The tenth meeting of the Consortium Board (CB) of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) took place in the Palais des Nations, Geneva from 29 to 30 November 2004. Mr. John Hobcraft chaired the meeting.

Study Design and Sampling Working Group (SDSWG)

The SDSWG completed its main task of providing the document on sampling guidelines. The group will remain active consulting the CB methodological issues and providing occasional technical assistance to participating countries.

The discussion re–emphasized that the main focus of the GGS is the panel component of the sample. Supplementing the sample with the younger sub–population and securing the representativness of the cross–sectional samples at the waves 2 and 3 are left at the discretion of each participating country. The sample units over the age limit set at wave 1 (79) should be followed up in the consecutive waves (wave 2 and 3). The original sample design was based on four target sub–populations specified by gender (male, female) and age (reproductive, older). Based on more extensive pre–testing and simulation experiments, a strong encouragement is given towards increasing the sample so that data on 3000 respondents in each four sub–population could be obtained at Wave 3.

The CB found that GGP methodological instruments should include a document on fieldwork guidelines. Work on this document will be lead by the PAU with support from SDSWG. The fieldwork guidelines should concentrate on the operational aspects of the fieldwork.

Questionnaire Development Group 1 (QDG 1)

The GGS wave 1 questionnaire is finalized and is going to be published. Further activities of the working group encompass the review of the questionnaires used in the existing first waves of data collection and writing a conceptual paper about the wave 1 questionnaire.

Questionnaire Development Group 2 (QDG 2)

The group started the activities for the development of the GGS wave 2 core questionnaire. The discussion on substantial contents of the questionnaire was on the possible additional topics introduced and in the meantime securing the comparability with wave 1. Important new elements in the mandatory core GGS wave 2 questionnaire will be the event histories on labour force and educational activities. All the event histories contained in the wave I questionnaire will be continued in wave 2 to cover the time between the two waves.

In the wave 2 certain participating countries will opt for the adjustment of the sample to be cross-sectionally representative. For the newly included individuals all information collected in the wave 1 should also be collected. The solution to this issue should be standardized.

Administrative Records Group (ARG)

Norway currently remains a sole country intending to use administrative records as a supplement for a portion of the GGS wave 1 core questionnaire. Sweden reported having started activities in this area. The aim of the ARG should be the preparation of the position paper on the use of administrative records for supplementing the core GGS questionnaire. Scientists from other countries considering the use of administrative records are invited to join the ARG and contribute towards the position paper.

Analysis Group (AG)

The activities of the AG are still in the early stages. The group is working towards preparing the templates for standardized tables and possibly the accompanying text. The AG will work on the analytical tasks based on all the available data sources; i.e. micro–data (GGS), mezzo– and macro–data (contextual database). The AG received an endorsement from the CB to continue the work along the presented framework.

Criteria for participation in GGP Programme

The discussion resulted in a consensus favouring strict compliance with the criteria proposed at Spetses in order to secure international comparability of the data. The CB will seek possibilities to assist countries to comply with the criteria.