For addressing the second research question concerning the delivery and utilization of USA aid within the PD parameters, qualitative data is employed. By analysing qualitative data, the focus is to explore the respective roles of USAID and different ministries of the GoP in the formulation and execution of USA-funded projects. Qualitative data offers several advantages over quantitative data. Qualitative methods evoke analytical richness and bring out “more detail and nuance from a case” (Barkin, 2008, p. 11). Data through qualitative research is collected in natural settings, rather than artificial locale like laboratories (Brockington & Sullivan, 2003). Hence, such data attracts special attention to specific contextual issues (Devine, 1995). Thus, in the context of this study, qualitative research design such as the case study approach is employed and primary data is garnered through in-depth interviews.
The case study design is used when the researcher addresses questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’ some social phenomenon works in a real-life context (Yin, 2009). The author adds that this kind of research design is employed to investigate a contemporary issue in a comprehensive and in- depth manner. In a laboratory, field setting or “social experiment” (Yin, 2009, p. 12), researchers may have some control over specific variables or events but in the case study method, the
researcher or investigator has limited or no control on the variables or behavioural events under investigation. In other words, in the case study design a phenomenon is studied in a real-life context as it is. Another attribute of the case study is its ability to make use of different sub- methods and techniques such as documents, participant observations, archival records and interviews (Hague & Harrop, 2004; Yin, 2009).
As mentioned above, the second research question of this thesis focuses on the USAID and GoP modus operandi and the way the two interact with each other within the PD framework. Thus, it examines a contemporary phenomenon: on-going USAID projects in a real-life context. Hence, the case study approach allows for a comprehensive and in-depth understanding and analysis of USAID and GoP policies and practices. In this way, the actual behaviours and approaches of various actors comprising officials of USAID and its different project staff and officials of the GoP are explored. The roles of these actors cannot be explored through straightforward surveys or questionnaires. To investigate the actual implementation of the PD partnership commitments in USAID projects in a real-life context, the case study approach is, therefore, utilized.
In a case study research design, a single source of evidence and method of data collection is unlikely to be sufficient. Therefore, it is considered imperative to utilise a range of data sets. During the fieldwork, I utilized multiple sources of information in order to get a balanced and more complete picture of USAID practices. I conducted in-depth interviews with various government officials in different ministries at the national and provincial levels. Similarly, USAID officials were interviewed in Islamabad, the national capital, Peshawar, the provincial capital, and Mansehra, one of the districts affected severely by the 2005 earthquake where USAID has carried out a number of projects. In-depth interviews with these officials enabled me to explore the respective roles of GoP institutions and USAID in the identification, design and implementation of USA-funded projects and programmes within the PD framework. Using various sources of information also lends greater robustness and objectivity to research findings. This was done by employing the process of triangulation, which is to cross-check the data and information obtained from one source with that secured from other sources (Checkel, 2008; Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, 1996). Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias (1996, p. 206) emphasise that “if the findings yielded by the different data collection methods are consistent, the validity of these findings is increased”. Triangulation of data is useful because a good researcher “should never simply rely on what people say” (Checkel, 2008, p. 119). Triangulation also helps in addressing the issue of validity, thus further improving the quality of research findings. To this end, in most offices I interviewed as many officials as possible in order to get a detailed version from different officials regarding the modus operandi of USAID in Pakistan.
Along with primary data, I also collected secondary data such as government reports and policy documents pertaining to the priority areas identified by the GoP. To this end, GoP plans including the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) and Vision 2030 were obtained and studied. This material also helped me in
the identification of key government officials and policy makers who were/are actively involved in the formation of these policy documents. Thus, this data also helped locate and select relevant informants for obtaining primary data through interviews. For example, after getting policy documents such as the country PRSP, I was in a better position to contact the relevant GoP officials who were involved in the formulation of this document. Consequently, I interviewed several officials in the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to get their in-depth and informed opinions and observations regarding the role of the GoP in USAID interventions. The selection of the interviewees also depended on their role and association with a particular USA-funded intervention, either as government officials or officials of USAID and NGOs.
3.5.1 Semi-structured/non-structured open-ended
Interviews
Interviews are one of the tools used for the collection of qualitative data. Emphasising the significance of interviews as a data-collecting technique, Fontana and Frey (2003) point out that both qualitative and quantitative researchers make use of interview as a method of data gathering, whether for the purpose of getting a rich and in-depth account of an issue or event, or to rank it simply on different scales. This means that data obtained through interviews can also be converted into a numerical value. Data collected through interviews “results in rich information or thick description” (Sarantakos, 2005, p. 205). It implies that data collected through interviews provides insights and information that could not be garnered by other means.
The most flexible form of personal interviewing is semi-structured interview where interviewees are allowed and encouraged to narrate “their own experiences, to describe whatever events seem significant to them… to reveal their opinions and attitudes as they see fit” (Frankfort- Nachmias & Nachmias, 1996, p. 235). By using qualitative methods, particularly extended interviews, researchers peep into the mind of the interviewees and get their insights in their own words (Ezzy, 2002). Open-ended questions are asked in the semi-structured interviews to allow the interviewees enough room and flexibility to respond to questions at great length in their own words, thus providing a broad range of information (Fontana & Frey, 2003).
During the course of this study, I employed semi-structured open-ended interviews to get detailed accounts on the role of interviewees in their capacity and how they viewed the role of USAID and its counterpart line ministries and departments in the identification, selection, design and execution of development interventions. Table 3.3 gives the total number of interviews that I conducted during my fieldwork in Pakistan in 2009. The table also shows particular departments where interviews were carried out. Full list of all the research participants and their respective profiles is given in Appendix IV. Interviewees were selected on the basis of their association with USA-funded projects, either as officials of the GoP, employees of USAID or primary beneficiaries of USAID interventions. Such interviews provided personal experiences, accounts and individual insights of each informant. One to one in-depth interviews also encouraged the
interviewees, both government officials as well as those of USAID to express their candid opinions without the interruption of a third party.
Table 3.3: Total number of interviews
Department/ministry Number of people
interviewed
Ministry of Finance/Economic Affairs Division (EAD) 7
Other government ministries/departments in Islamabad and Peshawar 13
FATA Secretariat and FATA Development Authority (FDA) 12
USAID Mission and project staff in Islamabad, Peshawar and Mansehra 17
NGOs 4
Think tanks/academics/analysts 13
Primary beneficiaries of USAID projects in KP and FATA 14
Total 80
Source: Author’s fieldwork.
Interviewees were given as much time as they required for expressing their views on the subject matter. This helped in getting a detailed and informed analysis of the opinions of the informants on the given topic. During interviews, I took notes continuously to record the answers on paper. Fontana and Frey (2003) suggest that researchers need to take notes regularly, write down everything and analyse their recorded notes without wasting time. At the same time, it is also important to use tape recorder during the interviews provided the interviewees agree to it. Silverman (2003) stresses that it is difficult to note and remember each and every word and moment of the interview, particularly “such matters as pauses, overlaps, and in-breaths” (Silverman, 2003, p. 354). The author adds that tapes and transcripts are available to the scientific community in a way that field notes are not and that tapes can be replayed and transcriptions can be improved. I interacted with high-ranking government and USAID officials in Islamabad and Peshawar, and my fieldwork coincided with the military operation against militants in Buner and Swat districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province5. Due to severe security issues and a worsening law and order situation, with frequent bomb blasts targeting military convoys and government installations, visitors were not allowed to carry any type of
5
In April 2009, a military operation was launched against militants in the Malakand region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which displaced about 2-3 million people. In April 2010, under the 18th amendment of the Constitution of Pakistan, the formerly known North-West Frontier
electric device into government offices. Under these circumstances, I had no option but to take notes in my diary and transcribe these after the interviews.
By these means I explored to what extent USAID has given a leading role to the GoP, to which both partners have committed to under the PD, so that Pakistani institutions have a central role in the formulation of development policies and strategies based on their own needs. To this end, I conducted in-depth interviews with officials in different government ministries in Islamabad, the federal capital of the country. These included officials in the EAD of the MoF, the central ministry dealing with bilateral donors and multilateral organisations, relevant officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Ministry of Health (MoH) and Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). The focus was to investigate the respective roles of these federal departments in USAID-funded projects and programmes. Similarly, interviews were also conducted with officials in different line departments in Peshawar, the provincial capital of KP. Here, interviews were conducted with senior officials in FATA Secretariat and its line departments, FATA Development Authority (FDA) and Provincial Secretariat. To enrich this study by collecting diverse arrays of evidence, independent intellectuals, analysts, researchers, academics and think tanks were also interviewed to get their informed opinions regarding USA aid policies towards Pakistan and the overall role of USAID in the socio-economic and institutional development of the country. In order to get a more detailed and an in-depth perspective of USAID interventions on the ground, I also conducted semi-structured interviews with the intended primary beneficiaries of some projects. These included primary beneficiaries of FATA Livelihood Development Programme (LDP) in Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar, Ed-Links in Khyber Agency FATA and locals who benefitted from the USAID-funded Improving Livelihoods and Enterprise Development (I-LED) project in Mansehra, KP, one of the districts affected by the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.