Child Labor Survey Module in Georgia

GEO-99-002
Total budget: USD 94, 480
UNDP Sector: Poverty Eradication
Starting Date: August 1999
Duration: 15 months

The availability of detailed data on the various aspects of working children and their analysis on a continuous basis are essential to establish targets, formulate and implement interventions and monitor policies, regulations and programmes aimed not only at minimizing the negative consequences of child labor in the short-term, but more importantly at contributing to eliminating the practice. Statistical information can also be mobilized and used to raise public concern of and interest in the issue of child labor.

In Georgia, there is hardly any reliable statistical information on the economic activities of children. The main reason is the lack of specialized survey methodologies and relevant concepts, definitions, classifications, etc, of child labor. As a result, there is no comprehensive national picture of the extent or level of children's activities in the country. Nor is there an appreciation of the different categories of working children who are most in need of help or who are in the greatest risk.

Since January 1998, Georgia has been conducting a continuous quarterly Labor Force Survey (LFS). This survey provides a good opportunity for launching an LFS-based modular Child Labor Survey in Georgia.

The objective of this Project is to strengthen the capacity of Georgian institutions, responsible for national statistics, notably the State Department of Statistics (SDS) to enable them to generate reliable statistical data to develop effective interventions against child labor.

1. To prepare and conduct a public awareness campaign to sensitize the public on the child labor survey;

2. To carry out a training seminar for the staff of the State Department of Statistics to develop definitions, concepts, methodology and instruments for the statistical measurement of working children in Georgia;

3. To develop questionnaires, tabulation plans and to design a pilot survey, including samples selection;

4. To recruit and train field and data processing personnel for the pilot survey;

5. To carry out the pilot survey and to evaluate and report on the survey results;

6. To develop quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure the child labor situation and the impact of specific interventions;

7. To train, as necessary, the staff of the Ministry of Labor on developing and maintaining a comprehensive child labor data base;

8. To develop and maintain software and hardware tools to establish the child labor information system with a built-in programme for a systematic updating and retrieval of information;

9. To prepare Interim and Final Reports on the technical and operational aspects of the modular child labor survey and on the results of the modular child labor survey;

10. To organize and conduct a public presentation of the above-mentioned final report at the national level;

11. To finalize and publish (1,500 copies) the report;

12. To prepare for and attend a Sub-regional Conference in Ukraine on the Measurement and Elimination of Child Labor with the participation of specialists from Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine as well as of invited guests from Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Slovak Republic.

1. Increased capacity of the SDS to design and carry out child labor surveys;

2. Established child labor survey methodology and evaluation of a carried out pilot survey;

3. Statistical child labor data produced as a Labor Force Survey-based modular;

4. Developed quantitative and qualitative information system;

5. Disseminated data and reports;

6. Sub-regional Conference on the Measurement and Elimination of Child Labor;