Report of the 18th International Conference of Labor Statisticians by Lester Salamon
THE MEASUREMENT OF VOLUNTEER WORK
A Working Group on the Measurement of Volunteer Work was authorized by the 18th International Conference of Labor Statisticians to consider the possible measurement of volunteer work through regular labor surveys or other survey methodologies. The Working Group met on Friday, November 28, 2008, and was chaired by Yandiswa Mpetsmeni from Statistics South Africa. In attendance were approximately 100 statistical officials and business and labor representatives as well as staff of the ILO. Also attending were Dr. Lester M. Salamon of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies and Ms. Mae Chao of United Nations Volunteers. The Working Group had available to it a draft Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work prepared at the invitation of the ILO Bureau of Statistics by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies in cooperation with a Technical Experts Group convened by ILO. This report summarizes the major issues explored by this Working Group and the central conclusions the Working Group reached.
Attached is a summary of the major points that were raised and the consensus that was reached on them. A shorter version of this summary will be presented to the Plenary Session of the Conference on Friday of this week (December 5, 2008), so changes are still possible and the entire plenary could vote against the proposal. But there was enough endorsement of the idea to have reasonable confidence that we will have the go-ahead the ILO needs to proceed with a formal Manual on this topic. Assuming this occurs, we will then turn our attention to revising the draft document to take account of the numerous suggestions that the Working Group made and, assuming the resources for it can be secured, to working with countries on implementation.