Group on National Accounts is currently undertaking the updating of the SNA a process to be completed by 2003. While a number of issues are under review' a revision and expansion of the production boundary is not intended. However the limitations due to the definition of the production boundary of the SNA do' not preclude making estimates for measuring non-market work (of women). It could be best approached in a satellite framework. The SNA recognizes flexibility, it can be used and adopted at different degrees of detail and its accounting framework can be supported by satellite accounts. The 1993 SNA suggests how satellite accounts can be used to present concepts that are additional to or differ from those in the central framework. For example, the Handbook on non-profit institutions that successfully elaborated recommendations in consistency with the SNA framework in the form of
proposing a satellite account.
If for any purpose - research or policy - these objectives or these rules and concepts were to be changed or made more flexible, it has to be done in a satellite account:
identifying education or health in the SNA, or the cost and the impact of economic activities on the environment for example, are typical issues to be treated within a parallel system of satellite accounts. The measurement of household production is also a case susceptible of such a treatment. In addition, a satellite account of household production can use the central framework without any change except the use of the extended concept of work, which is already debated in the SNA 1993 (see chapter 1, supra).
One of the major - although not explicit - argument is probably the limitation of imputations in the central system: if more than a half of the total GDP was to be the result of imputation - because the household production cannot be directly measured through transactions on markets - the analytical power of the system would be weakened. But at the same time, the founders of the SNA were conscious of the importance and the role of household production in the whole economy and for the economic welfare: this is why they went so far, within the SNA, towards the foundation and initialization of such an account. As a matter of fact, a satellite account of household production can be and must be, by nature and by construction, ready for inclusion in the central framework if it was decided to extend the production boundaries.
3.5 What are National Satellite Accounts?
• Satellite accounts or systems are methods by which the central framework of the SNA is expanded to increase the analytical capacity of the system without overburdening or disrupting it. These accounts allows for:
o The provision of additional data on particular concerns such as NMW;
o The use of alternative or complementary concepts, classification and accounting framework;
o Extended coverage of costs and benefits of human activities;
o Further analysis of data by means of relevant indicators and aggregates; and o Linkage of physical and monetary data.
3.6 Why National Satellite Accounts Now?
• The current UN 1993 SNA excludes majority of productive activities including NMW undertaken in the household for various reasons. Firstly, that the services provided have limited repercussions for the rest of the economy. Secondly, the services produced have no typical market prices for valuing them. Thirdly, the imputed values are not equivalent to the monetary values for analytical and policy-making purposes.
• Because of these justifications, the SNA recommends the use of NSA for recording domestic activities. While it is relevant to consider these arguments in the context of conceptual and methodological problems, the first argument could be contested for its validity since NMW interacts in many ways with the market. Further still, the simultaneous decision to produce and consume an output can also be applied to
market activities. Nevertheless, the major challenge remains is which framework of household production activities including NMW would best reflect the scope and the value of unpaid household work?
As the current SNA is based on marketable goods and services, it does not include most of the NMW. Work such as domestic services, child-care and care of the sick and elderly, as well as community services remain excluded. Such services are not only critically vital for the economy as a whole, but need to be taken seriously in development planning given the growing dynamics of their interface with the market economy. In developing countries, especially in Africa, the line between marketable and non-marketable services is an arbitrary one.
However, as discussed earlier, the major problem that needs to be resolved is that of accounting for NMW and its measurement and valuation. The question is, how regionally compatible and comparable methods to medsure and value NMW can be developed for Africa? In Africa especially where women do most of the NMW, ECA's programme on NMW is indeed timely for measuring outputs, imputing values and calculating the total value of household production, and providing estimates on women's and men's share in it and to the GDP. The work of ECA and its partners shows that there are tools to design a common framework of NMW for use in developing NSA on household production. As discussed in Module 1, ECA's initiative to develop an Africa-specific Guidebook (the ERG) is a step forward in developing regionally comparable NSA.
The ECA has paid particular attention to Africa by adapting tools for accounting for NMW to suit the conditions in the continent. For example, the lack of resources in African countries hinders regular time-use studies. Also the large proportion of the population that is illiterate make it difficult to import wholesome concepts and application techniques developed in industrialized countries. Thus, an Africa-specific Guidebook is expected to solve some of region-specific problems.
In addition to the rational to have an Africa-specific approach to establishing NSA, there also other reasons for NSA related to poverty reduction strategy that allow for more accurate analysis of:
o inequality in the distribution of NMW;
o productivity changes in NMW and shifts in women's work and family welfare;
o the contribution of women to GDP for sound policy and budget formulation.
o In many countries, labour force statistics not only underestimate the number of women but also the number, the variety and the importance of their economic activities: female economic participation rates are still very low in various regions (Middle East, North Africa, India, Latin America), when recorded by labour statistics women are relatively more numerous in the informal sector, informal employment, production for own final use, as own-account workers or as contributing family workers. Moreover, they are usually more involved than men in secondary activities and multiple jobs. As a consequence, not only their contribution to production is likely to be underestimated but also their share of income. In other words, a great number of women are invisible on the production side and on the income side as well. This means that in the SNA, the production and the income approach fail to estimate their contribution and a part of the value added is missing on the three sides (a part of their production being used as self-consumption).
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