The voluntary participation (and lack of coercion o f any form) was fully guaranteed for the chosen households; and the 615 rejections is a proof. More than 40% (615 of 1500) of householder approached refused to participate in the study.
In this respect, the first phrase o f the interviewer emphasised that participation in the questionnaire is voluntary and that the interviewee's decision would be respected with thanks. Moreover, interviewers stated that the interviewee is free to end the questionnaire whenever needed, and he/she is free not to complete the whole questions. That resulted in
170 excluded questionnaires, more than 11% (170 o f 1500).
Issue 2: Informed consent
This issue is closely related to the notion o f voluntary participation. All participants were fully informed about the procedures o f the questionnaire, the aim and objectives of the study; why it is needed; what the data will be used for and any possible risks involved. No questionnaire was conducted unless a clear consent to participate statement was given to the interviewer.
The participant verbal willingness to complete the questionnaire was considered to be a ‘signed consent’ for his/her approval to go ahead, and participants were always encouraged to raise any queries related to the research and/or his/her safety or anonymity- and share it with the interviewer.
Issue 3: Risk o f harm
Ethical standards require that researchers do not put participants in a situation where they might be at risk o f harm as a result of their participation. By harm it is meant both physical
14 This section was com piled using the following references (Kumar, 1996; Denscombe, 2003; Trochim, 2006; Supsford and Jupp, 2006; Rugg and Petre,2007; Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, 2008)
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and psychological. Participants were reminded that the questionnaire could be paused if they had any urgent thing to do - something that lengthened the duration o f the interview on some occasions. Among the frequently asked questions prior to filling the questionnaire form was;■ Whether the participant have anything in the microwave, oven or on cooker.
■ Whether the children are safe at the moment, and it is safe and proper to participate for nearly 15 minutes in conducting the questionnaire, otherwise he/she was asked gently by the interviewer to make sure that everything is fine prior to starting.
■ Where is the best place to conduct the interview? Some participants chose to complete it in front o f the home door; others preferred to be with their children in the living room to watch them while filling the form; and others preferred to go to the flat balcony to complete it in the fresh air. The interviewer accompanied the respondent at all times in order to record any observations and answer questions. As the questionnaire did not encroach upon any political or religious issues, it posed no obvious risks to the participants or researcher in this respect. There was some inevitable risk to the interviewing teams, however, especially for female interviewers. Some of he neighbourhoods were poor, violent informal neighbourhoods. Such risks were reduced by having the researchers work in teams o f 2 with mixed gender.
Issue 4: Confidentiality & Anonymity
There are two standards that are applied in order to help protect the privacy of research participants: confidentiality and anonymity. In this research, anonymity o f participants was chosen to fully guarantee complete privacy. Participants were assured that their identity will remain anonymous throughout the study - even to the chief researcher himself. This was also clearly stated in the cover letter, and no space was provided in the questionnaire for any contact details o f the participant in order to guarantee anonymity to the greatest extent.
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Issue 5: Providing incentives
Each respondent was told prior to their contribution that he/she is eligible to 5 EGP, if they wish to complete the questionnaire form with the interviewer. This was considered to be an incentive, motivation and appreciation for the respondents’ time and interest. Providing money as an incentive was a decision based on the researchers' knowledge o f the Egyptian context and the poverty that many people live in. Offering nominal compensation for the interviewee’s time guaranteed higher levels o f contribution, and also showed respect to the households who contributed their valuable knowledge to the research. The author consulted a number o f professors in the faculty o f urban planning at Cairo university, who had wide experience in conducting questionnaire surveys as consultants for the ministry of housing and settlements' development in Egypt. All o f them agreed that, using incentives is among the most effective tools in conducting questionnaires. The total bill for the incentives was 3020 EGP (289 GBP, equivalent to nearly 520 USS at the time)
Issue 6: Seeking sensitive information
The questionnaire did not include any sensitive information; even with the monthly income question, ordinal categories were provided to enable the participant to choose the equivalent category without the need to state an exact figure. Again, the freedom to not answer any question was emphasised, and no pressure was applied.
Issue 7: Using secondary data and copyright
Due ethical consideration was given to obtaining, analysing and reporting secondary data and copyright issues were followed as fully as possible. The main secondary data used in the research were:
- IKONOS satellite image for Cairo, purchased from a GIS consultancy company (E.H & A.S, Cairo). A contract was written for purchasing the rights for the author to use the interpreted satellite image for his PhD research purposes and a clear declaration given that the former owned the rights to use the image including to pass on the interpreted image for subsequent analysis by the author.
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- Cairo Census data for 2006, which is available free online for the members o f theCAPMAS (Central Agency for Public Mobilization And Statistics)15 o f the Arab republic o f Egypt. The site is available in both Arabic and English languages.
- CCBA (Cairo Cleanness and Beautification Agency) annual reports, which are in the public domain and available for free from their headquarters in Abbasia, Cairo.
Any farther data or quotes used in the research are fully referenced and all copyrights are preserved.
Issue 8: Approval o f Institutional Review Board
The research empirical study, involving the use o f the satellite image interpretation and the questionnaire survey, were submitted to the ethics committee in the school o f city and regional planning o f Cardiff University - the Institutional Review Board (IRB) - and was approved by the ethics committee in the university prior to fieldwork commencing. The process included completing an ethical approval form, to which a brief summery o f the empirical studies to be done and a final copy o f the questionnaire form were attached. The submitted form included detailed clarification o f the following ethical issues: recruitment procedures, consent procedures, possible harm to participants, data protection and dates of the survey. The form also included the supervisor's declaration and signature that all ethical issues have been dealt with in accordance with University policy.
Issue 9: Restrictions imposed by the sponsoring organisation
The sponsoring organisation, the Egyptian high education ministry, was informed and sent a copy of the questionnaire form in both Arabic and English languages. And a statement of approval was sent to the researcher to conduct the questionnaire as it is reported in this research.
Chapter Three: Definitions, norms and concepts