Closing Speech at Sub regional technical workshop on work statistics (19th ICLS Resolution) and labour migration statistics for the Pacific Islands Countries

Speech by the Director ILO Office for the Pacific Island Countries, Mr. David Lamotte

Statement | Nadi, Fiji | 01 August 2014

INTRODUCTION

Representative of UNESCAP and Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), representative of SPC, representatives from UN Statistics Division from New York, ILO colleagues from the Pacific Office, Regional Office and Geneva Office, ILO migration consultant and participants from the Pacific.  I am pleased to join you this afternoon for the closing of this important workshop. I hope what you have covered over the last few days has put you in a better position to be able to understand most of the new concepts of labour statistics and identify how it best fits into your country context.

In 2011, the ILO and SPC held a similar technical workshop in Noumea, where I was personally present, and I also understand there are four participants here that attended the Noumea training. Although it did not cover migration statistics, the training paved the way for the collection and analysis of labour statistics in some of the pacific countries. For example, the 2012 Labour Force Survey and School to Work Transition Survey in Samoa through ILO technical support, the ILO supported and SPC lead testing of the pacific Labour Force Survey (LFS) module in Marshall Islands, and later the inclusion of the pacific LFS module in the Household Income & Expenditure Survey (HIES) of Solomon Islands, FSM, Nauru and currently in Palau and finally the collation of challenges and issues of the PIC’s.

These I think are some good practical examples of post workshop activities, and I hope that we can also effectively implement most of your recommendations after this technical workshop.

KEY ISSUES TO HIGHLIGHT

(a) 19th ICLS Resolution
This week, you have been informed of the new Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment, unemployment and labour underutilization, that revised the existing international standards used by countries to produce their statistics on employment and unemployment.

Major changes in the new resolution include a conceptual framework to promote coherent measurement of all paid and unpaid work, a more refined measure of employment as work performed for pay or profit, separate concepts, definitions and indicators of participation in other forms of work, in particular own-use production work, unpaid trainee work and volunteer work, as well as broader measures of labour underutilization that complement the unemployment rate.

The Resolution is also meant to contribute to strengthening the knowledge base of the world of work in order to provide policy makers with better labour market information, reflecting the current broadened labour market realities.
Therefore, the ILO and our partners thought it would be imperative to organise this technical workshop to inform you of implications and impact of this new standard, in terms of the collation and analysis of labour statistics in your countries.

The training shall also contribute to the implementation of the Ten Year Pacific Statistical Strategy (TYPSS) 2010-2020, whose implementation is coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). Labour statistics and LMIA are important components in the TYPSS 2010-2020; they are also part of the core set of statistics for the PICs, as well as part of the National Minimum Development Indicators being supported by SPC.
Therefore, I encourage you to take back with you the learnings from this week, including the concepts of the new standards and instigate a process of how you can, at national level, adopt or tailor the minimum requirements stipulated in the new standards.

(b) Labour migration data collection
One of the main recommendations of the 19th ICLS Resolution is for ILO to further conduct conceptual and methodological work such as measuring labour migration. Resolution IV of the 19th ICLS (Resolution concerning further work on labour migration statistics) calls on the ILO to spearhead the development of international standards on labour migration statistics, and to prepare a report for discussions in the next ICLS.
The ILO has started piloting the measurement of labour migration in a number of countries worldwide and in Asia, and in partnership with UNESCAP will soon be providing assistance to Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru.

I am glad that the last two days of this workshop focussed specifically on migration, because for many of our small island states, labour migration is a critical issue, and a key opportunity for development. While the creation of decent work at home is always a priority for the ILO, it is undeniable that in some countries, it will be impossible to meet this goal for all jobseekers. While labour migration cannot alone solve the issue of unemployment, it can make a significant contribution to its alleviation, not only through the jobs abroad, but also the jobs at home that the transfer of remittances, knowledge and support can create.

Therefore, and particularly for those countries covered under this project, I encourage you to review the systems of collection of migration data, identify gaps and work with the ILO to strengthen the national collection and analysis mechanisms for better quality labour migration statistics.

(c) Evidence based national employment policies
A number of countries in the Pacific have requested ILO technical assistance in developing their National Employment Policies. These include Fiji, Samoa and PNG. I am sure you understand that quality labour statistics is critical to inform your national employment policies and programmes. I am also sure that you will agree with me that there are some real gaps, which needs to be addressed if we are to have an evidenced based, which means statistically supported, national employment policy that will result in real changes to the lives of your people.

Hence, we need to identify if we currently have reliable and timely labour statistics, and if the answer is yes, then, are we using it?
If the answer is no, then what are we doing to ensure that regular labour related surveys are conducted in our countries to support policy and programme development to address decent work.

I also understand that there has been new information for some countries during the week, in terms of the availability of certain types of statistics that has been collected and available in country that would be useful in their work. Communication and promotion of labour statistics is also critical. For example, the National Statistics Office (NSO), needs to communicate with the Ministry of Labour in terms of the surveys conducted and to be conducted. The Ministry of labour needs to communicate and share with the NSO their administrative data.

Therefore I urge PICs countries to improve the use of information from surveys to inform the development of their national employment policy.
I also encourage participants to start a process of dialogue, particularly between the Ministries of Labour and Bureau’s of Statistics to share administrative data and recent and new survey results to build a strong statistical foundation for the development of their National Employment Policies.

The above is particularly urgent for Fiji and Samoa that have data from recent labour force surveys or employment and unemployment surveys.
I also encourage you to ensure that there is a proper follow-up on the recommendations you have drafted today. ILO will continue to provide you with our technical support in this process.


CONCLUSION

I take this opportunity to thank all the resource persons from the ILO, UNESCAP, SIAP, UN Statistics, SPC and consultants who have made contributions to this workshop through putting together resources and facilitating sessions.
My colleagues from ILO HQ, Regional Office and Pacific Office for the technical contributions, program and logistical arrangements to ensure that this technical workshop is successful.
To the participants from countries who have had their flights re-arranged due to issues out of ILO control, thank you for your understanding and patience.
Finally, I wish everyone safe travels back to your countries and ministries.
Thank you.