ILO Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work
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ILO Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work Development History This document offers a history of the ILO Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work, which was developed by the Center for Civil Society Studies and the International Labour Organization, in cooperation with an International Technical Experts Group (TEG). The TEG was composed of labor force statisticians and volunteering experts, including representatives of: University of Paris-Sorbonne University of Nairobi Yonsei University, South Korea Institute for Volunteering Research, UK CEMEFI, México United Nations Volunteers INSEE, France Statistics Norway National Statistical Office, Korea Central Statistical Authority, Ethiopia Statistics South Africa Australian Bureau of Statistics IBGE, Brazil Central Statistical Office, Poland Statistics Canada OECD, France Statistics New Zealand El Colegio de México The TEG met twice in Geneva (July 2007 and October 2010), and communicated via a series of memos. This document provides a complete record of the communication with the TEG. ILO Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work Development History Report on the First Meeting of the Technical Experts Group ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland 4-6 July 2007 Johns Hopkins/International Labour Organization Volunteer Measurement Project Technical Experts Group on the Measurement of Volunteer Work Inaugural Meeting Geneva, Switzerland, 4-6 July 2007 MEETING SUMMARY Background In April 2007, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies (JHU/CCSS) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding under which ILO authorized JHU/CCSS to produce a draft of a possible ILO Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work through official labour force surveys and a suggested draft Volunteer Measurement Survey Module for possible discussion and consideration by the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians scheduled to convene in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2008. As part of the process of developing this Manual, JHU/CCSS agreed to work with a Technical Experts Group (TEG) composed of labor force statisticians and volunteering experts chosen jointly by ILO and JHU/CCSS (for a list of TEG members, see Attachment A). The charge to this TEG was to provide expert advice and input regarding: • The definition of volunteer work and its characteristics; The definition of volunteer work and its characteristics • The treatment of volunteer work in the measurement of economic activity; • The measurement of the volume of volunteer work and its characteristics through labour force surveys; • The methodology for valuation of volunteer work; • The design of a Manual for the measurement of volunteer work; and • The testing of volunteer work measurement through household-based surveys in selected countries. The first meeting of this TEG took place at ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 4-6 July 2007. In attendance were: Edith Archambault, University of Paris1-Sorbonne, MATISSE, France Tae-Kyu Park, Yonsei University, South Korea Jacqueline Butcher de Rivas, CEMEFI, México Ato Mekonnen Tesfaye, Central Statistical Authority, Ethiopia Robert Leigh, United Nations Volunteers Lorna Bailie, UNECE Experiment Task Force, Statistics Canada, Canada Tom Dufour, Statistics Canada, Canada Elisabeth Davis, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia. Yandiswa Mpetsheni, Statistics South Africa, South Africa Bengt Oscar Lagerstrom, Statistics Norway, Norway TEGMeetingReport.doc 1 Sylvester Young, International Labour Organization Adriana Mata-Greenwood, International Labour Organization Lester Salamon, Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA Helen Tice, Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA Wojciech Sokoloski, Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA Megan Haddock, Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA Overview Sylvester Young, Director of the ILO Statistical Bureau, welcomed the group and warmly endorsed the effort to capture volunteer work in labor force statistics. He noted that the ILO is a “rights-based organization” and as such is concerned with promoting “decent work,” which is work that has meaning and contributes to the well-being of society. In this sense, an activity can be considered to be “work” whether it produces an economic return or not. This makes “volunteer work” a form of work that is appropriately a focus for ILO concern. Yet under existing national accounting rules only volunteer work that leads to the production of goods is considered relevant, but not volunteer work that produces services. By focusing on all volunteer work, this project therefore offers the possibility of creating a more complete picture of meaningful work in society. Although there may be difficult conceptual and empirical issues involved, we should not shy away from the challenge. After all, the role of statistics is precisely to shed light on unknown aspects of social reality and bring them into view. Robert Leigh of the United Nations Volunteers also strongly endorsed the effort, noting that it could fulfill the U.N. General Assembly resolution passed at the conclusion of the 2001 Year of the Volunteer calling on countries to begin to measure the value of volunteer work as a way to call attention to this important resource for achieving the Millenium Development Goals. Lester M. Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, outlined the work that Johns Hopkins has done to document the extent of volunteer activity in countries throughout the world and identified the following major objectives of this first TEG meeting: 1. To secure TEG approval of the general concept of incorporating measurement of volunteer work in labour force surveys; 2. To review and approve the draft Manual working outline; 3. To review and approve a working definition of volunteer work; 4. To identification the principal data items on volunteer work to target; 5. To assess preliminarily some of the major data collection platform and instrument design issues; 6. To reach tentative agreement on pilot test procedures; and 7. To review and approve a working timetable for the project and a date for a second TEG meeting. TEGMeetingReport.doc 2 Key Decisions In the course of this meeting, the Technical Experts Group reached a number of decisions about the proposed Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work, and on the survey module that could be developed to implement it. In particular: 1) Suitability of Labor Force Surveys for Measuring Volunteer Work TEG members generally endorsed the concept of using a module on volunteer work in regular labour force surveys as a platform for measuring volunteer work. Among the advantages of Labor Force Surveys (LFS) for this purpose are the following: • Their regularity—labor force surveys are among the most common data gathering programs in the world. Most countries conduct such surveys at least annually and many have rolling monthly or quarterly samples to account for seasonal variations; • Their comprehensiveness—most cover the entire population over age 15; • Their robustness—sample sizes are usually large • Their precision—strong technical input based on highly developed international norms is common; and • Their household focus—which makes it feasible to capture informal behavior such as volunteering. At the same time, there are a number of challenges in using LFSs to capture volunteer work and these must be borne in mind when designing a survey module: • There are considerable variations in LFS methodologies. For example, Norway uses telephone interviews whereas South Africa uses face-to-face interviews (For further detail see Attachment C); • The periodicity of the surveys varies: Norway and other European countries conduct labor force surveys on a rolling, montly basis; South Africa conducts its LFS twice a year; and Ethiopia does so only every five years. This is potentially problematic because volunteer work likely has greater seasonal variations and other irregularities, requiring a periodicity greater than a year to capture the full extent; • LFS commonly use a one-week reference period for measuring employment, but because it is more infrequent, volunteer work may require a longer reference period; • The LFS concept of employment requires a minimum duration of one hour during the reference period. This may be too restrictive for volunteer work; • LFS’s commonly use “proxies” to obtain answers for others in the household, which can pose particular problems for assessing volunteer activity since the proxies may lack information about the volunteer work of other household members; • Since countries are at different points in their measurement of volunteer work, it will be important to target types of audiences for the projected survey module on volunteer work: those starting at or near zero effort to gauge volunteer work, those with some past effort, and those with ongoing programs. It will also be important to TEGMeetingReport.doc 3 be sure that the LFS module does not conflict with other ongoing work to measure volunteering where such other work is taking place. In addition, it was noted that other players are involved in setting standards for Labor Force Surveys and should be made aware of this work. This includes Eurostat, OECD, and some of the United Nations Economic Commissions, especially those for Latin America and Africa. 2) Manual Working Outline TEG members generally endorsed the suggested Working