Hammamet, Tunisia - May 24, 2023 - The Specialized Technical Group (STG) of SHaSA 2 on Employment and Informal Economy, held its first 2023 meeting in Hammamet, Tunisia from May 22nd to 24th. The meeting was organized by the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC), in partnership with the International Labour Organization, and the financial support of the World Bank.
The three-day event brought together representatives from African Union (AU) Member States, international organizations, and independent consultants to discuss key topics related to labor statistics and the informal economy.
Representatives from 21 AU Member States, including Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, along with representatives from AUC, STATAFRIC, and Regional Economic Communities, such as AMU and EAC, participated in the meeting. The event also welcomed representatives from international organizations and independent consultants, including ILO, AfDB, AFRISTAT, and INSEE.
The objectives of the meeting were to discuss updates on various technical instruments of Labor Market Information System - Harmonized Concepts and Definitions (LMIS-HCF) based on the 19th and 20th International Conference of Labor Statisticians (ICLS) in 2013 and 2018. The participants also discussed the roadmap for the development of Guidelines on Labor Statistics in Africa, the production of the 4th Edition of the Labor Migration Statistics Report, and shared best practices and experiences on labor statistics and the informal economy in AU Member States.
Several presentations were made and discussed during the meeting, covering topics such as work statistics resolutions, country experiences on the implementation of the 19th and 20th ICLS resolutions, AU guidelines on LMIS, ILO approaches to LMIS, labor migration data collection through household surveys, international standards on the informal economy, and more.
After extensive discussions, the STG made several recommendations for the next steps :
- Request STATAFRIC and ILO to organise capacity building workshops on 19th and 20th ICLS Resolutions for AU Member States
- Call AUC to fastrack the harmonization process of concepts, definitions, tools, and methodologies for producing labour statistics in Africa to ease comparability amongst countries and RECs
- Request AUC to support AU Member States in strengthening the coordination, collaboration, data sharing and communication of labour statistics at national, regional, continental and international level
- Request STATAFRIC and ILO to advocate AU Member States to implement the ICLS resolutions and conducting on regular basis Labour Force Surveys (LFS) and allocate more resources for production of labour statistics
- Request STATAFRIC to make an assessment on the status of the production of Labour Statistics within AU Member States taking into consideration key areas of interest before development of the guidelines and tools
- Invite STATAFRIC in collaboration with ILO, AfDB, UNECA and RECs to develop as soon as possible a comprehensive Guidelines and tools for Labour Statistics in Africa
- Request AU Member States to actively participate in the forthcoming 21st ICLS that will take place from 11th to 20th October 2023, in Geneva and request STATAFRIC, AfDB and ILO to mobilise financial resources to facilitate the participation of AU Member States
- Request STATAFRIC and ILO to prepare a handbook of best practices of Labour Market Information System and also provide technical assistance to AU Member States in setting up well functioning LMIS
- Request AUC and ILO to organise a capacity building Workshops on Labour Market Information System
- AUC in collaboration with partners to develop an implementation plan for establishing Integrated labour market information systems in Africa
- Request STATAFRIC and ILO to develop Data Quality Assessment Framework for Labour Statistics
- Request STATAFRIC and ILO to support AU Member States to produce social protection statistics with the aim to support policy development, monitoring and evaluation and dissemination of social protection and informal economy statistics in Africa.
- AUC and ILO to provide a handbook to guide on the change of resolutions to support Member States in understanding areas of interest and major reasons.
- African Union Member States are urged to provide their data by 30th of June 2023 to produce the 4th edition of the labour migration statistics report
- Call STATAFRIC and ILO to support A Member States to establish a national coordination mechanism on LMIS
The presentations delivered during the three-day meeting can be downloaded from this link.
For more informations, please contact Mr Samson Bel-Aube Nougbodohoue : bel-auben@africa-union.org
African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC)
