Conducting group interviews in developing countries

The group interview is one of the rapid, cost-effective data collection methods. It involves the use of direct probing techniques to gather information from several individuals in a group situation. Although superficially the difference between the individual and group interviews is the number of participants, this difference contributes to major variations between the two with regard to planning, nature of interview guides, probing techniques, and analysis of information. Group interviews can serve a wide range of information collection purposes. They can provide background information and help to generate ideas and hypothesis for project and program design, provide feedback from beneficiaries, and help in assessing responses to recommended innovations. They are also useful for obtaining data for monitoring and evaluation purposes and for interpreting available quantitative data. There are two main types of group interviews--focus group interviews and community interviews-- that have wide potential in developing countries. Both types should be carefully planned. The investigator should conduct a systematic review of the relevant documents, records, or studies and consult with a few key informats before venturing into the field. The main concepts should be clearly defined in order to avoid possible misunderstanding between the respondents and the interviewers