Problems? What Problems? We Have None at All: Qualitative Data Collection for Impact Assessment

This paper highlights the ways in which qualitative data methods, such as semi-structured interviews, can be used to produce rich and credible findings on the impact of microfinance schemes.

The paper draws on fieldwork conducted over eighteen months with women living in low-income areas of Cajamarca, Peru to argue that careful attention to question design and entry points is the key to gaining rich and useful information on impact.

Some of the findings from the fieldwork that the paper highlights are:

• Lack of collateral compels women in the poorest rural sectors to join groups to get microcredit;
• Solidarity groups are not sustainable because of high level of corruption and self-enrichment by the group leaders.

The paper suggests that to fully understand how well development interventions are working in practice, care needs to be taken on:

• Deciding on how, when, and where the interview takes place;
• Having clarity in questions to suit the local context;
• Asking open-ended and nondirective questions where possible;
• Selecting the mode of recording information based local context.

The paper concludes that if researchers are to find the causal links related to impact they must do much more than simply extract information.