International Meeting on Gender Statistics within the Framework of the Millennium Development Goals Aguascalientes, 19-21 September 2006

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International Meeting on Gender Statistics within
the Framework of the Millennium Development Goals
Aguascalientes, 19-21 September 2006

• Guide to Producing Statistics on Time-Use

Demographic and Social Statistics Branch United
Nations Statistics Division
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Time-use survey Developing new application for
an existing methodology

• Time-use studies are from the early 1900s, used
  for reporting on social conditions
• Time-use method popularized by the 1972
  Multinational Comparative Time-use Study
  involving 12 countries.
• In late 1970s the United Nations Statistics
  Division explored one possible application of
  time-use methodology - development of welfare
  oriented measures to supplement the national
  accounts and balances.
• In late 1990s with the call from Beijing for the
  comprehensive assessment of all forms of work,
  programme initiated covering several elements.

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United Nations Programme on Time-use Statistics
(1)

• Began in 1997 as a response to Beijing Platforms
  call for comprehensive measurement of all forms
  of work
• Developed the conceptual framework for developing
  a suitable classification for time-use statistics
  that reflects the needs and specificities of
  market and non-market work in developing
  countries
• Expert group meeting in November 1997 endorsed
  the proposed principles and called for a guide on
  producing time-use statistics

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United Nations Programme on Time-use Statistics
(2)

• Project on the Development of Guide on Producing
  Statistics on Time-use supported by UNDP and IDRC
  (Canada)
• Created a webpage for time-use statistics
• Presenting information about time-use surveys in
  countries around the world
• Presenting basic statistical indicators from
  national time-use studies
• Posting and inviting questions and comments on
  the draft classification (ICATUS)
• The Guide to Producing Statistics on Time-use
  published in 2004, in English translation into
  Spanish and other UN official languages in progres

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Focus of the presentation

• The presentation deals with one of the key
  outputs of the programme -- Guide to Producing
  Statistics on Time-use
• Provides highlights on the content of the Guide,
  discusses issues that need to be considered in
  the planning of time-use surveys
• Introduces the proposed International
  Classification of Activities for Time-use
  Statistics currently under review
• Identifies follow-up programme activities

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What are time-use statistics?

• Quantitative summaries of how individuals spend
  or allocate their time over a specified period.
• Summaries
• Average number of hours (in a day, in a week, in
  a month, etc.)
• Total number of hours (in a day, in a week, in a
  month, etc.)
• Spent on specific categories of activities
• traveling (to work, shops)
• working (in paid job, unpaid work, domestic work,
  volunteer work) in recreational activities
  educational activities.

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Why produce time-use statistics?

• Originally,
• Focus on living conditions, leisure time for
  working class
• Used for organized labours advocacy on
  shortening working day
• Assessing effect of technology on homemakers
• Providing insights into psychological and social
  motivations
• Analyzing problem of commuting and length of
  commuting time

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Why time-use statistics? (2)

• Measurement and analysis of quality of life or
  general well-being
• Measurement and valuation of unpaid work
  (domestic and volunteer work)
• Development of household production accounts
• Improving estimates of paid and unpaid work
• Analysis of policy implications of development
  planning issues.

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Review of more than 50 country time-use surveys
indicate

• Two general objectives of time-use surveys
• To provide indicators of the quality of life or
  well-being of the nation in terms of time-use
  patterns of people
• To improve estimates of the value of goods and
  services, with particular emphasis on increasing
  visibility of womens work through better
  statistics on their contribution to the economy

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Time-use survey

• Has a definite application in gender statistics
• To map out the division of roles and
  responsibilities within the household
• To obtain a comprehensive measurement of all
  forms of work
• To better characterize and capture
  difficult-to-measure non-market economic
  activities (especially those in which women are
  typically engaged)
• To provide the required information on time
  allocation for valuing womens and mens unpaid
  work

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Time-use surveys Responding to Call from Beijing

• Improving data collection on the unremunerated
  work that is already included in the System of
  National Accounts (SNA), such as in agriculture
  and other types of non-market production
  activities (para. 206 (f) (i)).
• Improving measurements that at present
  underestimate womens unemployment and
  underemployment in the labour market (para. 2006
  (f) (ii)).
• Developing methods quantifying the value of
  unremunerated work that is outside national
  accounts, such as caring for dependents,
  preparing food, for possible reflection in
  satelite accounts that may be produced separately
  from but are consistent with core national
  accounts (para. 2006 (f) (iii)).

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Guide on Producing Statistics on Time-use

• Organized in five parts
• Part 1 Planning and organizing for producing
  statistics on time use
• Part 2 Key design specifications for time-use
  surveys, including specific issues on sample
  design
• Part 3 - Collecting and processing time-use data
• Part 4 Review and dissemination of time-use
  data
• Part 5 Classification of activities for
  time-use statistics
• Annexes Examples of questionnaires, codes for
  contexts, training programme for data collection,
  suggested tables for time-use data

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Specific features of time-use studies (1)

• Main elements of time-use study
• Activities
• Selective (predefined set) time spent is
  recorded only for selected activity or set of
  activities within a specified period
• Exhaustive all activities that a person
  undertakes are listed as they are undertaken
  (over a period such as 12 or 24 hours, 7-day
  week)
• Time spent
• Time at start and end of the activity
• Other issues that define context of the activity

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Specific features of time-use studies (2)

• Context is important
• Location where the activity takes place e.g.,
  at home, at work, at school, at service centre,
  in recreational facility, etc.
• Presence of other people when the activity
  occurred with whom?
• Beneficiary of the activity - for whom?
• Time at start and end of the activity
• Motivation for the activity i.e., whether
  activity is paid or unpaid

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In summary

• Time-use survey is a tool for studying the scope
  of activities and time allocation of individuals
  (girls, boys, women and men)
• The main component of the data collection
  instrument and that which takes the most part of
  the survey is the information about the nature of
  the activities and time spent on them
• Basic characteristics of the respondents are also
  collected, as part of the survey, to enhance the
  analysis and the utility of the statistics
  compiled.

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Time-use survey design components
With following key elements
I. Survey design
Type of survey instrument used for
recording activities (time diary or
short/abbreviated formats) and related
designs Mode of data collection (interview,
self-reporting or observation) Type of household
survey (independent or component Of a
multipurpose survey)
II. Sample design and Selection population and
time dimension
III. Activity classification dimension
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Types of survey instrument

• Generally two forms
• Time diaries full time diary and light
  simplified time diary - designed to enable
  respondent to report all activities undertaken
  over a defined period of time, with the beginning
  and ending time for each activity
• Abbreviated (stylized) versions of diaries
  respondents recall amount of time they allocated
  to certain activities over a specified period
  (day, week or year)

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Mode of data collection

• Direct observation time use is observed and
  recorded by enumerator
• Self-reporting respondent records time use
• Interview personal/face-to-face or
  computer-aided telephone interview

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Classification of activities for time-use
statistics -

• Provides detailed comprehensive, systematic
  listing of activities, that serves as a basis for
  assessing completeness of coverage of activities
• Guides the interviewer for eliciting from
  respondent the required level of detail
• Defines the framework for analysis of the
  time-use survey data
• Serves as a basis for defining analytical and
  tabulation categories

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Why another classification? (1)

• Typically activity classifications for time-use
  surveys focus on detailed lists of non-economic
  activities such as housework, care-giving,
  socialization, recreation, learning, mass media
• New classifications (developed by some countries)
  encompass expanded uses of time-use data and
  included details for economic activities, and
  potential for differentiating activities relative
  to the production boundary of the system of
  national accounts (SNA)

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Why another classification? (2)

• Special consideration of gender- specific
  objectives for TUS
• Expanding the objectives of time-use surveys to
  cover measurement and valuation of unremunerated
  work necessitates the adoption of an enhanced
  classification that sufficiently differentiates
  the various categories of activities
• Hence the proposed International Classification
  of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS)

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Principles underlying the proposed activity
classification

• Flexibility applied to different analytical
  objectives as well as other potential uses of
  time-use statistics
• Balanced and comprehensive coverage of groups of
  all activities, reflecting the structure of time
  distribution (e.g., productive and personal,
  formal and informal)
• Detailed enough, identifying separately
  activities of important subpopulations
• Close correspondence with classification schemes
  of historic data sets, and national and regional
  listings that have undergone cycles of testing,
  use and review

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Purpose and nature of ICATUS

• Serve as a standard activity classification for
  time-use statistics applicable to both developing
  and developed countries
• Builds on existing national and regional
  classifications
• Provide delineation of the boundaries of economic
  and non-economic activities and productive and
  non-productive activities
• To measure all forms of work including
  unremunerated work
• Consistent with existing standard classifications
  in labour and economic statistics

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Main categories of ICATUS

• First level of differentiation relationship to
  the production boundary of SNA
• Production within SNA boundary SNA work
• SNA work activities
• Personal activities

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United Nations Programme on Time-use Statistics
(3) Next Steps

• Compile experiences in the use of ICATUS in
  national time-use surveys
• Revise and finalize ICATUS based on comments and
  other inputs from countries, derived from field
  application of the classification
• Maintain webpage on national practices in
  time-use statistics
• Update, at regular intervals, basic statistics
  and indicators on time-use
• Revise manual(s) on measuring economic activity
  based on lessons from time-use surveys

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To advance this work, and assist other countries.

• Provide information (including documentation) on
  time-use surveys in countries, for updating UNSD
  webpage on time-use statistics
• Send comments, lessons from the application of,
  and questions on the classification, to email
  address genderstats_at_UN.org
• For further information consult webpage
  -http//unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/
  sconcerns/tuse/default.aspx

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Thank you