This DFID project aims at improving the use of qualitative (often participatory) and quantitative (often non-participatory) methods in collection and analysis of information in the natural resources sector. It offers practical guidance for field staff and project managers, allowing them to select the most appropriate data collection and analysis methods when faced with information objectives and constraints in the data collection and analysis process.
The document is a basic element of the project, and the first of four written outputs. It introduces the concept of trustworthiness and sets out the basic types of methodological combinations which will be built upon and utilised in the project. It is partly a review of ways in which qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection have been combined in the past, and it also provides indications of new ways in which techniques could be combined.