Research products
p. 25-34
Texte intégral
1Following its first implementation in Mexico in the late 1980s, the methodology of mixed surveys using an approach based on households and enterprises (or production units) gave rise to 1-2-3 surveys. The name derives from the fact that the system consists of three nested surveys that provide information on employment, especially informal employment (phase 1), on production units in the informal sector (phase 2), and on household consumption, poverty and demand in the informal sector (phase 3).
2The first output from this multi-country, multi-continental “programme”, conducted over a very long period of time (from the early 1990s to the present day), is the availability of a relevant, reliable and harmonised methodology (supporting sound comparative approaches). The system around 1-2-3 surveys includes not only the original statistical survey methodology (survey method, questionnaire, survey manual) but also the analysis methods (a generic framework or standard reports, policy briefs, etc.) and the institutionalisation of the dissemination of the results (more or less standardised dissemination method and medium, introduction of systematic meetings or conferences addressed to various audiences, etc.).
1-2-3 surveys: know-how and public assets
3After an initial partial experiment in Mexico (1986, 1989), the 1-2-3 survey was applied for the first time in its entirety in Cameroon in 1993 (Roubaud, 1994). The methodology was then refined in Madagascar, where the survey was introduced in 1995 and is still in use today. Strengthened by this success, use of the 1-2-3 survey has become widespread in recent years. In Africa in 1997, the first seminar on the informal economy was launched with the creation of Afrisat (with regional coverage). Since then, the 1-2-3 survey has been implemented on three continents.1 It was implemented in Mayotte, a French overseas département, in 2015. The 1-2-3 survey was designed to act as a generic framework with a flexible structure, which respects a certain number of common characteristics but whose configurations in practice vary according to the needs and specific structure of the existing information systems in the different countries.2
4These series of surveys following the 1-2-3 survey methodology have resulted in the creation of databases available to the countries’ NSIs. These databases are public assets that have been utilised – and can still be utilised – by various types of users, not only for the analysis of the informal economy but also, more broadly, for the study of various themes related to the labour market and the living and working conditions of the population.
In Peru
5With the support of Dial and French cooperation (François Roubaud’s assignment at the Inei), in 1993 the Inei conducted the first mixed survey to measure the weight of informal employment in a national accounting context. The Peruvian NSI continued to expand its work on the informal economy and since 2001 has included, on a permanent basis and on an infra-annual basis, the module developed by the IRD for monitoring informal production units in the main survey on the population’s employment and living conditions (National Household Survey [Enaho]). As the Enaho is part of Peru’s recurrent budget, the poverty and informality indicators have almost the same status as those for GDP and inflation. As a result, Peru has a unique tool that it has used to analyse the dynamics of the informal economy over a continuous period of almost twenty years. In 2014, the Inei published its first edition of a comprehensive satellite account on the informal economy in Peru.3
6Particular attention was paid to the quality of the primary data and to the dissemination of not only the reports but also the raw data from the survey, backed up by technical documents and quality technical reports (available online on the Peruvian NSI’s website). This resulted in the Enaho winning the World Bank’s first prize for statistical innovation in 2010, out of 177 projects submitted by 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.4
7In addition to international recognition, the success of the Enaho survey is most evident in its recognition as a tool for public policy-making. Producing statistics creates a public asset: empirical data feeds into research, public debate and public policy.
In Madagascar
8Initially limited to the capital, and after five years of successful operations (1995–1999) as part of the Madio project, Madagascar’s 1-2-3 survey, conducted by Instat with the support of Dial researchers, was extended in 2000 and 2001 to the country’s seven main urban centres. Subsequently, various national surveys were conducted using the same methodology in 2004 (phases 1 and 2), in 2006 (phase 1), then both phases in 2010 and 2012 (Enempsi), and most recently in 2015 (phase 1).5
Fruit and vegetable seller, suburb of Antananarivo, Madagascar, 2013.
© IRD/M. Razafindrakoto
9Skills have been built up within Instat (Madagascar’s NSI). Since 2000, surveys have been conducted in the field by Malagasy statisticians without any external technical support. Methodological knowledge is passed on between managers from one survey to the next, which leads to a capitalisation of knowledge. It should be noted that the senior statistician-economists who worked on the Madio project are now recognised at national and international levels as experts in survey statistics on employment, the informal sector and poverty. For example, one of them, now an advisor to the Instat Director General (Faly Rakotomanana), is called upon to support the implementation and analysis of surveys in various countries (notably Burundi, the Comoros and Mayotte). Another member, Julia Rachel Ravelosoa, is currently a senior economist at the World Bank in Madagascar and coordinates projects related to the informal sector, particularly on social welfare. Lastly, Éric Ramilison is an expert at Afrisat and provides, among other things, monitoring and technical support for surveys carried out in various African countries.
In Vietnam
10The assignment of three IRD researchers (Mireille Razafindrakoto and François Roubaud, Jean-Pierre Cling/Insee hosted at the IRD, between 2006 and 2011) to a project conducted within the GSO led to the implementation of an initial survey in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 2007 on employment (the LFS, the existing employment survey, was revamped) and the informal sector (HBIS6 survey) using the 1-2-3 methodology. In 2009, a second wave of surveys monitored employment, informality and living conditions in the country’s two largest cities.
11In particular, the analysis of trends was used to identify and quantify the impacts of the 2008 international financial crisis. In 2015, two other IRD researchers (Xavier Oudin and Laure Pasquier-Doumer) took over. They worked in partnership with the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (Vass) as part of an international programme (NoPoor) to conduct a third wave of surveys, this time national and with the addition of specific qualitative modules (on social capital, for example).
12It should be noted that the activities surrounding these surveys on employment and the informal sector helped to train six Vietnamese PhD students, who were hosted and supervised by the Dial researchers. All of them now have the title of Doctor of Economics after completing their theses using these waves of surveys at least in part.
13In 2019, the GSO again asked Insee and the IRD to validate its new definition of the “informal sector” and to consider new, more regular surveys that could be applied to the whole of Vietnam. In this regard, an Insee-IRD mission was conducted in April 2019. In fact, in response to the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s request in late 2017, the GSO submitted a number of proposals in early 2018 on measuring the non-observed economy. These proposals referred to the research programme conducted jointly with the IRD between 2006 and 2011. The GSO attached to its brief the work on the informal sector in Vietnam published by the IRD/Dial team in partnership with the GSO in 2010, to highlight the success of this partnership. A meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister took place in May 2018, and the GSO was tasked with coordinating the preparation of a set of statistical, but also economic policy proposals at inter-ministerial level.
Major results
14The surveys and resulting analyses yielded major results, providing new and crucial knowledge for understanding the informal economy. Key results include the following:
- The informal economy is not destined to disappear with the continued growth of the country: it is not a transient phenomenon that is expected to diminis gradually; on the contrary, it is well-established and will persist over time. Even in a fast-growing country like Vietnam, the formal sector does not have the capacity to absorb all the labour that enters the labour market each year.
- Informal units contribute to GDP (creation of added value) and to state revenue (since they often pay certain local taxes and do not recover VAT). Moreover, for most of them, the reason for non-registration is more the result of a lack of knowledge of the law or procedures (opaque and difficult for these actors) than a deliberate desire to Escape public regulation or taxation.7
Fruit and vegetable sellers in a market in Hoi An, Vietnam, 2009.
© N. Altier
Academic publications
15Publications in scientific journals have earned the 1-2-3 survey system the status of a reference method. Furthermore, 1-2-3 surveys have resulted in a large number of articles in scientific journals.
16All publications featuring these surveys deserve to be counted regardless of the country, since even if the analyses do not relate to the three countries analysed here, they can be used by stakeholders or researchers in these countries if the topics are of interest to them.
17We cannot, however, count those articles that draw upon data from surveys using the 1-2-3 methodology without naming it. Similarly, we do not count those articles that combine very specific thematic modules that piggyback on this survey instrument: various journal articles (more than 1008), three special journal issues (at least), seven books (at least) and many chapters in books.
Reports and documents disseminated
18The documents made available to the public fall into several categories:
- Madio documents in Madagascar (working documents);
- Survey reports (initial findings produced by the NSIs);
- World Bank or ILO reports;
- Policy briefs (aimed in particular at decision-makers).
19Although it is mainly the policy briefs that provide policy recommendations, the generic framework of the reports or initial findings systematically includes analyses leading to operational recommendations.
Various conferences
20The international conference on “The Informal Sector and Informal Employment: Statistical Measures, Economic Implications and Public Policies” in Hanoi in May 2010 is particularly noteworthy. It was co-organised by the Vass, the IRD, the GSO and Molisa (Vietnamese Ministry for Labour) with the participation of several international institutions (the French Development Agency (AFD), the ILO, the UNDP and the World Bank). This conference followed a series of international conferences initiated by François Roubaud and co-organised by Dial9. It sought to capitalise on the experience acquired in this field over the last 15 years in developing countries. It brought together researchers, statisticians, policy makers and project operators with the aim of fostering Dialogue between these different stakeholders. About sixty contributions from researchers from different continents (Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe) were presented, and about 200 participants attended the conference.
Training
21Various types of training programmes, based on 1-2-3 surveys, have been created:
- Organisation of various regional, national or international training workshops for the implementation or analysis of 1-2-3 survey data (includingworkshops jointly organised with Afrisat or with Cefil-Insee);10
- Development of a training module on the labour market and informal economy in developing countries: module included in Master’s degree programmes (Iedes-Paris I; Paris Dauphine University, University of Marne-la-Vallée; University of Kent-Brussels);
- Thematic training sessions within the framework of summer schools in social sciences utilising data from 1-2-3 surveys (Tam Dao summer school in Vietnam; winter school in Madagascar: Tany Vao Madagascar);
- Training for trainees and PhD students hosted at Dial on the themes addressed in 1-2-3 surveys (if we count only the PhD students hosted at Dial, at least three or four Peruvians, six Vietnamese, and four Malagasy PhD students).11
Training of interviewers at the General Statistics Office, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2009.
© IRD/M. Razafindrakoto
Timeline: A Statistical Innovation: 1-2-3 surveys
Notes de bas de page
1See also Figure 1. The countries included are Africa (Cameroon, Madagascar, Morocco, eight West African countries, Burundi, Tunisia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Comoros); Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia, Colombia. Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, Saint Lucia); Asia (Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Philippines and Vietnam). It should be noted that in line with the Dial programmes on the informal economy, a project on this theme, in collaboration with the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRI) in Brazil, started in January 2020, with two IRD researchers assigned to the project.
2The decision to conduct 1-2-3 surveys is always made in relation to the national statistical system so that they complement other existing surveys (household and enterprise surveys). In some cases, the 1-2-3 survey was adapted and integrated into surveys that were already planned.
3Inei (2014), Producción y Empleo Informal en el Perú: Cuenta Satélite de la Economía informal 2007-2012, Inei, Lima.
4http://www.bancomunDial.org/es/news/feature/2010/10/21/peru-mexico-brazil-caribbean-lead-region-data-tools-fight-poverty
5Note here that the surveys are routinely included in the scope of the national statistical information system. However, since 2001 and the end of the Madio project, the political instability in the country, with recurrent socio-political crises, has so far prevented the securing of regular and periodic funding to carry out this survey as part of a long-term, multi-year programme.
6HBIS: Household Business and Informal Sector.
7Extract from J.-P. Cling’s speech at the 2013 AFD conference: “In Vietnam, people do not register, not because they do not want to comply with the law, or because registration is too complicated, but simply because nobody knows the registration thresholds. Governments should therefore design regulatory frameworks adapted to the economic reality (such as progressive taxation or simplified registration procedures), and then build real enforcement capacity (for example through better collaboration between customs and tax authorities, to fight ‘big’ informal, which represents a minority of actors generating large volumes of business.”
8A full inventory of the articles would be required, but this is not without difficulty as the generic name for 1-2-3 surveys has been changed in many countries.
9“Interamerican Seminar on Measuring the Informal Sector”, Organization of American States/INE, Lima, Peru, August 1992; International Seminar “The Informal Sector and Economic Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa”, Afrisat, Bamako, Mali, 10-14 March 1997; International Seminar on the Informal Sector in Africa (SISIA) “Measurement Instruments, Analyses and Integration of Economic and Social Policies”, Bamako, Mali, 20-22 October 2008.
10Meetings such as the validation of the findings of the survey on employment and the informal sector – Ouagadougou Colloquium, 8-10 September 2004, Waemu Commission. https://dial.ird.fr/ “Research Areas”. – Statistical surveys can be considered as falling under this heading.
11We are not counting the many French PhD students who have benefited from the availability of 1-2-3 survey data.
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Creative Commons - Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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