8th Meeting of the SPECA Project Working Group on Statistics (PWGS) 13 June 2013, Geneva, Switzerland ECONOMICALLY ACTIVE POPULATION: EMPLOYMENT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UNDEREMPLOYMENT International Labour Office ILO statistical capacity building programme And activities in SPECA Rafael Diez de Medina Chief Statistician Director ILO Department of Statistics

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. ILO statistical capacity building programme

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 , the ILO carried out technical advisory missions to the following countries: 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 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 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 LFS- based 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.Review the sources of data collection/data collection tools and classifications used. ii.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 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 19 th 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