McCormick+Schmitz Handbook for value chain research on - PACA

13.2 Observing
Here are some of the techniques you can use to document the homeworker’s situation in
the various <strong>chain</strong>s. Observation can be a powerful teacher. We say more about this in the
Appendix (see section A.4). Be<strong>for</strong>e you begin to ask questions, you may simply want to
observe the daily routine of one or more homeworkers. Box 13.1 describes one way of
going about this. It can be helpful to begin by keeping in mind a set of questions. For
specific studies, you will need to work out your own, but the following could be useful <strong>for</strong>
a start:
1. What is going on?
2. What is the setting/environment like?
3. Who is participating (age, gender, position/function, status, cliques and
isolates)?
4. How often does this happen? How long does it take? Is it typical? Why or why
not?
5. How does it compare with what I have seen elsewhere?
By simply observing, you can learn many things about Maria, about the way she interacts
with the intermediary, and about the routine of distributing materials and collecting
finished work. These observations combined with your in<strong>for</strong>mal comparison with other
<strong>chain</strong>s can help you to develop a set of questions that you can use to interview Maria and
other homeworkers.
13.3 Interviewing homeworkers
Be<strong>for</strong>e beginning the actual interviewing, you will have to decide how many
homeworkers to interview and how to select them. The number is largely determined by
available resources and the aim of your study. In-depth interviewing takes more time, so
you will usually do fewer interviews. In a survey, you can gather specific in<strong>for</strong>mation
from many respondents. The choices available to you and the details of sampling are
discussed more fully in the Appendix. You will probably want to combine methods.
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