Literature review is integral part of entire research process and makes valuable contribution to every operational step. This is an essential preliminary task in order to acquaint yourself with the available body of knowledge in your area of interest. Disadvantages of Literature Review i. It can be time-consuming at times ii. It is a daunting task when there is so much done about your area of in interest iii. It is frustrating when there is little or no study done about your area of interest. Key Functions of Literature Review i) Brings clarity and focus to your research problem ii) Improves your methodology; iii) Broadens your knowledge; iv) Contextualizes the author’s findings.

Step 4: Preparing the Research Design Research design is the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted. The function of research design is to provide for the collection of relevant information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money. The preparation of research design, appropriate for a particular research problem, involves the consideration of the following: 1. Objectives of the research study. 2. Method of Data Collection to be adopted 3. Source of information—Sample Design 4. Tool for Data collection 5. Data Analysis-- qualitative and quantitative

Determining the Sample Design Sample design covers the areas of sampling frame, sample size, and sampling methodology. Aspects to be considered within these areas include: Researchers usually draw conclusions about large groups by taking a sample. A sample is a segment/ part/small section of the population selected to represent the population as a whole. Population on the other hand is the largest collection of values of a random variable for which we have an interest at a particular time. A sampling frame is a list of all members (e.g. persons, households, businesses, schools) of the target population for the survey. For example, a sampling frame may be the electoral roll, the membership list of a club, or a register of schools. Information collected from the sample is used to make conclusion/inferences on population characteristics. Ideally, the sample should be representative and allow the researcher to make accurate estimates of the thoughts and behaviour of the larger population. To draw conclusions about populations from samples, one must use inferential statistics to be able to determine a population’s characteristics by directly observing only a portion of the it. Designing the sample calls for three key decisions to answer the following questions:

COLLECTING DATA: Having formulated the research problem, developed a study design, constructed a research instrument and selected a sample, you then collect the data from which you will draw inferences and conclusions for your study. Depending upon your plans, you might commence interviews, mail out a questionnaire, conduct experiments and/or make observations. Collecting data through any of the methods may involve some ethical issues in relation to the participants and the researcher: - Those from whom information is collected or those who are studied by a researcher become participants of the study. - Anyone who collects information for a specific purpose, adhering to the accepted code of conduct, is a researcher.

DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS: Processing and analyzing data involves a number of closely related operations which are performed with the purpose of summarizing the collected data and organizing these in a manner that they answer the research questions (objectives). The Data Processing operations are: 1. Editing – This is the process of examining the collected raw data to detect errors and omissions and to correct these when possible. 2. Classification – This is the process of arranging data in groups or classes on the basis of common characteristics. Depending on the nature of phenomenon involved a) Classification according to attributes: Here, data is analyzed on the basis of common characteristics which can either be: i) Descriptive such as literacy, sex, religion etc. ii) Numerical such as weight, height, income etc. Such classification can be either: • Simple classification: where we consider only one attribute, and divide the universe into two classes – one class consisting of items possessing the given attribute, and the other class consisting of items which do not possess the given attribute.

Another convenient feature of the FGT class of poverty measures is that they can be disaggregated for population subgroups and the contribution of each subgroup to national poverty can be calculated. Although the FGT measure provides an elegant unifying framework for measures of poverty, it leaves unanswered the question of the best value of . The measures of poverty depth and poverty severity provide information complementary to the incidence of poverty. It might be that some groups have a high poverty incidence but low poverty gap (when numerous members are just below the poverty line), while other groups have a low poverty incidence but a high poverty gap for those who are poor (when relatively few members are below the poverty line but with extremely low levels of consumption). The Table below provides an example from Madagascar

Describing Poverty: Poverty Profiles What is a Country Poverty Profile? A country poverty profile sets out the major facts on poverty and inequality, and then examines the pattern of poverty to see how it varies by geography (by region, urban or rural, mountains or plains, and so on), by community characteristics (for example, in communities with and without a school), and by household characteristics (for example, by education of household head or by household size). Hence, a poverty profile is a comprehensive poverty comparison, showing how poverty varies across subgroups of society. A well-presented poverty profile can be very informative and extremely useful in assessing how the sectoral or regional pattern of economic change is likely to affect aggregate poverty. It uses basic techniques such as tables and graphs. For example, regional poverty comparisons are important for targeting development programs to poorer areas. A study of poverty in Cambodia showed that headcount poverty rates were highest in the rural sector and lowest in Phnom Penh in 1999

Poverty Monitoring and Evaluation A poverty monitoring and evaluation system is required to determine whether a countrys overall poverty reduction strategy, and its main components, is effective. Poverty Monitoring Challenges The first challenge in monitoring progress toward poverty reduction is to: • Identify the goals that the strategy is designed to achieve, such as eradicate hunger or halve poverty within a decade. • Select the key indicators that measure progress toward the goals for example the proportion of individuals consuming less than 2,100 Calories per day, or the proportion of households living on less than a dollar a day. • Set targets, which quantify the level of the indicators that are to be achieved by a given date, for example reduce by half the number of households living on less than a dollar a day by the year 2030

Poverty and Environment What is the Environment? The term environment’ used narrowly refers to green issues concerned with nature such as pollution control, biodiversity and climate change. Use more broadly, it includes issues such as drinking water and sanitation provision (often known as the brown agenda). Neefjes (2000, p. 2) uses the term in a broad sense, referring to the environment as a vehicle for analyzing and describing relationships between people and their surroundings, now and in the future. What is the linkage between Poverty and Environment? The simplistic cyclical relationship between environment and poverty is where poverty causes environmental destruction and this causes poverty.

What is environment? The surrounding. It is a complex of many factors that interact not only with the organism but also among themselves. The physical-chemical and biological components of the environment are of great importance to an ecologist.