Regional training and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing event:
Strengthening labour migration statistics for countries in the East and Horn of Africa
Overview of the Training:
This training on labour migration statistics is organized to address the growing need for reliable data to inform policy-making in the context of labour migration, especially in the East and Horn of Africa (EHoA) region. With rising populations, unemployment, and complex migration flows in the region, labour migration has become a critical component of socio-economic development. However, despite its significance, there remains a substantial gap in the availability of comprehensive, accurate, and comparable labour migration data across the region.
The workshop, scheduled from 21 to 25 October 2024 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the ILO Better Regional Migration Management (BRMM) programme, seeks to strengthen the capacity of national statistical offices and relevant stakeholders. Participants will be equipped with international standards, methodologies, and best practices for collecting and analyzing labour migration statistics, enhancing the ability of countries to formulate evidence-based policies and improve the management of labour migration.
Through peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and technical discussions, the training will address the current data gaps and inconsistencies in labour migration statistics within the EHoA region, promote regional cooperation, and standardize data collection methods to ensure greater comparability across countries. These efforts will ultimately support more effective and inclusive labour market, social, and migration policies that benefit both migrant workers and host countries.
Expected Outputs
By the end of the training, the participants are expected to:
o Gain enhanced technical skills and knowledge in aligning national labour migration statistics with international standards, specifically the guidelines from the 20th and 21st International Conferences of Labour Statisticians (ICLS).
o Improve the quality, reliability, and consistency of labour migration statistics by adopting standardized methodologies and best practices discussed during the workshop.
o Promote enhanced regional cooperation and peer-to-peer learning among EHoA countries and AU and regional economic member states (IGAD and EAC), facilitating harmonized data collection and reporting practices.
o Develop national strategies and action plans to address data gaps and improve the production and dissemination of labour migration statistics within their respective countries.
Topics to be covered
The training will cover a range of relevant topics broadly highlighted below:
1. Update on the guidelines on international Labour Migration statistics from the 20th and 21st ICLS
2. Presentation of the ILO Guides on Labour Migration
• General Guide on Labour Migration Statistics
• Mapping and assessing national data sources of statistics on international labour migration
• Analysis of population census data on international labour
3. Dissemination of information on International Labour Migration, the case of a Labour Market Information System at the National Level.
4. Sharing of country experiences in the different aspects of the statistical production value chain.
• Collation and use of administrative records: the experience of the Ministry of Labour
• Analysis of data from household surveys e.g. the Labour Force and Migration survey
• Analysis of Labour migration from data in a population census
• Analysis of Labour migration data from an Establishment survey
• Analysis of labour migration from Censuses
5. Developing a strategy for improving production of labour migration statistics in the EHoA region, which eventually can be customised to the individual countries.