# 5.1. Short‐term objectives

The review of LSMS‐ISA surveys has demonstrated variation across LSMS‐ISA surveys and has revealed areas where new questions are needed to explain and monitor labor market outcomes and the SDGs, to adhere to ILO‐resolutions and to ensure gender and age neutral surveys. This section highlights suggestions that could be considered and implemented in upcoming LSMS‐ISA surveys in order to harmonize the country surveys and for scaling up individual‐level data collection.

Use existing (LSMS‐ISA) data sets to learn about critical survey design issues. While previous LSMS‐ISA surveys have not been set up to experiment with and learn about survey design, the existing data sets can nevertheless be leveraged to identify critical survey design issues (Fox & Pimhidzai, 2013) and to identify areas where ‘real’ experiments would pay off most. This would contribute to filling a gap in the literature about the sensitivity of labor market statistics to survey design features, particularly for women and youth. Throughout the paper, we have illustrated how current data sets can be exploited to examine, for instance, the effect on labor market statistics of a 7‐day or 12‐month reference period, to detect patterns in the use of proxy respondent, or to verify the consistency between the labor data collected in the AG, labor and household enterprise module. A more systematic and careful analyses exploiting the currently available data sets is feasible, relatively cheap and would help to pinpoint which survey design choices really matter and which do not.

Revise the labor module in LSMS‐ISA surveys using Table B in the Appendix as a checklist. Table A and Table B in the Appendix list respectively the SDG labor market indicators and the questions required to monitor these indicators. By carefully revising the questionnaires, we can ensure that each LSMS‐ISA survey can serve as an instrument to monitor the SDGs. This requires, for instance, that a question is added to the 2015/16 Ethiopia LSMS‐ISA survey on ‘job attachment for those that are temporarily absent from work’ in order to correctly identify the employed population; that a question is added to the 2014 Mali LSMS‐ISA survey to capture the NEET‐rate; and that questions are added to the LSMS‐ISA surveys in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia to distinguish formal from informal employment. Aligning the surveys with the SDG indicators not only increases the value of the surveys for data users and policy makers interested in monitoring SDGs, but also for users that leverage the multi‐topic nature of LSMS‐ ISA surveys to explain labor markets. It will, for instance, facilitate cross‐country comparisons.

Adapt the questionnaires to the new ILO standards and definition of work and employment using the new module tested by the ILO. The 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS defined worked and narrowed the definition of employment to work for pay or profit. This requires distinguishing own‐use producers from market producers. In practice, this distinction is hard to make in most developing countries as the boundary between production mainly intended for own‐use or mainly intended for the market is blurred. This definition is therefore likely to remain subject to debate. LSMS‐ISA surveys collect detailed data on crops sold on the market and consumed by the household, which could be used to determine whether the household mainly produces for own consumption or for the market. Such a calculation is, however, cumbersome, requires multiple 25