Interviews

Attempts to measure the impact of the Hands Off intervention on changes in the level of experienced violence and the number of new HIV infections in sex work communities will also require an understanding of where this impact is most effective, in which groups (police, community, sex workers themselves) and why this is the case. Quantitative data alone is not able to answer these questions sufficiently, therefore a key part of the research was semi-structured interviews with sex workers in each of the four countries. Given the scope of the research and budget, we envision that each year, we will undertake a minimum of 30 interviews in each country in each data collection year (2022 and 2025).

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In each country, the research co-ordinator identified and recruited the participants who took part in the qualitative interviews. Since these are designed to better understand the relationships between the Hands Off programme, violence, sex workers and HIV prevention, these participants will all be sex workers who have taken part in the Hands Off activities. The research co-ordinator contacted potential participants, explained the study to them and provided them with information about what will be required in the interview. If sex workers agreed to participate, the research co-ordinator then connected them with local researcher, who arranged a time to meet at their convenience. The local researcher ensured informed consent at the time of interview, in order to ensure that the participants understood the risks and benefits and nature of their involvement in the project. 

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To be included in the interview process, participants must self-identify as currently working as a sex worker of any gender, and must have participated in at least one intervention from the Hands Off II Programme in the last 12 months. Exclusion criteria includes being under 18 or not consenting to the interview.