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It is useful to approach fieldwork intended for ABM data collection with an idea of the conceptual basis of what is being investigated. From such a vantage point data collection undertaken in the field can be guided by the principles presented through prior theoretical advances. However, although this basis can be used to inform the interview process, to ensure

single 24.73%

1 marriage 58.31%

2 marriages

13.50% 3 marriages 2.52%

4 marriages 0.66%

5+

marriages 0.29%

constructive and accurate model development, it is important not to approach field interviews with a preconceived bias as to the expected findings. When conducting interviews intended to inform the development of an ABM it is therefore possible to guide interviewees towards the issues being investigated (which may be informed by theoretical developments such as MARC) but important to refrain from leading their responses. In order to avoid purely top-down development of a model, it is necessary to conceal from respondents the outcomes that you anticipate from the interview component of the research.

The process of conducting a series of focus group field interviews across Burkina Faso required considerable logistical planning. In order to identify which locations in Burkina Faso would be visited and focus group interviews carried out, further analysis of the EMIUB data was performed. By looking at each of the locations listed in the migration histories of the 8,647 respondents of the EMIUB survey it was possible to identify the twenty most commonly cited locations. These were then used as a guide in selection of the most appropriate regions to visit.

A large proportion of the top twenty most commonly cited locations in the EMIUB data were situated in the centre of Burkina Faso, in the close vicinity of the capital, Ouagadougou.

Another cluster were located in the Southwest in and around the second largest city, Bobo Dioulasso. A third and considerably smaller cluster was located in the far southwest near the town of Banfora. The remaining locations were found distributed both in the northern Sahel region and to the north east and north west of Ouagadougou in the central plateau area.

According to the distribution of commonly cited locations across Burkina Faso, it was therefore evident that, in order to fulfil the aims of the fieldwork component of this research, numerous regions across Burkina Faso must be visited.

A second factor considered in the process of selecting appropriate locations for focus group interviews was the rainfall gradient referred to by Henry et al. (Henry et al., 2004a) (Figure 4.6). This gradient divides the country into four zones lying approximately north to south with the lowest annual rainfall in the northern departments and the highest rainfall in the south-western tip. It was therefore decided that the locations visited during the fieldwork component of this research should both correlate well with those identified as common to migrants surveyed in the EMIUB and fall within all four of the distinct rainfall zones identified by Henry et al. By visiting each of the four rainfall zones in Burkina Faso both interviews and informal observations could be conducted in locations that experience each distinct level of reported rainfall.

Figure 4.6: Rainfall gradient in Burkina Faso. Taken from Henry et al. (2004a, p.246).

As a result of both the location preferences identified from the EMIUB data and the rainfall gradient evident in Burkina Faso, thirty focus group interviews were planned in seven departments across the country. These departments coordinated approximately with the popular destinations of EMIUB data migrants and at least one of these departments was located in each of the four rainfall zones. The departments visited were Dori in rainfall zone 1 (200-499 mm annual rainfall), Djibo in rainfall zone 2 (500-699 mm), Fada N’Gourma, Kadiogo and Ouarkoye in rainfall zone 3 (700-899 mm) as well as Bobo-Dioulasso and Banfora in rainfall zone 4 (> 900 mm). Figure 4.7 displays the location of the departments visited in relation to the rainfall zones illustrated in Figure 4.6. The fieldwork component of this research therefore consisted of thirty focus group interviews conducted in urban and rural locations across Burkina Faso throughout January and February 2009.

Figure 4.7: Departments of Burkina Faso visited between January and March 2009 (shown in black) in relation to the rainfall gradient identified in Figure 4.6.

As a result of limitations imposed by time and ease of travel within Burkina Faso, coverage of the two northernmost rainfall zones was not as great as anticipated. Access into the Sahelian departments north of Dori was difficult without a means of private transport, limiting the distance into the northern regions that interviews could be conducted. Although some interviews were conducted within Ouagadougou (the centrally-located capital city located in Kadiogo department) and Bobo Dioulasso (the second largest urban area and itself a department), the main focus of the field interview process was more rural locations. Interviews in urban locations were however interesting, particularly in terms of identifying which regions of the country people living in these cities in 2009 had originated from, and their reasons for moving there. As the two large urban centres of Burkina Faso, focus group interviews conducted in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso were likely affected by the general tendency of people to migrate from rural to urban areas. Although the main focus of this research are therefore those individuals that live in largely rural areas and subsist through small-scale farming, and are therefore most likely to be vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change, interviews were also sought within urban populations.

While the official government language is French, Burkina Faso is reported to have 68 living languages (Lewis, 2009). As a result, conducting focus group interviews in different rural

locations around the country posed a significant linguistic challenge. A local translator was hired for the two month period of fieldwork. As well as being fluent in French, the translator was also a native speaker of Mòoré, the most widely spoken of the local languages. In many instances, focus group interviews could be conducted in Mòoré or French with occasional translations of finer points into another language for the benefit of an individual in the group.

Responses given to the translator in Mòoré would then be repeated in English. In some instances however, particularly in the more rural locations, only one of the focus group participants was able to speak either French or Mòoré. In these situations the translator would pose questions to the individual with whom he could communicate, who would in turn pose the questions to others in one or more local languages. Answers to these questions would then be returned along the same linguistic train to the researcher and research assistant in English. All focus group interviews were digitally recorded and notes taken by both the researcher and research assistant.

In contrast to a questionnaire that is generally posed to an individual on a one-on-one basis and can be anticipated to generate responses within the confines of the specific topic of reference, the purpose of the focus group interviews was to generate discussions that provided subject information while also enabling the observation of interactions between individuals. By observing such interactions it was hoped that some idea could be gained as to the role of social interaction in defining the role of networked others in the migration decisions of an individual.

As a result of the focus group setting of the interviews, the issue posed by the language barrier between researcher and interviewees, and the means of translation used, was likely greater than might have existed using a formal questionnaire technique. However, due to the enormous value of the EMIUB data in providing quantitative information on individuals and their migration histories in Burkina Faso, the purpose of the fieldwork component of this research was not to produce hard data for the purposes of quantification but for the researcher to gain qualitative information on the role of peers in the migration decision and the perceptions of respondents on factors that may facilitate or impede the migration process.

A total of ten initial questions were posed to focus groups. The interviews started by collecting the basic demographic information of each interview participant and then led to questions designed to elucidate information relating to migration when considered on the basis of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The three core components of the theory are described in Chapter 3 as behavioural attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. In the context of migration these components can be considered to be an individual’s attitude towards migration, how they think others consider the migration, and their perception of how easily they can

undertake the migration respectively. Questions focussing on social networks were aimed at both understanding the impact of networked peers upon an individual’s subjective norm (ease of migration) and the actual use of such migration networks by interviewees.

Appendix 1 displays the briefing sheet and list of questions in both English and French that was used by the translator during interviews. In order to reduce the possibility that interviewees might misinterpret the role of this research as being related to official government or NGO activities, the manner in which each interview was approached was carefully considered. The process leading up to an interview involved visiting the government allocated head of the relevant department to request permission to conduct interviews within the region. This process was aided by an official letter of recommendation from the Director of the Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population (ISSP) in Ouagadougou. Once a letter of consent had been obtained from the head of the department, appropriate contacts in surrounding villages were sought.

Although not always used, seeking these contacts provided information on reliable sources of interviews in rare instances where people in some villages were unwilling to engage with the interview process. On arrival in villages where no suitable contact was known, the village elder/head would be sought and his permission requested to undertake a group interview.

Requesting permission from the head of a village generally resulted in his involvement in the focus group and his selection of similar acquaintances (male elders often in positions of relative authority within the village) as the other participants. This was not ideal but the involvement of the village head was a necessary step in securing permission for the interviews. To counter the resulting bias, it was requested that each focus group be made up of a cross section of the community, although such a request was rarely heeded, with groups often made up exclusively of older men. Another strategy was to specifically request groups of women for focus groups, although as the researcher, research assistant and translator were all males, these groups could only be requested when a female colleague (researcher from ISSP or local Peace Corps volunteer) was found to accompany the research team.

The means of transport used to access villages was also carefully considered. As most government or NGO activities in Burkina Faso are seen to take place in a village following the arrival of a white four wheel drive vehicle, considerable effort was made to avoid such an arrival. As such, public buses were used to access each of the departments visited in Burkina Faso. Bicycles purchased in Ouagadougou were carried on the roof of each bus and then used to

access villages that could not be reached by bus. Arrival of the three person research team on bicycles was met with considerable surprise in many instances but was often a useful ice breaker as water would generally be offered by villagers. Whether or not this manner of approaching villages was successful in avoiding preconceived ideas by interviewees as to the responses they perhaps ‘should’ give a government agency or NGO who may be assessing the value of providing some form of aid to the community is unclear. However, it was important that interviewees spoke freely of their perceptions on migration without being impeded by possible preconceptions of what the research team might want to hear. For the same reason, rainfall and climate were expressly not mentioned by the researchers unless first mentioned by an interviewee.

Key themes generated from the thirty focus group interviews conducted across the four rainfall zones of Burkina Faso were analysed in terms of their contributions to the consideration of migration from the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The full breakdown of these findings into the rainfall zones from which they were generated is displayed in Appendix 2. However, the key findings from each zone are summarised below. At no point were focus group interview participants told that the primary focus of the research was on rainfall and its impact upon migration.