Annex | Methodology The uncertainty surrounding the BRI’s aim, impacts, and what constitutes a project necessitates on-the-ground research. While academic scholarship on the BRI has been improving as the BRI itself matures, our preliminary research found that much writing on the BRI’s impact is speculative and based on the headline figures and lofty aims associated with the project rather than the actual impacts of existing projects. The following annex outlines our methods and includes our field research questionnaires.
Instruments of Analysis The following questionnaires were developed to meet the needs of the scope of project outlined by the State Department at the conception of the project. Examples of all of these are included below.
Expert Interview Questionnaire
The research team created an expert questionnaire which served as question bank for interviews with stakeholders across sectors during the in-country meetings. These questionnaires were intended to guide discussions and prevent gaps in information collection. The questions were broken into sections based on topic-area so that questions could be tailored to respondent expertise. There are three main categories of questions: Economics, Politics, and Think Tanks/Journalists. The Economics section is further divided into two categories, one focused on debt sustainability and fiscal outlook and the other on infrastructure investments.
Project Site Questionnaire
Project site questionnaires allowed for greater standardization of the information collected from varied locations. Specifically, the research team aimed to collect specific information pertaining to the following categories of BRI impact central to our research question: 1. Environmental, Social, and Governance Standards: This section included questions surrounding environmental impact assessments, impact on local communities, pollution and ecosystem impact, and mitigation efforts toward adverse effects. 2. Labor and Human Rights Standards: This section included questions on community agency, local labor law compliance, and efforts made to ensure human rights standards are upheld at project sites.
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