Fair Trade USA Tools

Capturing information from focus group discussions

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This tool will help record information gathered in Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The Fair Trade Committee Secretary or a suitable member of the Fair Trade Committee should complete this evaluation. Focus Group Discussions are when a small group of people (typically 6-10), who usually share common characteristics, come together to discuss a specific, planned topic. In this instance, the discussion would center around the needs of the community.

Best practice recommendations for implementation:

• Focus group discussions are best held in a quiet location around a table or in a circle

• One person facilitates the discussion and another takes notes. It is also helpful to record focus groups for clarity later on when summarizing notes. If you do record, remember to gain permission from the group

• Notes can be taken on paper or on a computer/electronic device. If recorded on paper, it may be important to transfer them to a place on an electronic device for safe record keeping.

• Remember to include all voices in the group. Some members may be more talkative, others may be quieter. Ask the quiet member of the group if they have anything to add to ensure their perspectives are captured.

• Focus Groups should last around 30-90 minutes – after 90 minutes fatigue may set in.

• Unlike a survey, the questions in an FGD can be open-ended to encourage people to talk about their experience.

• Consent must be obtained from all participants, the facilitator should be well prepared with a script that is relevant to the group, and a plan for note taking or recording should be made in advance.

• 6-10 members of a focus group.

• The goal of the focus group is to ensure that voices are captured that might not have been captured in the survey. Make sure to consider this when asking for participants in the focus group discussion.

Use the template below when planning your focus group discussion to think through the types of questions you will want to ask.

Fill out this online questionnaire after conducting your Focus Group Discussion

What is the name of your organization? [Answer Format: short text]

What is the Fair Trade ID of your organization? [Answer Format: short text, number]

What is your name? [Answer Format: short text]

What is your title? [Answer Format: short text]

What is your email address? [Answer Format: short text]

What Fair Trade products or commodities does your organization produce? [Answer Format: short text]

How many people participated in your FGD? [Answer Format: short text, number]

⟳ repeat the following questions the number of times answered in the prior question

Next, please answer some questions about the participants. These questions should help ensure that a representative group of participants have been included in the Needs Assessment.

• What type of work does the participant do? [Answer Format: picklist: “Packing”, “Production”, “Field”, “Warehouse”, “Maintenance”, “Fisher,” “Sewing”, “Printing”, “Quality Checking”, “Other”, “Unknown”]

• What is the nature of the participant’s employment or working relationship? [Answer Format: picklist: “Permanent employee”, “Temporary or seasonal employee”, “Contracted worker”, “Cooperative Member”, “Other”, “Unknown”]

• What is the participant’s gender? [Answer Format: picklist: “Female”, “Male”, “Nonbinary”, “Prefer not to say”]

• What is the participant’s age? [Answer Format: picklist: “under 18”, “18-25”, “26-35”, “36-55”, “55 or older”]

• Does the participant leave their hometown to work? [Answer Format: “Yes”, “No”, “Unknown”]

• Does the participant live with their children and/or family members? [Answer Format: “Yes”, “No”, “Unknown”]

Thank you for capturing information about the participants to help ensure the group was representative in the Needs Assessment process! Next, please answer some questions about the questions that were asked and the themes that arose in the FGDs.

How many themes or questions were covered in the FGD?

[Answer Format: short text, number]

⟳ repeat the following questions the number of times answered in the prior question

What was the theme or question?

[Subtext: “Example: We asked the group to talk about their family’s needs for clean water and healthy food”]

[Answer Format: long text]

What were the responses to this theme or question?

[Subtext: “Example: Four of the 10 participants have to travel for over an hour every time they fill their water tanks at home. A few of the members talked about going without meat and vegetables sometimes so that their children could have meat and vegetables, however half of the participants have thriving family gardens and livestock which helps feed them and their extended families.”]

[Answer Format: long text]

Thank you for answering questions about the various themes and questions that were covered in the FGD! Lastly, please answer a few questions in reflection to summarize what was learned in the FGD.

Which of the topics below were covered or arose through the FGD?

[Subtext: “Enter one or more of the following categories:”]

[Answer Format: checkboxes, allow multiple: “Access to education”; “Access to childcare”; “Health and wellbeing”; “Nutrition”; “Housing”; “Environmental resource management (Capture Fisheries Standard only)”; “Environmental health, productivity, product quality (cooperatives or small producers of agricultural crops only)”; “Financial health”; “Community services”; “Roads, bridges, and community buildings”; “Gender equity”; “Training”; “Retirement and aging workforce”; “Co-operative business needs (SPO only)”; “Compliance costs (small producers only)”; “Other”]

Please enter some reflections about what was learned holistically about the needs of the Premium Participants as a result of the FGD.

[Subtext: “Example: We learned that nutrition and health are key concerns for the participants in the FGD. We also learned that transportation is not a significant need because all participants live within 3 miles of the workplace and we included a representative group of people in the FGD.”]

[Answer Format: long text]

Hit the submit button for a print out of the Focus Group Discussion results for your own records and to facilitate the next phases in the Premium Project brainstorming and design process!

• Submit