Research Methods

This report is the result of two weeks of intensive data collection in March 2022. Our researchers engaged in qualitative methods — through a series of focus group discussions and one-onone interviews — employing narrative inquiry as an approach to better understand the dynamic lived experiences of research participants.

Participant Demographics

Our researchers spoke with approximately 150 participants throughout the duration of the research. The majority of focus group and one-on-one interview participants were conducted with Islamic Relief rights-holders — predominantly widows and orphans.

Why did we prioritize female participants?

In any disaster or humanitarian emergency, it is women and girls who often suffer disproportionately in crises due to preexisting vulnerabilities stemming from socioeconomic inequalities. Climate-induced disasters are no exception.

As Alok Sharma, President of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), stated, “Gender and climate are profoundly intertwined.

The impact of climate change [affects] women and girls disproportionately.”4

In fact, more than 80% of people displaced by climate change are women and girls.5 During the 2010 flooding in Pakistan, more than 70% of those displaced were women and children. Furthermore, cultural divisions of labour translate into an overrepresentation of women in agricultural, livestock and fishing sectors – industries that are extremely susceptible to the impact of climate change.

Seeking to better understand the ways in which women and girls are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, Islamic Relief researchers identified women as the key target demographic for this study. Since Islamic Relief’s researchers were two women – one Urdu-speaking and one English-speaking – this provided a more comfortable and secure dynamic where participants and researchers were able to converse with ease.