu.edu/ihec/Krueger-FocusGroupInterviews.pdf
Some of the research techniques in the table above will only be possible with significant resources and/or capacity inside the BMO. For example, carrying out focus groups can be costly to commission from external researchers and difficult to do well yourself.
Below we give some more detail on the “In Detail” of two techniques, which are more likely to be affordable and achievable options for BMOs. These are literature reviews and workshops or seminars.
22
IN DETAIL #2: CARRYING OUT LITERATURE REVIEWS
Literature reviews can be a very good option for BMOs conducting research. They can be relatively quick, cheap and require less specialist expertise than many other approaches. However, that does not mean they are easy. There is a ‘knack’ to doing a good literature review. This “in detail” box gives some tips for carrying out effective literature reviews.
Be clear about the question you are addressing – what is your intended audience really interested in: before you start you should make sure you are very clear about the issues you are looking into. This will help you keep focused on the information and literature that matters and not drift off course. Write down your key ‘research question’ in a few lines and keep referring back to it as the work continues.
Make an argument – don’t just collect everything ever written on an issue: academic literature reviews tend to aim to be comprehensive and have the aim of neutrally covering all aspects of a debate. They often look into detail at each book or essay on an issue. In contrast a literature review by a BMO will need to be more selective and ‘purposive’ – the aim is less to be comprehensive, but instead it is to develop an argument.
Use a range of sources relevant for your members and policy makers: do not focus only on the academic literature. A good literature review from a BMO should draw on a range of sources, many of which will be freely available online and easy to find via Google. Sources can include:
a. Government documents, including policy statements, data and evaluations; b. Work by think tanks and research institutes; c. Publications by organisations such as the World Bank and IMF.
But do think about the reliability of different sources: always ask yourself two key questions when looking at different sources of information in a literature review: first, “where is the author coming from?” In other words, are they biased and therefore unreliable? And second, “how ‘robust’ is any information?” In other words, do you think the information in the literature is likely to be accurate? Sometimes you may decide not to include information where you think it is not reliable or accurate. But sometimes you may still include it but make clear its limitations.
Think hard about the presentation of a literature review: it is vital that a literature review is accessible and easy to read, not just for an external audience, but also for your own colleagues. So think hard about how you set out your review, adopt a clear structure, use bullet points and boxes to draw out key points and always have an “executive summary” which captures the most pertinent points.
Make sure you provide good referencing: either yourself, or another person reading the review, may want to return to some of the information you have found. So make sure you provide very good and thorough referencing. One globally recognised referencing technique you could consider is the Harvard method (see https://www.citethisforme.com/harvard-referencing).
1
2
3
4
5
6
23
Tips: avoiding common mistakes in literature reviews. All literature reviews are different and there are few hard and fast rules. But some common mistakes to avoid include:
Don’t
just write down everything you can find on an issue. Focus on what matters most;
try and do it the way academics do it: use a wider range of sources and you don’t have to be comprehensive;
just cut and paste without attribution!
forget your audience - who are you writing the review for? What is the core purpose of it? Keep focused!
assume people will read all of your review – provide a busy reader with a good summary at the start of the document.
CASE STUDY 6ZIMBABWE APPLIED ARTS AND CRAFTS ASSOCIATION USE OF LITERATURE REVIEWS
The Zimbabwe Applied Arts and Crafts Association (ZAACA) commissioned Jimat Development Consultants to carry out research on the Crafts and Applied Arts Sub-Sector in Zimbabwe. As part of this work they included a literature review. Not only was the literature review useful in its own right but it also helped support other elements of the research – including key informant interviews and focus groups.
Crucial to the commissioning of the literature review was careful thinking about its focus. Unlike a full academic literature review – which would aim to be comprehensive – ZAACA focused the literature review on three key goals. These were first to better define the craft sector (because the definition of craft seems to be contested); second, to give a historical overview of the development of crafts as an economic activity; and third, to explore regional and other African countries experiences.
The result was a clearly focused piece commissioned work and a literature review that will be useful for the BMO.
Literature reviews can be a very good option for BMOs conducting research.
24
A workshop or a seminar can be an excellent option for a BMO. They are both relatively easy to organise and conduct. They are cheap. And they can be used for a range of purposes. This “in detail” section first outlines some different potential purposes for workshops before secondly providing some advice on holding a successful seminar or workshop.
Workshops and seminars are very similar.
Workshops are a group-based approach with an emphasis on activity-based, interactive working. They often focus on developing solutions to problems or developing ideas and use a range of techniques, such as ‘role play’ or ‘brainstorming’. This kind of approach may be best suited to developing solutions with a group of ‘practitioners’ – for example a group of BMO members.
Seminars bring together a group of people to discuss an issue. They are less activity based than a workshop and are, instead, invite a speaker (or speakers) to present on an issue in order to facilitate a discussion between people coming from a range of different perspectives. They are more likely to be suited to gathering ideas about an issue or improving your understanding of an issue by listening to a group of experts.
All workshops or seminars will be different, but below are five tips, which will apply to any event:
Purposes of Workshops and Seminars
Making A Workshop A Success
Be clear about the objective for the seminar or workshop: are you trying to better understand the nature of a problem? Do you want to generate some ideas about potential solutions to a problem? You should normally be able to write down the core objective for a seminar or workshop initially in a few simple sentences and then in a short professionally presented concept note. Being this clear will then help you design the seminar effectively, for example by inviting the right mix of participants.
Planning is everything. A significant amount of planning goes into any successful seminar or workshop. In particular thinking hard about who will present to help provoke debate and discussion is critical. Once selected you should then brief speakers carefully – what issues should they focus on? How long do they have to talk? It’s always useful to see presentations before they are given so you can provide comments and feedback and ensure the presentation is focused on contributing to the core aims and objectives of the seminar. Similarly, think carefully about the attendees you want to attend. What mix of perspectives should be represented? Which specific people do you want to attend – try and avoid organisations sending a junior person who is less likely to contribute?
Make any seminar or workshop engaging and interesting. Making a seminar or workshop interesting will make it easier to attract attendees. It will also mean that once at the event participants will contribute fully. One key approach to making an event interesting is to provoke discussion. For example, start an event with an interesting and even controversial presentation. You can also create debate by deliberately inviting participants with different views.
1
3
2
IN DETAIL #3: WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS
25
Be clear about how the discussion will be reported and used. You should always have a scribe, writing notes of the event. It is a good idea to always write up the seminar almost immediately afterwards, while it is fresh in the memory. In addition, you should be clear with attendees how what they say would be reported. Some workshops or seminars can be “public” – meaning that everything that people say is “quotable” and on the record. Other events can be “off the record”. It is a good idea to make things clearly off the record when you are discussing sensitive issues. It makes it more likely that you will have the active participation of attendees.
Chairing a seminar or facilitating a workshop is a real skill: Being an effective chair involves keeping a meeting focused on the objective, bringing all participants into the discussion, probing specific points in more detail, while not dominating the discussion. The chair or facilitator also plays an important role in summarising a discussion and drawing out key points at the end. If you do not have someone at your BMO with the required skills or experience, consider bringing someone in to help.
4
5
Tip: Killing two birds with one stone – using seminars to help commission research. Seminars can also be a useful way of commissioning research based papers to be presented. Experts can ‘validate’ their papers with the audience or use papers as the basis of a discussion. One option is then to revise and publish these papers in some form, for example in a compendium of essays. For larger events, a panel of experts can be used prior to the meeting to assess the content.
A BMO can host a seminar where experts can present commissioned research
26
There is little point in conducting research if no-one reads it and uses it. Packaging your research well will increase the chances that it is used.
Whether the audience for work is your members or policy makers, they have one thing in common – they will be busy people. You need to ensure that your research findings are presented simply and accessibly in a way that is likely to capture people’s attention.
It is also important to think about what your audience is most interested in. You should “put yourself in their shoes” and think carefully about what they are most likely to read, understand and then find useful in some way.
Why Does “Packaging” Matter?
PACKAGING ANDDISSEMINATION
8
There are no prizes for “sounding clever” when presenting your research. Instead, the most important thing is to present your findings as clearly and accessibly as possible.
Simple summaries of both the key findings and also the implications of these findings are critical. This is because most readers are likely to only read these headlines.
If the research involves presenting complicated data, you can still publish this and make it available. But, this should only be after you have provided an accessible summary.
Some tips for how to write clearly and accessibly include:
Good Packaging: Writing and Presenting Accessibly
Think carefully about what the most important points are for your audience. For example, if the audience is your members you need to ask yourself what they are interested in.
If you are producing a report or paper, use Executive Summaries. These can be excellent ways of forcing you to think about what the core argument is which emerges from your research. See below for further details.
Avoid using large amounts of text – this puts readers off. Instead, use a mix of charts and tables, bullet points and summary boxes. The ZEPARU case study (below) has some good examples of presenting information accessibly.
Sometimes it will be important to translate reports, or more likely summaries of reports, into local languages. This will depend on who your target audience is, but if you want your members to access your findings (rather than, say, policy makers) then often translating work will be important. Don’t let economic jargon, mostly in English, prevent your members from accessing the work.
27
CASE STUDY 7ZIMBABWEAN ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH UNIT ‘ECONOMIC BAROMETER’ - THE IMPORTANCE OF PACKAGING
The Zimbabwean Economic Policy Analysis and Research Unit (ZEPARU) has been publishing its Economic Barometer, a quarterly compendium of economic data, for a number of years. ZEPARU decided to completely revamp the packaging of the product to improve its profile and ensure that it was able to contribute to public and policy debates in Zimbabwe.
The pictures below show the Economic Barometer before and after this repackaging. In particular, ZEPARU dramatically increased the accessibility of the Economic Barometer by:
• Including a clear and short summary of the findings. They even included a short number of key bullet points on the front page to “entice” the reader into the document.
• Breaking up the text through the use of bullet points, summary boxes and charts. This makes it much more attractive for a busy reader.
• Linking the full paper to other forms of dissemination: for example, ZEPARU used infographics to illustrate some of their key points.
The result has been two editions of the Economic Barometer, which have raised ZEPARU’s media profile and contributed significantly to public debate. The document has received positive feedback from a number of stakeholders from government to academia. And it has helped ZEPARU as an organisation prove its relevance to critical on-going economic debates in Zimbabwe.
Before After
3328
A BMO will have a number of options for how to communicate its research. Think carefully about your audience and what the best way of reaching them is. In addition to publishing reports, options to consider include:
What channels of communication should you consider?
Issuing A Press Release
If you havea clear summary on your report, this will provide a good basis for a press release. Press releases should lead with the “headline” from the report and be presented clearly an accessibly.
Download Zimbisa’s Media Relations Manual for more information on Press releases and strategies of using the Media for communicating research finding. This can be found at http://zimbisa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Zimbisa-Media-Relations-Manual.pdf
Create an infographic
To reach a wider audience use simple graphics to highlight key findings from your report. You can use free tools such as Piktochart or Sway (Microsoft) to develop your own infographics.
Create An Engaging & Accessible Presentation
you may be asked to talk about your research, for example at an event or in a meeting with government officials. Having an engaging and accessible presentation will help you get your message across. Over and above PowerPoint as a tool there are online resources such as Prezi (see www.prezi.com), which you could use for packaging your findings.
Distributing Fndings To Your Members
A short summary of any research can be emailed or included in a newsletter for your members. But also think about how you can provide more access to more detailed information for members who are interested. Some members may want to see the whole report, especially if it has implications for their own business planning.
Issuing Short Policy Briefs
These can be stand alone, short summaries of the longer report. Often they can be the same as a good executive summary from the full report.
Vlogging
Innovate and think about creating a vlog. This can help a BMO summarise research and then upload it onto YouTube or onto your own websites. There are some tips on this website: http://www.vlognation.com/
Using Social Media
Using the likes of Twitter and Facebook can be a powerful complement to more traditional forms of dissemination. By tweeting or posting links to your work, social media can help you promote a paper, a policy brief, a blog or infographics. But don’t just use them when your BMO publishes something.
You can also continue to promote your arguments through social media in a more reactive way. For example, if a debate flares up which you have previous carried out research on, a BMO could use social media to remind people of your past work.
29
CASE STUDY 8ZEPARU’S USE OF INFOGRAPHICS
ZEPARU were keen that their Economic Barometer was used more widely. They were concerned that it was not accessible enough and that it wasn’t being well communicated to a wider audience. As well as improving the presentation of the actual report (see case study 7 above), they also focused on how to disseminate the Barometer better. One option they used was an infographic. This quickly and simply communicates key messages from the Economic Barometer. Another option is look into developing your own using a tool such as Piktochart.
Piktochart is a web-based infographic application which allows users without intensive experience as graphic designers to easily create professional-grade infographics using themed templates.
Sourec: www.zeparu.co.zw
A “research summary” is a self-contained summing up of the core argument and key findings from your research. It can be a standalone output (for example, a short “briefing” for your members) or part of a wider report (where it can take the form of an Executive Summary). It is not simply a condensed version of a longer report or all of your research. Instead, it is a concise version of the core argument and key findings that emerge from the research.
Most of your audience (including busy BMO members or policy makers) will only read a summary.
IN DETAIL #4: WRITING SUMMARIES OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
30
Done well a good research summary can also provide the basis for your wider dissemination plans – for example, it can be used as the basis for a press release and for newspaper articles.
A good research summary will bring your findings to life. It will make it clear why it is potentially of interest and useful for your intended audience. A typical structure for a research summary would be:
• Big picture context: this should ‘hit people between the eyes’ and make readers want to keep reading! Why is this work of interest to them?
• Your findings: this section should set out the key findings from the research including key statistics.
• A discussion: this section would then discuss the relevance and potential implications of the findings. For example, if the work is for advocacy purposes this section would include a discussion of the policy implications
• Address any major potential criticisms or counter arguments.
Finally, the style that you use when writing a summary of your research is important. Ten tips on writing accessible research findings are:
1. Start by setting out a bullet point outline – is the argument clear? Are you focused on the most important findings from your research?
2. Is the structure of the summary clear with a logical flow – this is more important than good prose. Busy readers will “skim read” the summary and should be able to grasp the core argument and key points easily.
3. Use “signposting” by telling the reader what they are reading. It is almost as though you are “holding the reader’s hand” and walking them through the summary.
4. Use subheadings and bullet points – this can also make it clear for the reader how your summary is structured.
5. Present your key research findings simply: researchers have a temptation to present too much data and information in a summary. You should avoid this in the summary and include only the most important findings. An interested reader can look into your more detailed findings.
6. Keep it simple – avoid jargon!
7. Break the text down into short punchy paragraphs. Large blocks of text put readers off. They are much harder to follow.
8. Keep it short: 1-2 pages
9. Get feedback from colleagues
10. Write the summary last … step back from it all
31
BMOs are not research institutes. Nor should they try and become a research institute. You will always be operating with limits on your budget and limits on your capacity. That is why it is important to think about how best to resource the research you carry out.
Research can be carried out through a combination of:
In a dedicated research organisation, the majority of research can be carried out in-house. This is possible because they have more capacity and a wider mix of skills reducing the need to ‘buy-in’ particular expertise.
In organisations with more limited internal research capacity, which includes many BMOs, it is necessary to consider how best to use commissioning and partnership approaches. Commissioning is likely to be important as it allows the BMO to “buy in” expertise. But it should not be thought of as an easy option. It is difficult to do well. Questions to consider include:
• What is the right balance between internal research, partnerships and commissioned research?
• Should a BMO build up internal expertise in a particular area?
• Does the BMO feel it has adequate commissioning skills and expertise (successfully commissioning external experts to carry out work is difficult)?
• What ‘partnerships’ could your BMO realistically develop?
BMOs Are Not Research Institutes
FUNDING AND RESOURCING RESEARCH
9
1 2 3
In-house
Conducted by employees in the research team.
Commissioned
Where an external organisation/individual is paid (a more difficult
skill then it often sounds).
Partnership
Where two (or more) organisations team up, for example a university department and a BMO, or several BMOs collaborating on Syndicated
Research.
32
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
2-Page Executive summary1.1. Overall recommended approach 1.2. What benefits this offers the client1.3. Your USP
Introduction and background2.1. Background information about the market, the context, the client, the big picture.
Research objectives3.1. State clearly the questions which the research will answer.3.2. There should be around 4-6 questions.
Target audiences4.1. Who will you talk to?4.2. What do you know about the audiences? 4.3. Which are primary and secondary?
Methodology5.1. What methodology do you propose for the research? 5.2. What is the balance between qualitative and quantitative?5.3. How will these methods answer the research questions?
Sampling6.1. What factors will you consider in designing the sample, e.g., sex, age, locations?6.2. What is your recommended sample size/ alternatives?6.3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different options?
Research processes (will differ for qual and quant)7.1. Questionnaire design and piloting;7.2. Coverage of the questionnaire and interview guides;7.3. Any materials you will show the respondents for reactions;7.4. Training and briefing of interviewers.
Data entry and analysis8.1. Quantitative data entry 8.2. Qualitative recording and analysis8.3. Quality assurance/ checking
This annex presents two potentially useful templates. The first covers “research proposals”, which is for when an organisation is itself planning on carrying out research. The second template covers the development of some Terms of Reference for commissioned research. These templates should only be considered guides to help your thinking. Each piece of research is different and will require different proposals or terms of reference. These templates have been provided by Philly Desai.
Template For Research Proposals
ANNEX:SOME USEFUL TEMPLATES
33
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
9
10
11
12
13
Introduction and background14.1. Background information about the market, the context, the client, the big picture.14.2. Why do you need to do this research?14.3. Are there any plans/ ideas which want the research to test?14.4. What decisions will you make based on the research findings?
Research objectives15.1. State clearly the questions which the research should answer.15.2. There should be around 4-6 questions
Target audiences16.1. Who do you need to talk to?16.2. What do you know about the audiences? 16.3. Which are primary and secondary?
Methodology17.1. What methodology do you think will be most suitable? 17.2. Are you open to alternative suggestions?
Sampling18.1. Are there particular factors which must be included, e.g., balance of sexes, regions?18.2. Do you have an idea of the sample size which you think will be sufficient?
Scope of work19.1. What exactly do you need the agency to do?19.2. Are there any tasks which will be shared between agency and client?
Proposal requirements20.1. What do you expect to see in the proposal?20.2. Are there specific issues you need covered, e.g., ethics, risk, security?20.3. Do you have a preferred structure for the proposal?
Outputs required, e.g.21.1. Reports/ summaries21.2. Policy briefs21.3. PowerPoint presentations21.4. Dissemination workshops
Reporting and outputs9.1. Written report/ executive summary9.2. PowerPoint presentation/ infographics9.3. Dissemination workshop
Work plan
Budget
Details of research team, CVs
Case Studies of related projects
Template For Research ToRs
Philly Desai, February 2016
34
22
23
24
Timeline and work plan/ key deadlines
2Budget/ costs
Project management processes/ contracting
Philly Desai, February 2016
