ILO Initiative to develop rural labour statistics for rural development and decent work

The ILO Rural Labour Statistics Collection on ILOSTAT, which includes indicators for women and men in rural areas, helps to describe and understand the types of work performed in both farm and non-farm jobs and their rural labour-related characteristics. In 2010 the Department of STATISTICS, which is responsible to compile and disseminate the full range of labour statistics produced in ILO member States, began an examination of international repositories of official labour statistics covering rural and urban areas, for the availability of data and definitions. As a result of this ILO Rural Initiative and more extensive data collection under the ILO’s area of critical importance (ACI) on the promotion of decent work in the rural economy, the statistical activities completed to date are:

• In-depth inventory of current definitions of rural/urban used at the national level
• List of best practices used by international organizations in defining rural/urban areas
• Review of best practice methodologies for imputing & harmonising data in cross-country datasets
• Proposed methodology for obtaining global/regional employment, unemployment and labour force estimates by rural/urban breakdowns (NOTE: Given findings regarding important differences in definitions of rural/urban across countries, ILO does not intend to implement the methodology at this time.)
• A set of statistical variables and key decent work indicators disaggregated by rural/urban (and other dimensions to the extent possible, such as gender and/or age) for over 100 countries.

Documented rural labour statistics are a requisite tool to support national development plans to ensure that economies (both developing and industrialised) progress in a sound, more geographically balanced manner.

Beyond the agricultural sector, rural labour statistics cover more than the conventional presentation by sector of economic activity, which distinguishes agricultural activities from other activities. The agricultural sector has long served as an approximation for rural labour. However, labour statistics that cover all types of work activities, including agriculture, according to their urban or rural location better help to assess the full contribution of rural areas and rural workers to national development. They also better reflect the rural dimensions needed for decent work, and can lead to improving rural labour markets and the lives of rural workers. Some challenges for producing rural labour statistics that have emerged regard the need to define the concept of “rural” for statistical purposes. This is to ensure that countries collect relevant data, and that rural labour statistics become mainstreamed and comparable.

The ACI on the promotion of decent work in the rural economy aims at providing decent work for all towards sustainable, inclusive and thriving rural economies. Rural Decent Work, helping to ensure the spread of Decent Work to rural areas and rural workers, relies on rural labour statistics compiled, produced and analysed regularly. These will help develop the capacity of constituents and other stakeholders to promote full and productive employment and decent work that fosters sustainability and inclusiveness in rural economies and empower rural communities to realize their aspirations. These statistics provide a better foundation to design, implement, monitor and assess rural development programmes - as an integral part of national development plans. Developing and disseminating rural statistics is a necessary step towards a comprehensive “stocktaking of the nature, magnitude and changing patterns of rural employment in the world, with a particular focus on developing countries” as called for by ILO member States and reflected in the ILO's Rural Employment and Decent Work Programme.

Future activities

Develop and build capacity for labour force surveys to disaggregate by rural-urban, through the Department of Statistics’ technical cooperation and training activities. This will assist countries to enhance their capacity to collect relevant rural and urban labour statistics that account for all of the rural specificities to support the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of national policies and programmes for rural development.

Carry on developmental research to define “rural area” for statistical measurement purposes. The different criteria used to classify areas as rural or urban may be based on population, on infrastructural characteristics or other variables. Also, capacity building for a multi-facetted development goes beyond monitoring the concept of rural employment, to monitoring all rural work. The concept of total work includes the production carried out as unpaid household service work and as volunteer work inside the General Boundary of the System of National Accounts, beyond the economic activities measured by the concept of employment.