The Value of Focus Group Research for Social Action Programs

Abstract

In both developed and developing countries, social action programs funded by governments and private foundations provide a wide range of services in health care, education, family planning, agricultural extension work, sanitation, rural development, and other areas. Most of these programs conduct actionoriented research to guide them in designing their service delivery activities to meet people's needs as effectively as possible. Among the techniques employed, survey research typically plays a major role, along with evaluation of service statistics data. Anthropological research techniques are employed by some programs, as are various types of operations research geared to answer specific questions about the management and implementation of services. There is widespread feeling among program managers, however, that these techniques are often too unwieldy, costly, and time consuming to provide the kind of guidance they often need to make practical decisions about program design and operations. In recent years, public sector and not-for-profit groups, especially those engaged in social marketing projects, have begun to look to the private sector for potentially useful applied research techniques to as