After collecting data, the next question was where do I start from and what do I do with the data? This section discusses the methods of data analysis and how these methods were applied.
Data analysis is the processes of organizing raw data before conclusions can be drawn (Berg 2004). The main stages of data analysis consist of data reduction, display, conclusion and verification. According to Williman (2006:132), data reduction is the process of transforming the raw data to a position from which we can draw out themes and patterns, while display involves presenting the data in tables and summaries from which conclusions can be drawn and verification entails checking whether the conclusions that have been drawn are valid.
There are several methods of qualitative data analysis such as analytical induction, grounded theory, narrative analysis, qualitative content analysis, semiotics and hermeneutics (Bryman 2001). However, the choice of method (s) depends on the type of data collected and the overall approach to the study. In this study, the method that was seen as appropriate for analysing the qualitative data is thematic analysis.
Thematic analysis is one model of narrative analysis that emphasizes on “what is said than on how it is said” (ibid: 412). Thematic analysis aims at identifying emerging themes from data. It is more inductive that content analysis. It also
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endeavours to deal with issues of data fragmentation inherent in most methods of qualitative data analysis.
Thematic analysis as one form of narrative analysis appears appropriate in this study because from the sustainable livelihoods perspective, people’s livelihoods are seen as a story. People’s livelihoods are always changing, dynamic and constantly flowing. Therefore, people’s access to cash transfers becomes just part of that story.
Collecting data using interviews and focus group discussions only tapped into that story. Therefore one other important aspect in this study is to see how the story emerges in relation to how people’s lives are being shaped by these cash transfers.
Qualitative content analysis, semiotics and hermeneutics were not appropriate because they are more applicable to interpreting documents. Grounded theory was not applicable either in this study because its features are not consistent with the research design. Grounded theory relies on theoretical sampling which was not the case in this study. Furthermore, grounded theory is more concerned about development of theory out of data and the process of data collection and analysis goes back and forth (David and Sutton 2004).
Analytical induction was not appropriate either as it requires having a research question and hypothesis. Analytical induction also aims at finding universal explanations in all the cases until all cases are consistent with the hypothesis. This is not the case in this study as it aimed at understanding the role of social cash transfers in the context of sustainable livelihoods and there was no hypothesis. The other
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limitation with analytical induction in this study is the fact it did not aim at testing consistencies.
As the name suggests, thematic analysis is one of the inductive forms of data analysis and involves generating themes and patterns from data. This means that categories had to emerge from data. Again considering the fact that the study is qualitative in nature and is dealing with meanings and interpretations, categories or themes were not identified a priori.
The first stage in analysing the data was to make a summary of themes emerging from field notes and interviews. Identifying themes at this stage was important because this was useful in shaping the literature review and consequently the general direction of the thesis.
The rationale for generating themes from interviews was to aggregate these data in a manageable form. As the interviews were semi-structured and thus used open ended questions, the answers were not always the same. Although the study used an interview schedule to guide the interviewer to collect data on some specific aspects of the cash transfers, people’s experience vary according to context. Even where people had similar experiences, they did not express it in the same way because of the role of language. This is not the case with structured interviews. Ezzy (2002) observes that the advantage of the structured interview is that each respondent receives the same type of questions. Structured interviews also simplify the data analysis in comparison to unstructured interviews. However, Gillham (2000:5)
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argues that while open ended questions improve the depth of data, they may also be problematic during the analysis. This is where thematic analysis became useful.
The next stage was to link up the emerging themes in order to identify the main issues. Basically, this process aims at organizing the data around the research question and objectives. The final stage was to undertake a selection of main issues singled out that formed the main aspects of the thesis. These issues also determined how the findings were to be displayed. For example, once the issues were singled out, they helped me to structure the thesis in terms of what is to be covered and the logical flow.
Quantitative data analysis was done on some of the data collected on the characteristics of the sample. For example, the study was interested to have an overview of the distribution of recipients by gender (sex) and age. This data is presented in tables, summaries as well as graphs and charts. A number of descriptive statistics were undertaken by running statistics appropriate for each type of data using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).
In order to undertake analysis of this data, firstly, the data was coded before entering in SPSS from which a number descriptive statistics were run using measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) in order to have an initial overview of the sample.
Page 96 3.9 Conclusion
This chapter presented a research methodology that enabled the study to answer the research question regarding the impact of social cash transfers on poverty, vulnerability and gender inequality. I have also discussed the choice of my research design and relevant research methods that I used during the study. The use of life history data proved to be very informative as the data revealed traces of how poverty is passed on from one family to another. The same life history data also revealed some gendered dimensions of poverty amongst women. This is very important because it does inform us of how we can tackle gender-based poverty and vulnerability as well as intergeneration poverty.
The chapter examined how critical realism is an appropriate approach for doing scientific research in the social sciences. In this approach, there are a number of assumptions that renders this approach ideal in comparison to positivism which considers that methods used in the natural sciences cannot be used in the social sciences. Unlike in the natural sciences, social science is a socially, culturally and historically situated practice and therefore it cannot be studied in the same way as the natural science.
Since critical realism views the world as being made of layers makes more sense in relation to poverty because while poverty and vulnerability are observable as empirical experiences, they are not atomistic and discrete as in the case of positivism. The sustainable livelihood approach consolidates this fact because it can be demonstrated that what people experience as poverty and vulnerability are a consequence of some events resulting from the real domain.
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In terms of application, critical realism offers a multi-layered approach to social reality. This means for example, looking beyond the empirical as is the case with this study which has attempted to examine the various factors that may have given rise to poverty in Malawi. The main point is that regular patterns of events do not exist in the social world and therefore it is important to have a critical approach.
Another important aspect about critical realism is that it offers flexibility in the way research is conducted. Starting with how the objectives of the research are framed determines the direction of the research. As in this study, the research objectives are multi-layered to align with the empirical, events and the real. This flexibility is also reflected in methods for data collection in that both qualitative and quantitative methods can be used. While some methods put more emphasis on one layer, life histories spanned across the three layers of reality as they showed how the current poverty experience is related to other events which happened in the past.
Thus the adoption of critical realism in this study is based on how poverty has been defined (multi-dimensional) based on the sustainable livelihood approach for understanding the multi-dimensional aspects of poverty. From this framework, it is possible to see the multi-layered reality of poverty from the real, events and then empirical experiences. Thus, in relation to my research, the objectives, data analysis and presentation have been structured around this thinking.
What is more interesting is that critical realism helps us to look beyond the empirical observation and deal with causal mechanisms. In this way, policies based on such an
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analysis can be very effective in reducing poverty. Without this critical realist lens, poverty reduction can be a real challenging task.
The next chapter starts with the policy and institutional environment for supporting the poor, representing the real domain which can creates events like inflation
resulting into what we perceive as poverty.
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Chapter 4 : Social protection in Malawi: an overview 4.1 Introduction
Social protection is one of the components of poverty reduction policy in Malawi. It is part of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II. In fact, social protection measures have been used since independence in 1964 but it was in 2006 that the government of Malawi started to put in place a social protection policy framework.
To date, social protection is making a significant contribution to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability in Malawi.
The main aim of this chapter is to examine how social protection supports other poverty reduction initiatives in Malawi. In the first section, I provide a brief background of the nature and levels of poverty in Malawi. In realist terms, it is important to understand this context in order to deal with poverty and vulnerability in an effective way. This analysis enables us to appreciate the nature of the poverty that social protection policy aims to address. The second section moves on to examine social protection as a policy response and how it has been used to address poverty and vulnerability. The main variables of interest are the social protection package, the general economic and political environment within which social protection is implemented, institutional and financing arrangements. The section that follows looks at the various social protection interventions that have been and are being implemented in Malawi including the current social cash transfer scheme. The final section draws everything into a conclusion.
Page 100 4.2 Nature and scale poverty in Malawi
Poverty in Malawi is characterized by low per capita gross national income, low life expectancy, low literacy rate, high infant mortality and is compounded by high prevalence of HIV/AIDS (World Health Organisation 2008; United Nations Development Programme 2010). Table 6 shows some of the poverty indicators as of 2010.
Table 6: Human development indexes for Malawi Index of measure Indicator and value
Health Life expectancy at birth (years) 54.6
Education Mean years of schooling (of adults) years 4.3 Income GNI per capita (constant 2008 US$PPP) 911.0 Inequality Inequality –adjusted HDI value 0.261
Poverty Intensity of deprivation 53.2
Gender Gender Inequality Index, value 0.758
Sustainability Adjusted net savings (% of GNI) 25.1
Human security Refugees by country of origin (thousands) 0.1 Composite indices HDI value 0.385
Human Development Index Rank 153
Source: United Nations Development Programme (2010)
Although data shows that from 1980, Malawi has made some progress towards human development as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows that Malawi progressed from close to 0.3 in 1980 to about 0.4 in 2010 on the HDI. However, the human development report of 2010 still ranks Malawi at 153 on the human development index as one of the poorest countries in the world.
Page 101 Figure 2 : Human development indexes as of 2010
Source: United Nations Development Programme (2010)
By 2008, the population of Malawi was 13 million with a growth rate of 2.8% (NSO 2008). According to integrated household survey of 2008, 52.4 % of the population lived below poverty line and 22% were ultra-poor. The 22% ultra-poor lived on less than US$ .20 per day. Out of the 22% ultra-poor, 10% were also labour constrained (Malawi Government 2006). By 2008, statistics showed that poverty had decreased from 52.4 % in 1998 to 40% in 2008, and the percentage of ultra-poor decreased from 22% in 1998 to 15% in 2008 (NSO 2008). The steep drop from 52.4% in 2005 to 40% in 2007 is explained by the change in methodology for determining poverty levels3.
3 The data from the IHS2 is not directly comparable to the past poverty levels. A change in survey instruments and methodology required an effort to compute the poverty rates for the previous IHS using the current methodology. In this exercise, poverty estimates from IHS1 were estimated using regression models to impute expenditure per capita based on comparably measured household characteristics. The IHS1 poverty rates were calculated at 54% (Malawi Government 2006)
Page 102 Table 7: Disability statistics for Malawi
Area
Total persons with disabilities
Type of disability
Seeing Hearing Speaking Walking Other Malawi 498,122 133,273 82,180 30,198 108,870 143,601
Urban 45,379 14,689 6,462 3,291 9,712 11,225
Rural 452,743 118,584 75,718 26,907 99,158 132,376
Source: National Statistical Office (2008)
In addition to being poor, the ultra-poor are also characterised by lack of labour which is a major contributing factor to vulnerability. Lack of labour means that this category of the poor cannot effectively benefit from mainstream labour based interventions. Labour constraints may come about due to physical or mental disability to the extent that an individual is not able to engage in productive work.
Lack of labour may also arise because of old age, being a child or a widow.
According to the NSO (2008) report, 4 % of the population was above 65 years old, representing a population of 2.8 million people. By 2008, there were a total number of 498,122 persons with disabilities, representing about 4 per cent of the total population as shown in the Table 7.
Disability is also another cause for some individuals to be labour constrained.
According to NSO (2008), disability has been defined as having difficulties or problems in one or all of the following areas: seeing, hearing, speaking and mobility. The following types of disability were identified in the NSO (2008):
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problems with sight (26.7%), problems with mobility (21.9%), hearing problems (16.5 %) and less than 1% with speech problems.
Being labour constrained also embraces those that are able-bodied but are engaged in care giving duties to the extent that they are unable to get involved in any productive work. As of 2008, orphans represented 12.4% of the population under the age of 18 years. NSO (2008) defines an orphan as a person aged below 18 years, who has lost at least one biological parent.
Demographic indictors also point to high levels of poverty. According to UNICEF (2007), infant mortality rates were high, and life expectancy at birth was 50.03 years.
There was a high adult prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS with an estimated 930,000 adults or 11.9% of the population living with the disease in 2007. There were approximately 68,000 deaths a year from HIV/AIDS. Approximately 250 new people were infected each day, and at least 70% of Malawi's hospital beds were occupied by HIV/AIDS patients. The high rate of infection resulted in an estimated 5.8% of the farm labour force dying of the disease, and HIV/AIDS was expected to lower the country's GDP by at least 10% by 2010.
In the last decade, Malawi has also registered a steady decline in health care delivery, education and general living standards despite a positive upward economic growth averaging 7% since 2005 (World Bank 2007). There is also high income as well as gender inequality that affect many to effectively participate in the economy.
These high poverty and vulnerability levels have been the major reasons for adopting social protection in Malawi, discussed in more detail in the following sections.
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Literacy figures also show that out of the 13 million people, 67% was categorised as illiterate (UNICEF 2007) where literacy in this case according to the NSO (2008) is defined as the ability to read and write. Males were more literate at 69% compared to women at 59%. As will be shown in chapter 8, social cash transfers have the potential of addressing illiteracy by helping poor households with cash that enables their children to access education and health services.
Based on these levels of poverty, social protection has a critical role in addressing some of these challenges. In realist terms, this concerted policy effort, however requires a consideration of factors that have contributed to the current levels of poverty and vulnerability. According to the realist approach, this is particularly useful in order to address the root causes of poverty and not only symptoms.