Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
On 2nd and 3rd February 2019, Equal Access International commissioned a qualitative study made up of 8 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) held in Kano state, Northern Nigeria as part of the project’s formative research activities. The purpose of the FGDs was to better understand community norms, including patterns in individual attitudes and beliefs that inform perspectives on women and girls’ access to and use of technology. The discussions also sought to unearth specific data about what type of technology women and girls have access to, what inhibitors they face, and what were the commonality of those inhibitors across participants. Accompanying the FGDs was a desk review of existing literature on mobile usage among women and girls, together with a separate In-depth Interview study. The desk review and field research will inform the content of the Tech4Families Learning Discussion and Action Group (LDAG) content, radio series and accompanying digital literacy curriculum.
The 8 groups were made up of 10 respondents covering four (4) age group categories; 13-17 years, 18-25 years, 26-35 years and 36-50 years. Respondents were all volunteers, came from the nineteen (19) states of northern Nigeria and were currently all living in Kano. For each of the FGD clusters, where possible a balanced mix of participants was selected including individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds, those who were self-employed, civil servants, students etc. The groups were all age matched and gender segregated. The research identified several key factors, which reinforced the intervention’s perceived barriers to change and represented the core inhibiting factors to women and girls’ access to and use of technology.
