Starting Up Child Centered Spaces in Emergencies: A Field Manual

of collecting existing information involves meetings and dialogues with diverseagencies. This means that teams must work their way through local networksand following leads established through contacts with each agency. Throughdialogue with the Iraq government representatives (where appropriate), UNICEF,UNHCR and other agencies, including local agencies and international NGOs,various at-risk groups of children could be identified in particular areas. Thisinformation is then used to define gaps in understanding that guides thecollection of new data. This strategy entails moving from the general to the particular,using existing data and avoiding duplication of effort and filling in gaps ofinformation.Sampling should include a mixture of rural and urban areas and of gender- andage-specific groups. Within a particular village or area, multiple group discussionsare best conducted for purposes of triangulation and to develop a morecomprehensive understanding of the context, issues and situation of particulargroups. Visits to villages typically begin with meetings with elders, teachers andother key informants to obtain a broad overview of the situation of children, andthese are then followed by more focused discussions with particular targetedand/or at-risk groups.Purposive sampling is suggested to collect information from key informants suchas elders/leaders, health workers, teachers and field-based staff or volunteers.Opportunistic and random samplings are also suggested to build on and verifythe information collected during group discussions, and to collect data in unexpectedsituations. Also, snowball sampling can be used to build the informationthrough networks suggested by participants.Criterion-based, cluster sampling is suggested to focus on key vulnerabilitygroups (e.g., IDPs and/or refugees, separated children, orphans, street/workingchildren, etc.) and to explore specific issues identified in a particular area as criticaland in need of additional investigation. (For example, in Afghanistan if discussionswith key informants indicated that disabled street children werenumerous and faced high risks, but no written reports on their situation wereavailable, then discussions with groups of disabled street children became apriority. Similarly, no data was available on children in detention, which raisedthe priority of collecting new data on that issue.)Next, interviews and focus group discussions are recommended with membersof the relevant groups, such as women, adolescents, children and specificallyidentified vulnerable or at-risk groups. Throughout the assessment, it is recommendedthat the teams take an ecological approach that recognizes the interdependenceof children’s well-being with that of their primary caretakers. For thisreason, vulnerable groups can be defined broadly to include not only groups ofat-risk children, but also to include groups such as war widows, many of whomoften live in abject poverty and are rearing children. In some cases, village eldersor government officials can bring together a group of at-risk people such aswidows, which does potentially introduce associated risks of bias. To reducesuch bias, the interviewers can also construct their own focus groups, talkingwith randomly selected focus group members in urban areas and villages.69