Transcript 8th Meeting of the SPECA Project Working Group on Statistics (PWGS) 13 June 2013, Geneva, Switzerland ECONOMICALLY ILO statistical capacity building programme And activities in SPECA ACTIVE POPULATION: EMPLOYMENT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UNDEREMPLOYMENT Rafael Diez.

8th Meeting of the SPECA Project Working Group
on Statistics (PWGS)
13 June 2013, Geneva, Switzerland
ECONOMICALLY
ILO statistical capacity
building programme
And activities
in SPECA
ACTIVE
POPULATION:
EMPLOYMENT,
UNEMPLOYMENT,
UNDEREMPLOYMENT
Rafael Diez de Medina
Chief Statistician
Director
ILO Department of Statistics
[email protected]
International
Labour Office
ILO statistical capacity building programme
Capacity building through technical assistance has been one of
the Department of Statistics’ three major areas of activity:
(i) standard setting;
(ii) data collection and dissemination;
(iii) capacity building.
Activities coming under the heading of technical assistance are
undertaken from the ILO headquarters as well as the ILO field
offices and are geared towards enhancing and reinforcing the
statistical infrastructure of central statistical offices, labour
ministries and employers’ and workers’ organizations of the ILO
member States.
ILO statistical capacity building programme
Recent technical assistance has concentrated mainly on the
following priority areas identified by member countries:
(i) preparation for and refinement of labour-force surveys and
surveys of household income and expenditure;
(ii) collection of wage and labour-cost statistics, statistics on
migrant workers;
(iii) development of national classifications of occupations based on
ISCO-08;
(iv) measurement of employment in the informal sector;
(v) compilation of labour statistics using administrative records;
(vi) improvement in and development of labour-market information
systems;
(vii) development of statistics on occupational injuries;
(viii)revision of consumer price indices; and
(ix) collection of child labour statistics.
ILO statistical capacity building programme
Technical assistance activities have been carried out mainly
through:
(a) technical advisory missions to countries, upon their request;
(b) national and international seminars and workshops;
(c) backstopping of donor-funded labour statistics projects;
(d) training courses in labour statistics; and
(e) dissemination of ILO recommendations on labour statistics,
manuals, training materials and other technical documents.
International training programme
The ILO continued to support national statistical offices and
Ministries of Labour to better measure, collect, analyse and
disseminate statistics through numerous training activities.
Thus, beginning 2010, the Department of Statistics along with the
ILO International Training Centre (ITC) in Turin (Italy) has put in
place a regular annual training programme on labour force
surveys and other data sources, and labour data analysis.
Besides, it participated in the Masters programme in Applied
Labour Economics for Development (MALED), which is run at the
ITC-ILO as a Master of Science programme jointly by the Faculty
of Economics of the University of Turin and as an Executive
Master’s by the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.
International training programme
Training on decent work and labour statistics, informality, child
labour, wages and hours, establishment surveys and MDG
indicators, Consumer Price Index and ISCO-08, among other
topics was carried out in the last three years, sometimes in
partnership with other international organizations.
Training workshops and technical assistance activities on
measuring decent work (concepts and definitions, data
collection, data processing and tabulation, data analysis) have
been provided by the Department of Statistics with the supports
of the MAP project and the project on Strengthening the
capacity to devise and analyse decent work indicators, known
as RECAP project
International training programme
Since its inception in 2010, the programme is conducted in
connexion with another ITC-ILO training programme, namely
“Data Collection, Analysis and Measurement of Decent Work
Indicators”, whose component on Labour Force Surveys is
designed and carried out by the Department.
The Department has also contributed a number of times with its
expertise to the ITC programme regarding International Labour
Migration and Statistics to provide information on the issues
and problems involved in measuring and analysing the
phenomenon, ranging from the highly technical, statistical
perspective to a more general overview for non- statisticians.
Technical assistance: advisory missions
Between 2009-2013, the ILO carried out technical advisory
missions to the following countries:
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Azerbaijan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Mongolia
Russian Federation
Tajikistan
Some of the countries, due to the complexity of tasks, have been
visited more than once.
Also, recurrent advisory missions have been carried out to
Moldova and Ukraine – the CIS member-countries.
Country-specific support: Azerbaijan
The Department of Statistics has a long history of technical assistance to
Azerbaijan, which started back in 1993.
The most prominent output of the above is the first LFS conducted in 2003,
followed by a Child Labour Survey.
In 2012, the Department’s Senior International Consultant carried out a
comprehensive advisory mission to the AzSTAT and the Ministry of Labour
with the objective to:
 Study and analyse the existent LFS materials and situation in the country
 Develop a comprehensive work plan and concrete tasks for the constituents and
social partners in Azerbaijan.
 Elaborate substantial comments on the LFS Questionnaire and review relevant
instruments and to re-draft the LFS Questionnaire.
Country-specific support: Kazakhstan
The Department of Statistics also has a long history of
technical assistance to Kazakhstan, which started back in
1995.
The most prominent output of the above is recurrent technical
assistance in:
 Developing and testing a comprehensive module on
measuring employment in the informal economy;
 Training and assistance in developing and testing an LFSbased module on measuring decent work.
Country-specific support: Kyrgyzstan
The Department of Statistics also has been largely involved in a
number of technical activities in Kyrgyzstan: training of national
specialists; revision of the EAP module of the Integrated Household
Budget and Labour Force Survey.
The most recent technical assistance was provide in the:
 Revision of the available labour market statistics and their sources
to be used for the production of the DW indicators (2011).
 Assistance in the computation of the DWIs and preparation of
relevant tables for a DW Profile of Kyrgyzstan (June 2013).
In fact, this week our Senior Consultant is in Bishkek on the above
advisory mission.
Country-specific support: Mongolia
On request of the Chairman of Statistics Mongolia, a Senior Statistician
of the Department of Statistics carried out, in September 2011, the first
advisory mission from ILO Geneva with the objective to:
i.
ii.
Review the sources of data collection/data collection tools and
classifications used.
Discuss the problems, needs and challenges of the National
Statistical Office in the aria of labour statistics.
Based on the emission findings and further request, a follow-up highly
technical advisory mission was carried out in December 2011 to
compare and reconcile the 2010 Population Census results and the
2010 LFS estimates.
The major objective of the above mission was to help Statistics
Mongolia to prove the robustness of the LFS vis-à-vis the Prime
Minister’s Office.
Country-specific support: Tajikistan
The Department of Statistics began providing its technical assistance
to Tajikistan during the dire times the country went through - during
the Civil War. At that time already the Ministry of Labour and the
State Statistical Committee were looking ahead and wanted to know
how many jobs the country would need to rebuild the daily life of its
citizens and its economy.
The most recent technical assistance to Tajikistan provided by the
ILO dates 2012-2013 and covers the following areas:
1. A detailed review of the present system of labour statistics system
in RT. The mission resulted in the preparation of a comprehensive
paper entitled: Improvement and Development of a Labour Market
Information System: A Road map for the Republic of Tajikistan.
Country-specific support: Tajikistan
Cnt’d
2. To study and discuss a possible long-term support action plan to
develop the basic labour statistics system of RT.
3.Pprovide training for senior data producers and data users of RT
in:
 The economic meaning of “a job” and its statistical measurement.
 How to understand and apply the DW indicators for analytical
purposes.
4. Participate in the launching event of the UNECE Global
Assessment of the Statistical System of Tajikistan and make a
comprehensive ILO presentation on the labour market statistics in
Tajikistan and urgent need in capacity building.
Country-specific support: Turkmenistan
ILO was one the first international agencies which came to
Turkmenistan with the fact-finding mission as far back as 1993 to
review the labour statistics system. A number of concrete
recommendations were made at that time.
The second IO mission was carried out in 2003 to review the wage
collection tools. Again a comprehensive set of recommendations
were made.
We would definitely like to continue our cooperation with that country
and are ready to provide any advice needed.
Country-specific support: Uzbekistan
The fact-finding mission to Uzbekistan was undertaken in 1995 and
concrete recommendations were made.
One of the recommendations was to begin the preparation for a
national Labour Force Survey.
In 1997, the ILO carried out the second advisory mission to assist in
drafting an LFS Questionnaire. We understand that our
recommendations were fruitfully used.
Possible way forward
In our view, the most advanced country among the SPECA countries
in terms of labour statistics is Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan has also been
doing quite well. However, the 2012 mission showed further work is
need to improve the Azerbaijan LFS as well as its establishment
survey to better capture labour cost.
Given the current situation, we suggest the following:
To undertake programming missions to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan. Based on the findings, the ILO will have a better
understanding of their labour statistics systems and be able to make
a consolidated proposal of the follow-up capacity building
programme for all SPECA countries.
Possible way forward
Currently, as we see it, the ILO capacity building programme can
consists of the following components:
1. Training in selected areas of labour statistics.
2. Harmonisation of the LFS tools based on the eventual
recommendations of the forthcoming 19th ICLS.
3. Upgrading of the existing National Classification of Occupations
and National Classifications of Status in Employment on their
latest international versions.
4. Measurement of employment in the informal economy
(employment in the informal sector and informal employment).
Possible way forward
-Support to data compilation on key variables on labour and decent
work statistics (ILOSTAT)
-Establishment of harmonised data warehouses on labour statistics
which will be comparable internationally