ILO and UNECA sign a new MoU to support labour statistics in Africa

ADDIS ABABA (ILO News) – The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a four-year Joint Action Plan on strengthening sustainable labour statistics in youth employment, social protection, labour migration and economic and social fragilities in Africa.

Under the 2016-2019 Cooperation Agreement, the ILO and the UNECA will identify a core set of statistics to drive regular data collection, assess the current situation in African countries and associate other major stakeholders, including the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The Parties will also jointly advocate for countries to undertake regular annual production of labour statistics through population censuses and labour force surveys.

The ILO and the UNECA will assist African Member States to provide timely, relevant, credible and internationally comparable labour statistics while improving data analysis to feed into labour market information systems.

The 2016-2019 MoU aims also at strengthening capacities of data producers, providers and users of labour and employment statistics for evidence-based policy making.

The goal of this strategic partnership is to enhance national capacities of African countries in data collection and analysis on youth employment, social protection and labour migration in order to make informed policy formulation and implementation.

Commending the new cooperation arrangement, the ILO Regional Director for Africa, Aeneas Chuma, underscored the role of the ILO, through its Department of Statistics, in providing reliable labour statistics, develop international standards for better measurement of labour issues and to help African Member States to develop and improve their labour statistics.

In signing the MoU, both parties also highlighted the importance of data and statistical information for national and global development agenda. The ILO and the UNECA also stressed the need for strengthening the production and use of quality statistics for monitoring and evaluation of progress towards achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

For further information please contact: Yacouba Diallo, Senior Statistician, ILO Regional Office for Africa: [email protected]