Southern Africa: SADC Member States Begin Final Stage of Labour Market Observatory Development

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), convened the SADC Labour Market Observatory (LMO) Data Preparation and ETL Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 20-24 October 2025. This workshop is the third and final workshop in the series of workshop held for the implementation of the SADC LMO.

The implementation of the SADC LMO will result in the production of a platform that will compile and organise data from Member States, to report on different dimensions of Decent Work.

The workshop marks the final technical phase in the development of the SADC Labour Market Observatory, a regional system that will consolidate harmonised labour market data from all SADC Member States. The activity follows earlier workshops on SDMX and data modelling and focuses on uploading, validating, and testing national datasets on the LMIS.Stat platform is an essential step before the Observatory's official launch.

Speaking during the opening session, Dr Maxwell Parakokwa, Senior Programme Officer - Employment, Labour and Youth at the SADC Secretariat, highlighted that the Observatory represents a major regional achievement in advancing evidence-based policymaking and promoting decent work. "Through the LMO, Member States will have access to comparable, timely, and quality labour market data that supports decision-making, planning, and employment policy development," Dr Parakokwa noted.

The five-day workshop brings together labour statisticians, ICT experts, and labour market analysts from across the region to complete the data upload, validate indicators, and review the visualisation tools and dashboards supporting regional reporting and analysis.

On the sidelines of the meeting, participants also joined the global community in celebrating World Statistics Day 2025, under the theme "Driving Change with Quality Statistics and Data for Everyone." The celebration underscored the importance of reliable data as the foundation for development and regional integration.

The SADC Labour Market Observatory is being developed under the SADC Regional Statistics Project, financed by the World Bank. It will serve as a regional hub for labour market information, strengthening coordination, comparability, and accessibility of data across all Member States.

Read the original article on SADC.