Eradication of Child Labour is an Important Challenge in Many Developing Countries of ESCAP:
Asia Regional Training Course on Child Labour Data Collection through Baseline Surveys and Rapid Assessments
22 – 26 September 2008, Chiba, Japan

The Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), a training arm of ESCAP in statistics organized jointly with The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO), through its statistical unit, Statistical Monitoring and Information System on Child Labour (SIMPOC) the Asia Regional Training Course on Child Labour Data Collection through Baseline Surveys and Rapid Assessments on 22 – 26 September 2008 at the premises of SIAP in Chiba, Japan. Fifteen government officials of national statistical offices (NSOs) from 15 Asian countries where ILO/IPEC has field operations, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam participated in the training.

In many developing Asian countries, eradication of child labour is an important challenge, and the need to collect child labour data has gained urgency. In that context, baseline surveys and rapid assessments have been observed to be practicable and effective data collection vehicles for child labour in a specific sector or geographical area, as child labour is a subject in which both quantitative and qualitative data may contribute to analysis of the situation. The objective of the training course was to introduce baseline surveys and rapid assessments as well as their application in collection of statistics on child labour. These methods have also been applied for gathering poverty related statistics. Governments need reliable statistics for their evidence-based policy to combat child labour. There are strong needs to build capacity at country levels and ensure its sustainability in responding to the governments’ needs. Therefore, the second objective of the training course was to provide technical guidance on the design and implementation of these data collection methods by giving more emphasise on sharing practical experiences among the participants and performing a group work in which they were assigned the task of designing baseline surveys for a diverse range of child labour situations, that was followed by presentations by participants and intensive discussions. Data processing and data management issues were also addressed.

The course was directed by Mr Frank Hagemann, Chief, Child Labour Research and Policy, ILO/IPEC Geneva, and supported by Mr Hakki Ozel and Mr Bijoy Raychaudhuri, both Senior Statistician at ILO/IPEC-SIMPOC Geneva, and Mr M Q Hasan, faculty member of SIAP.