Research Design, Methodology, and Data Collection

The chapter justifies the use of an exploratory research design and data source (madrassas) to answer the two research questions. It outlines an original household survey and a semi-structured interviews data collection approach based on MPI adopted for the study to recognize households facing uncertainties who are recipients of informal social protection. The methodology is unique because it captures the features of poor and vulnerable populations and institutional arrangements responsible for welfare outcomes in Pakistan. The approach also facilitated documentation of the characteristics of middle- and high-income households because, in some cases, middle- and high-income families send their children to madrassas to attain religious education. However, such families are not dependent on madrassa welfare. The necessary ethics approval was obtained from the university because the study involved vulnerable human subjects. The chapter provides a detailed explanation of the management of the ethical concerns related to the study, which helped ensure data quality. Such strategies can be valuable in ensuring the quality of data collection concerning similar situations elsewhere. Lastly, in its annexures, the chapter furnishes the participation information sheet, survey instrument and semi-structured interview questions delivered to households and madrassa heads in English and the local language.