LIBRO SEXTO PROCESO DE FAMILIA

In deciding on a research strategy, guidance was initially sought from Robson (2002) and Creswell (2007), at which point the researcher immediately recognised that the project was unlikely to lend itself to a fixed design due to uncertainty of the extent and nature of the data being available. A fixed design was also considered questionable given the inability to pre-specify the design until scoping field visits had been carried out. Intuitively an experimental strategy would not be appropriate given the inability to have a control group – it would have been ethically inappropriate to request, for example, a stakeholder group not to carry out monitoring and evaluation to test whether M&E has an impact on service delivery. In addition, the likelihood of finding an example where absolutely no M&E activities were being carried out was very low. Neither was it likely for the researcher to secure involvement from a scientifically accepted random sample of stakeholders. However, a non-experimental design such as carrying out a survey was a possibility and therefore, a fixed design was still considered an option.

Further reading, thought and reflection emphasised the potential of a flexible design - likely delivering a richness of data and achieving an in-depth study. With a motivation to explore and examine the field of M&E in the WASH sector

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Deduction is “used to establish a series of logical steps in the process of forming a theoretical statement about the world. Usually, a general claim is made and this is applied to a particular case or instance with a definite set of conditions.” (Smith, 1998)

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Induction is where scientific knowledge is constructed through accumulating observational evidence (Smith, 1998).

in East Africa, talking to people and examining documents and data archives seemed the most appropriate primary methods to achieve the aim of the research. Despite having confidence in a flexible design, concern and a perception remained that, to satisfy the requirements of a PhD, statistical analysis to show relationships between stakeholder groups and types, would be required and therefore the research method should be of a fixed design.

Revisiting the literature (Robson, 2002; Richards, 2009; Yin 2009), these concerns were allayed. As reported by Robson (2002), "flexible designs can include the collection of quantitative data". The conclusion was reached that the design needed to be flexible in nature. Associated with more qualitative data collection, three traditional strategies were then considered:

 Ethnography;

 Grounded Theory;

 Case Study.

Ethnography, as with anthropological studies (Smith, 1998), where the researcher tends to live with the community or group being studied, was the first to be rejected. Despite working at a local level with communities carrying out monitoring and evaluation, being of interest to the researcher, this was not an option, primarily due to the researcher not having a sociological or anthropological background. Other factors included, that at the time of the research design, there was not an opportunity to work alongside a stakeholder group carrying out M&E in the WASH sector. Financial resources were also insufficient16 for the researcher to live and work as a volunteer alongside a community group.

Grounded theory, albeit a possible option for this project as is considered flexible, systematic and co-ordinated (Robson, 2002), was also rejected as the researcher did not have the requisite sociological background. Furthermore, the requirement for grounded theory is to have some pre-existing theoretical ideas and assumptions, which at the time was not satisfied by the researcher.

For several reasons, the case study strategy seemed to tick most of the boxes - flexible design: flexibility in terms of the background of the researcher and flexibility in terms of data collection allowing for an emerging and evolving design. A case study approach also “provides a form of inquiry that elevates a view of life in its complexity” (Thomas, 2011). The decision was further substantiated for the following factors:

 Limited prior research having been carried out in this aspect of monitoring and evaluation, as evident from the literature review.

 A perceived level of associated complexity, as ascertained from both personal experience and key informant interviews carried out with other sector based individuals

A final validation in the selection of a case study strategy was established when reading the definition of a case study by Helen Simons (2009), see Box 3-2. Box 3-2 Definition of a case study

During the early stages of research design, the intention was to focus on three countries of East Africa and engage with multiple stakeholders across public sector, private sector and civil society organisations from international donors and aid agencies through to individual level. A richness of understanding of the topic was of importance, as was to collate enough information not to generalise but provide an insight into the aspects of cost and use of M&E and, contribute to a perceived gap in empirical data and academic research. Initially there was also an interest to make a comparison of the countries however this quickly became less important as knowledge of the differences in institutional frameworks was better understood. Furthermore some stakeholders, during scoping field visits, also expressed concern over any comparative analysis

“Case study is an in-depth exploration from multiple perspectives of the complexity and uniqueness of a particular project, policy, institution, programme or system in a ‘real life’ context. It is research-based, inclusive of different methods and is evidence- led. The primary purpose is to generate in-depth understanding of a specific topic (as in a thesis), programme, policy, institution or system to generate knowledge and / or inform policy development, professional practice and civil or community action”. (Source: Simons (2009), in Thomas, 2011…pp10)

between the countries and if pursued could result in the withdrawal of their interest. All of these components confirmed to the researcher that the case study strategy using mixed method design was appropriate and relevant to the research inquiry.

The following research strategies were also reviewed to validate the selection:

 Action research: considered unsuitable based on the factors of time, resources and likelihood of available data.

 Biographical research: the study of an individual, or phenomenological research: the study of the subjective of the individuals (Robson, 2002), were not suitable as the subject of study is focused on an inanimate object – process of monitoring and evaluation – and how, why, what and by who, is carrying out the process.

To further satisfy the researcher in terms of chosen research pathway, guidance was secured from the literature of Miles & Huberman (1994), Thomas (2011), Richards (2009) and Drever (2003), various websites (Wordle, Wikipedia, Periodic Table of data visualisation) as well as PhD colleagues, supervisors and sector associates.