Charcoal value chain in southern Mozambique

There were several steps taken in order to guarantee highest possible data quality.

For the interviews with the different actor groups, guidelines with questions in Portuguese were prepared.

Where possible the same assistant/translator was used. Prior to each exercise the translator was informed about the objective of the interview and the way questions should be asked.

By discussing various topics repeatedly with different groups/persons, information could be validated and highlighted from different perspectives. Furthermore, context information gained through interviews, conversations and focus group discussions helped to gradually better focus the interviews.

Usually, the leader of a village was asked to gather a group of people as requested. Focus groups were usually composed of men and women. Everyone was explicitly invited to contribute.

The researcher was always accompanied by a translator/assistant speaking the local language (native speaker). If needed, all questions were translated from Portuguese to Changana and vice versa.

Notes were taken by the lead researcher. Back in office, all notes were written down in English.

After each interview, all information was discussed either with the assistant or a colleague. This helped to improve the understanding of what was said. In case of lack of understanding, clarification was sought via communications with locals.

This dataset is included in the following collections

Data from the Abrupt Changes in Ecosystem Services and Wellbeing in Mozambican Woodlands (ACES) project