respectively. The introduction gives a clear picture on the process of the entire research.
Communities where receptive and with enthusiasm cooperated with the enumerators to conduct the pre-test. At this point the researchers understudy the trend at which the questions were asked, how the perception of the respondent influences greater discussion to generate realistic information, taking in to consideration the different languages spoken in the targeted areas, their perspective about gender (male and female) and issues affecting both sex with emphasis on land ownership and its impact on food security.
Challenges from the pre-test
Some of the enumerators are not familiar with the issues containing the questionnaire. As a result of this, inappropriate information was captured during the pre-test of the questionnaires. This gave rise for the lead researcher to organize another sessions (debriefing) of the content of the questionnaire with the enumerators. After which, enumerators were then able to interpret the questionnaire in a simpler way that responded could easily understand and provide relevant information pertaining the questionnaire.
answers that were outside the answer categories provided and these answers were jotted down on notebooks.
A fieldwork team of twelve researchers were recruited, plus four team leaders. The team leaders were lecturers and staff at the University of Makeni and have got a very good experience in doing research. The field researchers were students from the Faculty of Social Science and the Research department at the above mentioned university. All the researchers employed were locals and were competent in English and the local languages spoken in all the communities we interviewed. This is one of the criteria for recruitments to the research team. The field researchers were trained in the administration of the questionnaire over a period of three days.
During this period, all questions in the questionnaire were analysed and later translated those sentences that we think were difficult to understand by the participants into the local languages, so as to ease the burden of translation on the field. The questionnaire was pre-tested and corrections were made.
3.2.1 Interview and translation effects
There is always a risk that respondents tell the researcher what they believe the researcher want to hear McCracken's (1988); Mikkelsen's, (2005). I tried to avoid this by explaining that I was a research student, that they could chose to be anonymous, the information being given is for academic purposes and that we were only interested in their views.
None of the female respondents asked specifically to be anonymous, and they did not seem to be afraid of speaking about sensitive issues. But I have chosen to leave out the identities of the respondents for purpose of the study in order for them not to get into any trouble especially with their local chiefs and village heads. In many of our communities here in Sierra Leone especially in the Northern region, women were not until lately been allowed to talk to strangers. But also, taking into considerations that the researchers used were Sierra Leonean citizens familiar with the customs, norms and traditions of their enumeration areas.
Semi-structured interviews were carried out with two randomly selected people in the concerned villages. These included one female head of household, one village headman, one male or female
member of a youth organisation, and one male or female member of a farmer's organisation and one landless tenant. This sample was mixed and intended both to obtain key-person opinions and to learn more about the area and issues to be covered as well as to probe for other suitable individuals and groups to interview.
3.2.2 Defining the Household head for this study
This survey concentrated on the characteristics of the basic economic and social unit of the Household. A household was defined as a person or group of persons related or unrelated who live together and make common cooking arrangements. Simply put a person or group of persons eating from the same cooking pot. In the SLIHS survey, a household head was defined as the person who makes economic decisions in the household, the breadwinner. A household member included all persons who have lived in a household for at least 3 months. The Demographic characteristics examined here include; age, sex, household composition, religion, ethnicity and nationality of the households SLIHS, (2004). In the present constitution of Sierra Leone, there is no article that states which of the parents is the head of the family, and in principal both parents share parental authority World Bank, (2013). However, custom generally grants these positions to men CEDAW, (2012).Therefore, for the purpose of this research, all household heads are female. Looking at their marital status and the roles they play both in their homes and in their communities.
Under General Law, husbands have the duty to maintain their wives and children, including the provision of a home, food and clothing. This duty is not similarly imposed on wives, who instead have the duty of conducting all household chores CEDAW, (2012). These roles are changing over time. In most communities, women play the role of the latter. Most of the men are just there as the figure heads and for security reasons. When it comes to decision-making, the 2008 DHS reports that decisions over how to use the cash earnings of wives are primarily made jointly between husband and wife (37.2%), although in many cases it is either the wife (34.2%) or the husband (26.5%) who primarily decides. A similar scenario is reported with regard to decisions concerning the purchase of daily household needs: 25.3% primarily the wife, 38.0% the husband
and wife jointly, and 34.8% primarily the husband decides. Decisions over major household purchases tend to be made either primarily by the husband (49.4%) or jointly by the couple (39.4%) and more rarely primarily by the wife (9.6%) DHS, (2008 p.240).
3.2.3 The researchers view on “the field” and respondents
Generalizability
There may be some generalization problems in conducting qualitative research with relatively few respondents from this broad respondent group of this nature. However, I chose the above-mentioned methods in order to obtain detailed and unpredictable answers. It was not the aim of this study to generalize the perceptions and views of entire groups. But the sampling of respondents in impacted communities were done on a take what you get basis, the sampling in the villages were varied. It is my impression that the methods and sampling used ensured that the answers from the respondents within the sampled communities are generalizable for the majority of the entire population in the country.
Validity
The research, both the literature review and field study were carried out in ways to obtain the purpose of the study. Most interviews with key informants were of an unstructured character even though they were prepared to ensure that answers obtained would help to obtain the purpose of the thesis and to answer the research questions. A semi-structured interview template based on the research questions, as well as lessons learned from probing interviews and observations, was created and used both for the personal and group interviews in the villages.
The use of the template ensured that the answers helped to obtain the purpose of the thesis and to answer the research questions.
3.2.4 Study Target population
For the purpose of this study, we used the target populations for female headed households as sampled, based on the Sierra Leone Census 2004 population distribution in different communities. The respondents constituted of widows, divorced and unmarried women. The sample size varies, depending on the location and size of the locality. The Sierra Leone Integrated Household survey estimated a mean household size of 5.9 persons per household across the country with a national population of about 48 percent males and 52 per cent females.
The survey also shows that 39 per cent of the population lived in the urban areas whilst 61 per cent live in the rural settlements Census, (2004).
One out of every five households is headed by a Female, with the proportion of female- headed households slightly higher in rural areas (10.19%) than in the urban areas (8.68%). This is an indication of the role of women and the need to empower women to be self-reliant. The population in general was quite young; about 69 percent of the population was under 30 years of age. Therefore, we used the sample frame for the said total to select the number of households we used for the purpose of this research.
The women selected for this study have in one way or another experienced customary practice such as wife or widow inheritance, polygamy, patrilineal inheritance of land and property stripping. The choice for the sample size was mainly based on the need for accuracy required by the researcher and the degree of variation in the sample Babbie, (1990).
Qualitative methods (i.e. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions) was also utilized to collect additional information at various levels within communities in order to discover, in more detail, the harmful impact of traditional practices on the living condition of women. Women and men who were willing to share their experiences of land rights issues, were interviewed using focus group discussions. Additionally, perceptions and experiences surrounding traditional cultural practices and beliefs will be explored to discover reasons why people adopt or do not adopt certain behaviours with regards to landownership in Sierra Leone.
3.2.5 Selection of Participants
The population lists produced from the Sierra Leone Housing census 2004 were used as a sampling frame for the households to be interviewed. The number given during the participatory social mapping and census exercise identified each household. It should be noted that the survey technique by questionnaire, which is often associated with the positivist approach, was used as a preliminary to the main qualitative study. The samples were small and were meant to show patterns through distribution tables and to be used in tests of statistical significance. The total figures of household will be seen on tables that will be presented here in this chapter.
The importance of information from the questionnaire was that it was used to complement the RRA in presenting the overview socio-economic and environmental context of the communities under study. In particular, the survey revealed patterns in village demographics, household land holdings, economic activities, farming systems, access to credit, and household asset variations.
In this way it served the intended purpose of providing quantified background data in which to put in context the small-scale intensive and qualitative studies in the two case study sites. Thus, the questionnaire survey technique was useful as a data condenser to give a picture of the whole sample in summary form concerning land tenure and livelihood trends in the two case study areas. The information also complemented and enhanced the data collected through in-depth qualitative methods in the last stage of the fieldwork to support interpretation.
For the purpose of this research, the study population consists of seven hundred and five female household heads, approximately ninety-four focus group discussions were conducted with between 10-12 participants making an approximate total of nine hundred and forty group participants in all and at least Ninety-four key informants who lived in the forty seven research sites were interview during the process.
The participants include; female headed household, women, teachers, local government representatives, NGO staff and civil society groups representatives. Such a range of actors was selected for interview in an attempt to garner a representative array of views that would
correspond to the range of persons and organisations that have inputted into the contemporary debate on land tenure reform. For focus group discussions, community members were requested to participate in an interview on the grounds that they had published material on the subject of land tenure and perhaps that document will in the future help to influence new laws and policies regarding to land issues in the country.
The researchers made a deliberate effort to include both adult male and female, in special groups according to their sexes. Special attention was given to working with women as well as men since many of the gender issues are concerned with men as well and men have important gender issues to talk about because most times when issues of gender are talked about people only consider women components. By collecting information from different groups such as young women, young men, adult women, and adult men, it was possible to simultaneously learn about the views of each group and to contrast the perceptions of adults (men and women) and young people.
Table 1. Study participants and method of data collection Level Method of data collection Participants
District In-depth Interviews
District Council, Agricultural Ministry representative, Civil Society groups representative
Chiefdom In-depth Interviews
Paramount Chief, civil society groups Representative, village Elders/Leaders
Community Focus Group Discussions
Women 15-59 years, Village Elders/Leaders, Men
3.2.6 Research Team
The research team included a mix of final year students from the faculty of Social Science and the Research Department at the University of Makeni, all of whom had had some research experience, keen ethical sensitivity, and in depth understanding of the local culture and languages of Sierra Leone. There was the lead National Researcher and four other team leaders (Lecturers and staff) that contributed to the development of the methodology and supervised the data collection by a team of two researchers in each community. The rest of the field researchers (students) who worked under the supervision of the Team Leaders had been selected for their prior experience in qualitative research, motivation, openness, and flexibility.
i. Selection, and training of Field Researchers
This aspect of the research was to prepare the field researchers for their work; a three days preparation training session was conducted January 8th-10th, 2014 in the Abatti Hall, at the University of Makeni under the joint leadership of the Lead national researcher and the national team leaders. The session was aimed to develop the skills needed to collect quality data, sharpen ethical awareness and ability to manage challenges that might arise, and to field test and finalize the research tools, which are described below. We used a highly participatory methodology that included role plays, discussion of ethical dilemmas, group problem-solving discussions, and field experience in participant observation, group discussions, and in-depth interviews. These activities were guided by an action-reflection methodology wherein group reflection and problem-solving followed each activity. A two one hour and twenty minutes long in-depth interviews of a flexible nature was used to learn about the views of individual participants. This group process created a spirit of mutual learning and camaraderie, and it also helped to identify specific improvements in the research tools and processes. After the training session, the team Leaders worked with the field researchers in their respective sites, offering mentoring and
supervision to ensure the collection, recording, storage, and sharing of data of high quality. They supervised the research design and methodology and the collection of quality data, ensured that the research met appropriate ethical standards. Whilst the lead national researcher led the process general supervision and of data input, and will prepare technical reports on the research and its findings (research work still in progress).
3.2.8 Site selection
The selection of district research sites was guided by criteria such as security, accessibility, diversity, and availability of NGO partners that can help support the research. The number of communities that were sampled is based on the size of that district and number of households that are there. In some districts, you have four communities with a number of fifteen households each. In some other districts, there are two communities, some three communities and off course western area rural has eight communities in all. This is due to its large geographical area and vast number of populations in this part of the country. All of the analysis on how the sites were selected will be shown later in a tabular form.
For purposes of depth of learning, the research did study a nationally representative sample of villages and chose to focus on selected communities in all districts of the four regions of Sierra Leone which according to the sample frame it represents the entire country although it is not sufficient to say that the views gathered are the views of all Sierra Leoneans. Through a sampling approach, forty-seven communities were selected from the sample frame as the research sites using the sample frame from the Sierra Leone census 2004 that reflects diversity and including both rural and urban communities. Considering the time and other constraints that we had for the period of the research, the location sites were selected based on distance and accessibility into these communities. In each district, with the consultation of district officials, NGO workers and Chiefs we were able to have easy access into the communities and the selection of the houses and women to be interviewed.