UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFICSTATISTICAL INSTITUTE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (SIAP)
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION (ILO)
Regional Course on Statistics on Informality: Definitions, Measurement, SDG's and other
Policy Indicators
13 – 17 November 2023
Chiba, Japan

CONCEPT NOTE
Collaborating agencies: United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP);
International Labour Organization (ILO); Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing(WIEGO); Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Government of Japan (MIC).
I. Introduction and ObjectivesThe causes and consequences of informal employment and employment in informal sector and theirimpact on achieving sustainable development continues to gain attention in national development
agendas. The evidence in developing and emerging economies shows that on average more than halfof the employment in non-agricultural sectors are informal and this rate can reach as high as 80% insome countries. Therefore, every national policy targeting poverty, social protection, or decent workneeds to recognise the role of the informal economy in national development. Yet, the lack of dataand statistics on the informal economy hinders the capacity of countries to better inform decisions
and development policies. This regional training course brings together statisticians and labour
analysts from Asia-Pacific national statistical systems to discuss technical aspects and shareexperiences in the production and use of statistics on informality with the objectives of:1) Assessing progress in the production of statistics on informal employment and employment in theinformal sector in Asia and the Pacific Region, and major hindrances in data production;2) Providing technical information and illustrations of good practices on collecting and tabulating dataon informal employment and employment in the informal sector aligned to the latest development inlabour market standards, and categories of informal workers as well as related data needed for thepreparation of SDG indicators and;
3) Promoting the collection of data and improvement of statistics on informal employment andemployment in the informal sector as an integral part of national labour force statistics;
4) Providing guidance and illustrations of good practices on how to conduct diagnoses of informality
and how to contextualize indicators to decide on priorities and inform policy development andmonitoring.
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Statistics on informality will be discussed at the 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians(21st ICLS, October 2023), and a new and improved statistical framework is expected from the newresolution on statistics of informal economy. Th new framework will therefore be presented anddiscussed at this Regional Course.
II. Target Countries (by invitation only): Countries in Asia and the Pacific (a) with existing datacollection initiatives on the informal economy, such as those with labour force surveys, aiming toreview and improve their data and (b) countries with immediate plans to collect data on the informal
economy.
The provisional list of proposed countries is as follows: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia,
Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Timor-Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu and Viet Nam.
III. Target participants: Countries will be invited to nominate potential participants. Nominees should
be middle-level to senior-level (a) statisticians of national statistical offices or (b) officials fromministries of labour and employment responsible for labour statistics or labour market information
systems. Nominees should have experience working on labour force statistics as survey statisticians
and/or data analysts in support of policy analysis on informal sector and informal employment, andhave some awareness of sustainable development goals. One or two participants per country will be
accepted for the training depending on availability of resources; selection will be based on theinformation provided in the nomination form for the course, and on the past experience of nominees
in working with informal employment statistics. Nominations of women candidates will be given apriority.
IV. Main Topics:
Module One: Framing the Discussion●●●●Statistical definition of the informal economy
o International statistical definition of the informal sector and employment in theinformal sectoro International statistical definition of informal employment
Changes in labour market standards and the impact on the standards for statistics on
informality
o The revision of the current standards
o The statistical definition of work and informality
o The new international classification of status in employment (ICSE-18) and informality
Mapping national definitions to international definitions: Issues and practices in aiming forinternational comparability
National policies and programmes on the informal economy and implications for statisticalworko Country policies on informal economy and current statuso Ministry/ies responsible and type of coordination mechanisms if any
o Types and characteristics of economic units in the informal sectoro Categories of informal workers
o Measures to enhance formalization of economic units

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Module Two: Measuring Informality, Statistically Speaking●●Measurement objectives and methods for producing statistics on the informal economy:
Practices and Issues
o Measurement objectives: Overview of statistics on the informal economy (informalemployment, employment in the informal sector and contribution to the economy)o Data requirements for estimating (Going from concepts to questions, and fromquestions to derived variables):▪ Informal employment▪ Employment in the informal sector (and characteristics of economic units)▪ Categories of informal workers; socio-demographic features and exposure todecent work deficits▪ Contribution of the informal sector to the economyo Statistical unitso Overview of methods of data collection: matching methods and measurement
objectives
Data sources for producing statistics on the informal economy: Practices and Issueso Household surveys, with focus on the labour force survey
o Establishment surveys
o Mixed surveys, with focus on the 1-2 survey

Module Three: Producing and Presenting: Increasing Value for Policy Needs●●●

Producing estimates of employment and economic contribution of the informal economy:Practices and Issues
o Going from derived variables to indicators▪ Employment-related indicators▪ SNA-related indicatorso Producing SDG and other indicators
Presenting and using statistics and indicators on the informal economyo As part of regular monitoring of:▪ SDGs (8.3.1, 8.2.1, 10.4.1)▪ the formalization process at national level
National diagnostic of informality or how data support decisions about priorities and informthe development and monitoring of policy
o Understanding the diversity of situations in informal economy and exposure to decent
work deficits▪ Extent and composition of the informal economy: who the most exposed toinformality?
▪ Working conditions in the informal economy and exposure to decent work
deficits: income security, employment security, health and safety issues andworking hours, skills security, voice and representation security, etc▪ Main drivers of informality: those that are quantifiable
o Contextualizing data and indicators and the analysis of other drivers as part of theeconomic and institutional environment

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Module Four: Way forward●●ESCAP regional capacity building programmes on statistics in Asia and the Pacific: whatpossible focus on the informal economy
Next steps: country action plans

V. Training Design: The training course will cover the topics listed above. It is designed topresent/review concepts and definitions and measurement methods and to discuss practical issues
and possible solutions relating to their applications and use. The course is organized into modules;
each module consists of a set of training sessions. Training activities within each training session will
be a mix of expert presentations on the main topics, country-led discussions and presentations onapplications, issues and lessons learned and working with data/ concepts in small-group work.
VI. Preparatory Activities: Participants to the course need to prepare a short summary country report/presentation (maximum 10 slides) that covers the following:
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Status of labour force data and statistics (3 slides)o Existing data collection activities and methodologies/ or planso Presentation of time series of key labour force indicatorso SDG decent work related indicators, with a focus on those for which ILO is proposedas the custodian agency
Country policies on the informal economy and status, main actors involved (responsible
ministry/ies, agencies or inter-ministerial structure and coordination mechanisms if any) (3slides)
Status of statistics on informal employment, employment in the informal sector andcontribution of the informal sector to the economy (4 slides)o Existing data collection activities and methodologies/or planso Discussion of issues
o Presentation of existing statistics and indicators on the informal economy; ongoing
efforts on computing harmonized comparable data on:▪ Extent and composition of informality▪ Informality and decent work deficits▪ Informality and poverty
ANNEXES to body of report/ presentationo Data collection instruments (questionnaires ; schedules)
o List of publications and accessibility (e.g., website links) of survey results
o List of analytical reports on informal economy linkages to development issues andaccessibility (e.g., website links)▪ Employment and income generation in the informal economy▪ Women workers in the informal economy▪ Poverty and the informal economy
o Data and microdata accessibility mechanisms.

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