Table 1 Phases of the thematic analysis of the qualitative data, Illu Aba Bor Zone Southwest, Ethiopia, 2019

Transcription of data

The audiotape interviews supported by handwritten notes were transcribed verbatim.

Familiarization with the data

Familiarization with the whole interview was made by listening to the audio recording and/or reading the transcripts and contextual or reflective notes that were recorded.

Generating initial codes

The transcripts were read carefully line by line applying a paraphrase or label (a code) to describe what has been interpreted in the passage as important.

Searching for themes

DTs reviewed and grouped codes according to the similarity of the topic and started to form potential themes. Theme names that captured all codes included within the theme were developed.

Reviewing themes

The themes were checked with the coded data extracts and assessed in terms of how well they represented the entire data set.

Defining and naming themes

The names and definitions of each theme were refined and a short description of each theme was developed by the principal investigator.

Producing report

A full report of the analysis was written by DTs with the use of the most appropriate extracts and relating to the original research question. The report was read and reviewed by all authors.