At the September 2005 World Summit, world leaders committed themselves to achieving four additional targets to the ones included in the Millenium Declaration. They are:

In this edition of the Newsletter we discuss rationale, methodology, data sources and data availability of the new indicators for monitoring the new target on Employment selected by the Interagency Expert Group on MDG indicators.

The new employment target, included under Goal 1, replaces Target 16 under Goal 8, "In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth". This modification expands the concept of decent and productive work to the whole population, regardless of age, while still drawing specific attention to the difficulties experienced in the labour market by women and young people. The new target also introduces the concept of full employment, again extending its coverage to the whole population.

The relocation of the target from Goal 8 to Goal 1 acknowledges the significance of full, decent and productive work as a primary vehicle to reducing extreme poverty and hunger. It also highlights that halving world poverty by 2015 requires a more efficient utilization of labour resources, increasing the share of the working-age population (both male and female) and enhancing, at the same time, the quality and productivity of available jobs.

The formulation of this new target, though, is somewhat unclear. Target 1bis, unlike most of the other targets, does not have a quantitative specification. Moreover, some of the concepts that constitute the essential elements of the new target such as decent and productive employment are difficult to define and measure.

Four indicators have been proposed to monitor this new target:

• employment-to-population ratio;
• growth of labour productivity (i.e. growth rate of GDP per person employed);
• proportion of own account and contributing family workers in total employment, and
• proportion of working poor (i.e. people in employment living below $1/PPP per day).

The International Labour Office (ILO) is the responsible agency for these indicators.

The employment-to-population ratio provides information on the ability of an economy to create employment opportunities for the able and willing to work population. It is defined as the proportion of a country's working-age population that is employed. Its interpretation seems quite straightforward: the higher the employment-to-population ratio, the larger the share of the population that is employed and conversely, the lower the proportion of the population not directly engaged in market-related activities (unemployed or out of the labour force). In general, the indicator conventionally used to monitor the gap between supply and demand for labour is the unemployment rate. However, for many developing countries, especially those with a large share of employment in agriculture, the employment-to-population ratio is often more insightful than the unemployment rate. The reasons are that in these countries the circulation of information on vacancies is far from perfect and labour markets do not function well in matching labour supply and demand: as a consequence unemployment figures are not a good measure of the 'waste' of human resources.

The indicator will be monitored not only for the total population, 15 years and above, but also for the age group 15 to 24 years. This data segmentation represents a compromise between the analytical relevance of detailed analysis of this indicator by age groups and the burden it would place on countries to collect the required information. Although the emphasis is placed on youth employment, the interpretation of the indicator is not clear-cut. In fact, a decrease of the youth employment-to-population ratio may well be seen as positive if it corresponds to an increased participation of this population group in secondary and tertiary education. For the total population, while an increase of the ratio can be interpreted positively, the target's threshold on what the ideal full employment rate is to be achieved remains a problem.

Labour productivity is another element of the new employment target. Growth of labour productivity is one of the factors that determine, in the long term, the rise in per capita income and the improvement in living standards. The interpretation of the evolution over time of the indicator, however, is ambiguous. Productivity growth could be driven by increased quality/quantity in inputs used by workers and not due to higher efficiency of the workers themselves. Estimated labour productivity may also increase if the mix of activities in the economy shifts from activities with low levels of productivity to activities with higher levels, even if none of these activities have become more productive. Moreover, large swings in labour productivity can be driven not by structural factors but by the business cycle since, in general, the labour market reacts relatively slowly to changes in output. In addition, growth in labour productivity is not a sufficient condition for poverty eradication. The benefits of output growth, in fact, could be unevenly shared among the employed thus having little effect on poverty.

Labour productivity is measured by the amount of output per unit of labour input. Output is measured by a country's "value added", whereas labour input, in this case, is represented by the number of person employed. Ideally, one would measure productivity per hour worked, rather than productivity per person, but the underlying information required is rarely available.

Most countries are already producing the underlying data to calculate this indicator through the system of national accounts and labour force surveys. The problem, however, is getting a comparable set of figures across countries, including the transformation of GDP figures to PPP terms. In addition, data gaps in the employment series are common in many developing countries. Some national statistical agencies lack the technical expertise to compile the necessary data. ILO therefore produces annual country estimates, imputing missing values and using all available sources at the international level.

Proportion of working poor (i.e. people with employment living below $1/PPP per day) is one of the indicators selected to measure (in)decent work; a job that does not generate sufficient income to raise the earner above the poverty line is not considered decent work. Obviously, salary is only one component of decent work, as other working conditions, such as number of hours worked, safety and employment protection measures should also be taken into account.

Moreover, this indicator does not measure accurately the share of people that receive an income below $1/PPP per day. Poverty is assessed on the total income of the household not on the individual income from employment. Workers with very low income may still live in a household whose total income is higher than the poverty line if more than one family member is employed. Some of the workers that earn less that $1(PPP) per day, therefore, are not included among the working poor. In addition, due to data limitations, ILO produces working poverty estimates by multiplying the poverty rates by the labour force. This indicator is nothing more than an extrapolation of the poverty rate, based on strong simplifying assumptions^1/. More reliable and robust estimates can be obtained with micro-level data from household surveys where a linkage can be established between the poverty status of the family members and their employment status as well as their individual income from employment.

An additional indicator of "decent" working conditions is the proportion of own account and contributing family workers in total employment. These two categories of workers generally do not benefit from basic social protection measures and are therefore part of informal employment. The majority of contributing family workers are women who do not receive a salary and benefit only marginally from income generated. On the positive side, these are the two main components of self employment and as such testify the entrepreneurial spirit of the working population of a country. Often in developing countries, a higher share of self-employment corresponds to higher employment-to-population ratios. Moreover, even own-account workers can run highly profitable enterprises.

ESCAP has recently received funding from the United Nations Development Account in New York for implementing a project to improve disability measurement and statistics during the biennium 2008-2009. The project will facilitate the use of international statistical standards on disability measurement in census and surveys. It will take into account regional circumstances and promote political commitment and create technical capacity at national level.

ESCAP, the leading agency, will implement the project in close collaboration with a number of partners, including the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Division for Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the Washing Group on Disability Statistics, the World Health Organization (WHO), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the Budapest Initiative on Measurement of Health Status, and selected National Statistical Offices in the region. A project preparatory phase is built into the project, during which a detailed project design and implementation plan will be mapped out with the assistance of a wider group of experts.

Built upon the outcome of the previous EDCAP/WHO disability project conducted in 2004 - 2006, this new project aims to focus its activities and resources on designing standard question sets for surveys, conducting pilot tests and post-pilot test data analyses, which would provide an empirical basis for establishing standard survey protocols for disability data collection. It will combine development of standard measurements for disability data collection through pilot studies and analyses, with in-country advocacy workshops to raise awareness and commitment among a wide range of stakeholders, targeted training of statistical experts and health professionals to improve their technical capacity, country advisory services to support national data collection efforts, and the promotion of country-to-country cooperation and knowledge sharing.

While pilot tests will be carried out in a limited number of project countries, other activities, including regional workshops, training courses and dissemination of knowledge management tools will have the potential to influence a wider group of countries.

Through establishing the network of national experts in the region, the project will promote country-to-country cooperation, especially South-South cooperation, to expand the knowledge base in the region and improve national technical capacity for ICF-based disability data collection. It is expected that the project will act as a catalyst for the adoption of the ICF-based approach for disability data collection in many countries, thereby helping to create a "snowball" effect for the improvement of disability statistics in the region. Please consult the project web site regularly for updates.

For further information:

• http://www.unescap.org/stat/disability/index.asp
• Contact: Ms Haishan Fu, Chief, Statistical Development Section, Statistics Division, ESCAP (stat.unescap@un.org)

The Area-Focused Training Courses in Collection and Analysis of Official Economic Statistics for Central Asian Countries (CAC course) and the Third Group Training Course in Analysis, Interpretation and Dissemination of Official Statistics (AIDOS course) successfully concluded on 14 and 21 September 2007, respectively. Both are among SIAP's 4 major regular training courses conducted jointly with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Chiba, Japan. For two months duration, fellowships for 28 participants were provided by JICA for these courses.

Eight countries from Central Asia namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in the CAC course. The course was designed to strengthen the capacity of economic statistics compilation for countries in transition. Participants learned concepts, definitions and compilation of the System of National Accounts and other macro economic indicators, which are the core information on a market economy. Basic concepts and applications on statistical methods were introduced in addition to imparting knowledge on key components in official statistics, including MDGs. Training on statistical software and ICT were among other important subjects taught in this course. Russian language translations were used throughout the course for the benefit of participants.

The AIDOS course had 20 participants from 18 countries, namely Argentine, Armenia, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkey and Viet Nam. Five participants joined from outside the ESCAP region. Participant criteria was statisticians with significant work experience in their respective NSOs. The participants learned and applied practical applications in official statistics and updated their knowledge on techniques of statistical analysis, interpretation and dissemination, particularly in the area of economic statistics.

Both courses were designed as trainings of trainers, and participants were assisted to formulate Action Plans for follow up programmes to be implemented after returning to their respective countries. Through this arrangement, trainees are expected to share knowledge and skills acquired during the training at SIAP with their peers in the NSOs.

Statistics Division successfully delivered the "Workshop on Informal Employment and Informal Sector Data Collection: Strategy, Tools and Advocacy" in Bangkok between 19 and 21 September, as the first capacity building activity under the Development Account Project "Interregional Cooperation on the Measurement of Informal Sector and Informal Employment". The participants were ESCAP project staff and national accounts and survey statisticians from Mongolia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka; ECLAC project staff and a national accounts statistician from Saint Lucia; ESCWA project staff; and ECA staff involved in the preparation of a handbook on informal sector for African countries.

The objectives of this technical workshop were twofold:

• To enhance participants' understanding of the project objectives, the measurement issues it addresses, and the activities it proposes to undertake to meet the objectives;
• To assist participants in operationalizing the unified data collection strategy in order to improve measurement of the informal sector and informal employment in their specific country contexts.

The Development Account Project developed the unified data collection strategy, which features a '1-2' survey approach for operationalization. In the first phase of the approach, a labour force survey (LFS) is utilized and modified, when needed, with three data collection objectives: constructing a frame of household unincorporated enterprises with at least some market production (HUEMs) by identifying own-account workers and employers operating HUEMs; determining whether employment of an individual is in a HUEM, and determining whether a job is in informal employment. In the second phase of the approach, an enterprise survey with the HUEM as the unit of observation is conducted primarily to collect data on the employment, production and output, costs and expenditures, and capital formation of the enterprise. A secondary objective of this phase would be to provide information on the organization, business practices and environment, and other policy-related concerns. In the unified data collection strategy, the starting point for identifying informal sector (IS) enterprises is identifying HUEMs, as informal sector enterprises are a subset of the latter.

The workshop initially focused on clarifying the objectives of the project and the two-phase unified data collection strategy as it is proposed to be implemented in the ESCAP region. Mongolia discussed how this data collection strategy is being implemented in their case while the Philippines and Sri Lanka presented their respective proposals for adapting this strategy. The first and second phases were discussed at length featuring presentations on measurement objectives, sampling and questionnaire designs by resource people and ESCAP project countries. Finally, sample materials were presented and the ESCAP country proposals were discussed for the national advocacy and dissemination workshops.

The workshop received highly positive evaluations and constituted an important step for the advancement of project implementation in the ESCAP countries. It was also a valuable opportunity to share ESCAP project countries' experiences with the Regional Commissions implementing the Development Account Project and other informal - sector related projects.

For further information on the project please visit: http://www.unescap.org/stat/isie/index.asp

Madrid, Spain, 9 September 2007: To attend the first meeting of the Statistics Cluster of the Executive Committee of Economic and Social Affairs (EC-ESA). The EC-ESA membership comprises UN DESA, the regional commissions, UNCTAD, UNEP, UN-Habitat, UNODC, OHCHR, UNDP and other UN agencies and training institutes. The main items under discussion were: intergovernmental consultation processes; coordination in data collection and dissemination; joint technical cooperation projects; and adoption of the principles governing international statistical activities.

Madrid, Spain, 10-11 September 2007: To represent ESCAP at the tenth session of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA). The agenda of this session included: standards for data imputations practices, modalities of data sharing between International Organizations, and coordination of capacity building activities. Mr Gennari contributed a paper on the use of population estimates in the computation of indicators to the session. Following his suggestion, the CCSA decided to set-up a Task Team that should propose appropriate solutions to the various issues raised: setting standards for the production of annual population estimates, enhancing statistical capacity of countries in producing population estimates, establishing a revision policy for indicators derived by population data, and etc. (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/accsub/ccsa10.htm)

Dublin Ireland, 19-21 September 2007: To attend the annual meeting of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. Mr Wei Liu, presented a new multi-year project (2007-09) for the improvement of disability measurement, and provided new analytical results to facilitate the global initiative to develop extended sets of survey items on disability. In addition, Mr Liu organized the first Steering Committee meeting in Dublin for the new project. Information on the Washington Group meeting can be accessed through the Washington Group website, currently hosted by the National Centre for Health Statistics, U.S.A. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/citygroup.htm).

Hanoi, Viet Nam, 10-14 September 2007: To undertake a technical mission to Viet Nam to assist the General Statistical Office in making available the Viet Nam Development Goals database (VDGs) on the Internet.

Mr Andersson met with the GSO Deputy Director of Social and Environment Department and presented an overview of the tools available for publishing DevInfo databases, such as the VDGs, online. He then worked with Viet Nam GSO's IT department and provided hands-on training on the various technologies used to make the VDGs database available on the organization web site and intranet. A brief hands-on training was also provided on the last day of his mission to the DevInfo team of UNICEF Viet Nam office.

As an outcome of the mission, the Viet Nam GSO should make available its VDGs database on its web site once translation of the database in Vietnamese has been completed.

The mid-point review of the MDG regional progress report for Asia and the Pacific: Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2007 will be launched simultaneously on 8 October 2007 in Bangkok and Manila.

The Manila launch will take place as a special session to the ADB International Conference on Inclusive Growth and Poverty Reduction. The event will be chaired by Mr Bajpai, Director General, ADB, and the report presented by Ms Haishan Fu, Chief, Statistical Development Section, Statistics Division, ESCAP; Mr Shiladitya Chatterjee, Managing Director, ADB; and Mr Omar Noman, Deputy Regional Manager, UNDP; who together provided overall direction and coordination for the production of the report.

The launch in Bangkok will be held at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) as a joint event with ADB and UNDP. Mr Jean-Pierre Verbiest, Country Director for Thailand, ADB; Mr Raj Kumar, Principal Officer, Office of the Executive Secretary; Mr Ravi Ratnayake, Chief, Poverty and Development Division and Mr Pietro Gennari, Chief, Statistics Division, ESCAP will be presenting the report.

The report was prepared under the tripartite initiative among ESCAP, ADB and UNDP (through the Regional Centre in Colombo). It comprises two parts: assessment of whether countries are on or off track for the various indicators and examination of disparities within countries. The report focuses on countries and groups of people within countries that are left behind in achieving the MDGs. Overall, much of the news is good. The Asia-Pacific region has been setting the pace for the developing world particularly in economic growth-but it has now the opportunity to focus again on equity, and extend the benefits of rapid economic and social development to all its people.

The full report will be downloadable at the Statistics Division's website from the release date, 8 October. For more information on the launch ceremonies, please contact the Statistics Division at: stat.unescap@un.org.

August

• Mr Hirohito Toda, Economic Affaris Officer, UN ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre
  [UN-EPOC]
• Ms Patricia Alexander, Regional Gender Coordinator, UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Mr Peter K. Wingfield-Digby, Statistical Consultant
• Mr Prachaya Samakkamai, Sales & Marketing Supervisor, The Post Publishing PCL., Bangkok
• Ms Munita Dachani, Senior Project Supervisor, The Post Publishing PCL., Bangkok

September

• Ms Carmelita N. Ericta, Administrator, National Statistical Office, Philippines
• Mr Julian Payne, Consultant on ADB-ESCAP Partnership
• Ms Lorraine Corner, Consultant

The list of future events is provided for coordination purposes only. The list is incomplete and events, dates and venues may change. Please do not publish or disseminate the list without confirming the latest information with the Statistics Division or SIAP, as appropriate. Note that not all meetings are intended for all countries.

The following list of future events has been compiled, for coordination purposes only, on the basis of information available to the Statistics Division as of 28 September 2007. Readers are strongly advised to verify the correctness with the indicated organizers. Events, dates and venues may change. Please do not republish or disseminate the list.