2.8: Data Analysis Data was analyzed using hermeneutical phenomenology research approach to data analysis. This approach involves dynamic interplay among six research activities when analyzing data. These are: Researchers first turn to a phenomenon, an"abiding concern", which seriously interests them (our interest was understanding the impacts of Covid-19 on informal economy workers in rural and urban areas of Zambia and its implications for social protection). In the process, they reflect on essential themes, what constitutes the nature of this lived experience. The main themes that we focused on throughout the whole study were:(1) Impacts of Covid-19 on informal economy workers in rural and urban Zambia;(2) Categories of informal sector workers that are worst affected by the Covid-19 in rural and urban Zambia and the underlying reasons for that;(3) Gender impacts of Covid-19 on informal economy workers in rural and urban Zambia;(4) Social Protection Needs;(5) forms of emergency Covid-19 social protection that informal economy workers were receiving from the Government of Zambia;(6) Evaluation of emergency response social protection stimulus packages;(7) Policy Recommendations to the Government of Zambia and other Development partners on how to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19, and(8) Policy insights on how to build comprehensive and sustainable social protection for informal economy workers. They write a description of the phenomenon, maintaining a strong relation to the topic of inquiry and balancing the parts of the writing to the whole. In this study we have presented the findings of the study by looking at each of the above themes in relation to the topic under investigation. This has resulted in having broad picture of the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on different categories of informal economy workers in rural and urban Zambia and the implications for social protection. Phenomenology is not only a description, but it is also seen as an interpretive process in which the researcher makes an interpretation(i.e., the researcher"mediates" between different meanings; van Manen, 1990: 26) of the meaning of the lived experiences(van Manen, 1990: 177; Creswell, 2003). In this study we have interpreted the findings of the study using the concepts of power and relationships. This is because every response provided by the research participants seemed to revolve around the scientific concepts of power and relationship. The data was also interpreted in relation to ecological theory which was used as conceptual framework We started data analysis immediately after the first interview and continued throughout the entire data collection process(Kinsel 2004). We thought that taking this approach would enable us to gain immediate descriptions and understandings of meanings of the data, and where 39