Understanding Focus Group discussions in Monitoring and Evaluation

Starting a Focus Group discussion and getting the right results

If you have been doing monitoring and evaluation for a significantly long period of time you will agree that collecting data can be very frustrating sometimes in research. Think of it, you have to collect data either from primary or secondary sources but then you realize you still haven't gotten the answers you were looking for. Ofcourse when doing your monitoring and evaluation you may have collected a mouth full of figures, but those figures alone don't explain the 'why' question. When doing the monitoring and evaluation activity you will soon realize that having a focus group discussion can be a really rewarding experience because you get all the participants involved and are able to dig deeper as to why a certain situation is like this or that. But then, what exactly is a focus group discussion?

Focus Group discussion, a qualitative way to find answers

A focus group discussion is simply a discussion with a diverse number of people who are assembled to answer your questions. When doing a monitoring and evaluation activity, you may collect all the data that needs collecting and yes you may feel that everything has gone according to plan. But deep inside as the monitoring and evaluation person you soon realize that there is still something more you need. You want answers to some of your significantly challenging questions. You want to know the why????? For instance in a programme or project which wants to see income levels become high within a certain area of implementation, your target group farmers have been seeing low productivity of crops and thus low incomes. As the person responsible for monitoring and evaluation you may have an idea what led to that situation during the programme or project period, you may even perhaps feel it was the poor rainfall patterns. But the thing is , your participants may have something different. In a project or programme they may have to tell you exactly what the problem was. That's the interesting part because when you go into the field to conduct your monitoring and evaluation you will soon realize the genuine reasons they will give you is completely different from what you concluded. Now when conducting a monitoring and evaluation focus group discussion you may want to take note of the following pointers;

Making the Focus Group discussion a grand success

As a person responsible for Monitoring and Evaluation there are a few things in the focus group discussion which you shouldn't dare forget unless you have an absolutely good reason for it;

1) When Monitoring and Evaluating in a focus group discussion always get your participants involved in the discussion. All your participants in the meeting should learn to participate whether male or female. Everyone should get involved in the focus group discussion.

2) When Monitoring and Evaluating in a focus group discussion always sense when something isn't right. There are times when participants in focus group discussions may not want to speak because of the presence of certain individuals who shouldn't really be there. For example, in some cultures women are not allowed to speak when their husbands are around. In other instances, there might be the presence of a government official who is really influencing the way participants should respond to your questions. You have to find a better way to handle those scenarios in focus group discussions.

3) When Monitoring and Evaluating in a focus group discussion always have a set of questions you are going to ask. Make sure to always prepare and don't leave things to chance or else that would be really nasty and disorganized.

In conclusion, you can have a really successful focus group discussion and thus be able to get the right information at the right time, in the right place and in the right mood. Make your monitoring and evaluation a success.