ction: @bbclysedoucet Thank you for your support Lyse and happy that you've enjoyed the view and the gathering :-) Original Tweet 1 day 22 hours ago
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The BBC World Service Trust is the BBC's international charity. It uses the creative power of media to reduce poverty and promote human rights.
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. As well as education, it runs programmes in the arts, science, sport, governance and English language.
Methodology
Africa Talks Climate is a groundbreaking research and communications initiative providing insight into the public's understanding of climate change in Africa, highlighting the concerns and experiences of ordinary people and opinion leaders. The research was conducted by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by the British Council.
Africa Talks Climate employs a qualitative research design. Qualitative approaches – which generate non-numeric data – are particularly useful for exploratory research. Through focus groups and in-depth interviews across ten countries, Africa Talks Climate investigates the meaning that people attach to climate change, and explores how they experience climate-related issues and impacts.
The research spans ten countries: DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. These countries were selected based on region, demographics, climate indicators, and in-country research capacity. Media capacity and economic, social capital and governance indicators were also taken into account. A series of consultation calls with an advisory network of organisations working across Africa on climate change further informed the country selection process.
Within each country, three locations were selected on the basis of desk research and consultation calls with a local advisory network. The locations represent areas experiencing environmental impacts which have, to some extent, been linked to or exacerbated by climate change. Selection also sought to ensure suitable geographic, ethnic, linguistic and urban/rural diversity.
12 focus groups and 17 to 18 in-depth interviews were conducted across the three locations in each country. In certain countries, such as Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia it was possible to supplement these with additional interviews and focus groups. Nigeria (the pilot study) comprised 24 focus groups and 31 in-depth interviews across four locations. Likewise, in South Africa and Ethiopia 16 focus groups were conducted across four locations.
The focus groups were single sex, and contained eight to ten participants. Within each group participants were of a similar age and socio-economic class or profession; across groups, sex, age and socio-economic class or profession varied. Moderators for each group were matched to participants in terms of gender and language. The groups were conducted in local African languages.
The opinion leaders for the in-depth interviews were selected from five different sectors: the government, the media, the private sector, religious institutions and community organisations. As before, interviewees were selected based on desk research and consultation calls with the local advisory network.
Verbatim local language transcripts, and full English translations, were produced for each focus group and interview. These were systematically coded by a team of researchers, using a common list of codes to group and cluster the data. The codes were then analysed to pull out the insights and emerging themes.