Eastern Zone DCSA

the themes under investigation. The aim was to go deeper into the
subject areas and cross-validate the issues raised in the FGDs.
The interviews were conducted from 14th to 24th March 2014 at
the respective offices of the interviewees, Ramaada hotel and OCVP
offices in Mogadishu. Each interview lasted for about half an hour,
although some interviews with the local authorities were shortened
due to their busy schedules. Eleven key informants were
interviewed, including: District Commissioner, Deputy District
Commissioner, District Administration Secretary, District Court
Commissioner, Religious Leaders, Key Business Persons, Traditional
Elders, Regional Court Chairperson, District Police Commissioner
and Legal Expert.
The local organiser assisted in the scheduling of the interviews
which were conducted by OCVP researchers beginning with
questions that were tailored to the interviewee and then generally
cut-across the thematic areas of governance, justice, security and
conflict and violence. Police officers declined to be interviewed.
1.6. Limitations
Collecting data from conflict-zones is problematic, and collecting
data from Mogadishu was no different despite it being in a nascent,
albeit fragile, post-conflict stage of recovery. There were numerous
limitations and challenges faced during the data collection with a
general misgiving and distrust of any data collection reflected in the
participants.
Below are the most notable limitations that could affect the value of
the findings.
Sample Size
With the lack of accurate population statistics, it was difficult to
calculate a representative sample size for each zone with the use of
conventional sampling formulas. To manage this, OCVP employed a
sample size formula that is not heavily dependent on accurate
population statistics and leant on the data provided by HIPS.
Secondly, it was difficult to spread the required number of
questionnaires according to the different possible sampling
locations. This in turn could possibly have compromised the
representativeness of the data, and despite mitigating measures to
address this being limited the OCVP tried to ensure data was as
geographically representative as possible.
Quantitative limitations
A representative sample size of 483 households was calculated for
the eastern zone, of this sample the research team managed to
collect 380 household surveys in the zone. The initial plan was to
collect data from all 4 pre-identified districts of the zone but 2
districts were affected by a volatile security situation: Yakshiid
District was partially affected while Heliwaa District was entirely
inaccessible to the data enumerators.
Yakshiid district consists of 6 smaller subdivisions and it is one of the
largest and most recently liberated districts of Mogadishu, secondly,
it borders with Dayniile which still contains some active insurgent
elements. District administration authorities advised that at least 3
out of 6 subdivisions of the district (Tawkal, Towfiiq and 1 da Luulyo) -
neighbouring with Jidka Warshadaha - were also very volatile.
Consequently researchers did not enter the subdivisions and 19
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