KEY GENDER ISSUES IN LABOUR MARKET AND PRODUCTION OF LABOUR STATISTICS IN MALAWI Household Surveys and Measurement of Labour Force with Focus on Informal Economy UNSD Workshop in collaboration with ILO, ECA and SADC Maseru, Lesotho April 2008 BY Medson Makwemba

Structure of presentation Introduction Collection of labour Statistics Production of Labour Statistics Key Gender Issues Gender gaps in labour Statistics Challenges in production of gender stat Dissemination of Gender statistics Way forward Malawi: National Statistical Office2

Introduction National Statistical Office is a government Department mandated to: ◦ Collect ◦ Publish and ◦ Disseminate official statistics to policy makers, researchers and the general public for informed decision making and general public awareness The law governing its operations is the 1967 Statistical Act (currently under review) Malawi: National Statistical Office3

Introduction The NSO has the following divisions : ◦ Agriculture Statistics ◦ Demography and Social Statistics ◦ Economic Statistics and ◦ Publication and Information It has also supporting units such as: ◦ Support and Technical Services ◦ Administration and Human Resource Development The has Statistical Units within other Government department Malawi: National Statistical Office4

Collection of labour Statistics Demographic and Social Statistics is responsible for collection of labour statistics mainly through: Labour Force Survey - The first labour force was done in 1983 of which its results were not published (It is planed to develop anew LFS) Population census (10 years) Demographic and health Surveys (4 years) Economic Division collects labour statistics through: I ntegrated Household Surveys Annual economic Survey Business Information Register Agriculture Division collects labour statistics through: National Agriculture Censuses (10 years) Welfare monitoring survey Environmental statistics Statistical Common Service also collects information on labour statistics for example Ministry of labour Malawi: National Statistical Office5

Production of Labour Statistics NSO follows the following strategies to produce statistics It actively seeks views from data users It formalizes and assesses the needs of users in each area of statistics It has established working groups with data users and produces  subject matter from other institutions It has established data enquiry points to deal with specific data request within the NSO and National Statistical System (NSS) Malawi: National Statistical Office6

Key Gender Issues Inequality in the access to education and employment The control and use of resources within households Division of labour in households and subsistence agriculture Lack of empowerment both in public and private sector Malawi: National Statistical Office7

Gender gaps in labour Statistics Because of lack of consistent framework on gender statistics, various publications do not reflect a consistent gender disaggregated data Reports that are produced have minimal data analysis with gender distinction Malawi: National Statistical Office8

Challenges in Production of Gender Statistics Lack of development tools to measure and integrate gender statistics in National Statistical System Lack of capacity of national experts Lack of financial resources to allow to measure and generate gender statistics Same of the data is outdated and may not reflect the true picture about labour force situation Malawi: National Statistical Office9

Dissemination of Gender statistics Gender Statistics are disseminated through various means such as: ◦ Detailed tables in printed publications ◦ Through Official website ( ◦ Electronic media (CDs etc) ◦ User dissemination workshops and through the media Malawi: National Statistical Office10

Way Forward Currently Malawi is working on formulation of Labour Force Survey where key labour market issues with be addressed It has revised its Annual Economic Survey questionnaire to include labour market statistics disaggregated by gender It is working on Business Information Register where employment information will be gathered Malawi: National Statistical Office11

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING ZIKOMO Malawi: National Statistical Office12