IBGE receives Portuguese-speaking countries to exchange experiences on labour market statistics
November 23, 2023 09h00 AM | Last Updated: November 28, 2023 11h45 AM
The IBGE hosts, from November 21 to 24, in Rio de Janeiro, an event called “Technical Mission in Brazil – Exchanging Experiences with Portuguese-speaking countries to strengthen labor statistics.” Five countries – Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Saint Thomas and Prince, Cape Verde and Equatorial Guinea have joined the meeting – both face-to-face and online – with the objective of exchanging methodologies on the production and dissemination of indicators, statistics, and official data on workforce.
“Proximity with Portuguese-speaking countries, especially the African ones, is welcome and productive. The IBGE considers that being able to share its experience and survey methodologies, and at the same time, get to know more about the reality and statistical production of those countries, helps us strengthen ties and add to the developed of these nations. We also respond to what was expressed by President Lula, who recently declared he intends to visit African countries in coming months. In this respect, we are happy to host this event considering its future prospects,” said Marcio Pochmann, president of the IBGE, in the opening session of the meeting, at the IBGE headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro, last Tuesday (21).
Assa Guambe, national director of the Labour Market Observatory of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of Mozambique, sees the meeting as a positive opportunity to learn from the IBGE, especially regarding continuous survey methodologies: "We are going to leave here with a good practice of what Brazil is doing, because the way we have been working is quite costly, and that is why we cannot conduct [our surveys] on a continuous basis. We are making the most of our visit to the IBGE to improve ourselves and share our experiences" said the national director of the Labour Market Observatory in Mozambique.
To the IBGE's research director, Cimar Azeredo, this exchange of information strengthens the integration between Portuguese-speaking countries. "This event is important because Brazil has advanced a lot in recent years in terms of labour market information. The idea is to show them how we are organized regarding issues such as forced labour, child labour, unemployment, workforce and how Brazil has managed to organize itself to provide all this type of information," said Mr. Azeredo.
Idálio Luiz, director of the Census Surveys in Saint Thomas and Prince, highlighted the richness of the meeting. "This exchange between countries is enriching as we listen to the experiences of other countries, which will guide us and help us produce our own data. Our system is integrated with other countries, I think it is interesting as there is a merging of the surveys that will reduce costs because the methodology is aligned and so is the system," added the director of the African country's census.
Anita Amorim, head of the South-South partnerships at IBGE, highlighted the deepening of cooperation relations between Lusophone countries, especially those in Africa. "In the case of Brazil, there is cooperation with the PALOP - Portuguese-speaking African countries - in various areas, such as combating child labor and labor inspection. Now we are starting to cooperate more on labor statistics. It is very important to share data and our goal is to maintain this partnership," said Anita.
The president of the National Statistics Council of Cape Verde, Carlos Mendes, highlighted the importance of this exchange of information for his country. "We are sharing experiences with various PALOP countries, led by the IBGE, where we are all working together to be able to implement and disseminate statistics. This event is fundamental for us in Cape Verde, [whose statistics institute] is still recent, founded just forty years ago," emphasized Mr. Mendes.
