Introduction.
First: Sope stage.
Second: Design stage.
Third: Organization stage.
Fourth: Collection stage.
Fifth: Disaggregation stage.
Sixth: Revision stage.
Seventh: Publication stage.
Eighth: Evaluation stage.
Ninth: Managment stage.

Introduction:

GASTAT implements all its statistical works in accordance with a unified methodology that compile with the nature of each statistical product. It relies on the Manual of the Statistical Procedures which conforms with the procedures adopted by the international organizations. The statistical product goes through eight connected stages, in addition to a ninth stage  (the comprehensive "management" stage), which are as follows: 

The first three stages (Scope, design, and organization)  are collaborative stages between GASTAT and its clients from the different developmental entities. However, the fourth stage  (Data collection)  is a collaborative stage between GASTAT and the statistical community either households or establishments, in order to complete data and information. On the other hands, the rest of the stages are considered statistical stages carried out by GASTAT, including (Disaggregation, revision, and publication). After that, the eighth stage  (Evaluation)  is done through collaboration with clients again, whereas the  (Management)  stage is an administrative and organizational stage the is connected with all stages. These stages have been applied on the  Voluntary Work survey as follows:

 First Stage: The scope:

The first step in the process of producing (Voluntary Work survey), it is also the first collaborative stage between GASTAT and a number of relevant governmental and private sectors, such as the Ministry of Economy and Planning, Ministry of Labour and Social Development and institutions and associations concerned with voluntary work. Many workshops and meeting have been held between GASTAT and these entities to understand their needs and requirements as they are considered the most important beneficiaries of the Voluntary Work results. Their views were taken into account to ensure that all the objectives of the Voluntary Work Survey were met, which are summarized as follows:

1. Supporting decision and policy makers, researchers, and those who are interested in getting up-to-date and comprehensive statistics related to voluntary work in Saudi Arabia.
2. Empowering the government and private sectors to investigate the voluntary work changes and get use of them in the preparation and planning of future social and economic development programs in Saudi Arabia, in addition to increasing the effectiveness of voluntary work.
3. Providing the academic sectors with the requirements of social and economic studies and research.
4. Providing up-to-date statistics on:

• Estimating the percentage of volunteers during the last four weeks. 
• Estimating the percentage of volunteers during the last twelve months.
• Estimating the average voluntary work hours during the last four weeks. 
• Estimating the average voluntary work hours during the last twelve months
• Identifying the nature of voluntary work in terms of its frequency and fields through (institutions and individuals). 
• Providing detailed data on voluntary works by occupations and economic activity. 

At this stage the statistics to be published were verified to make sure it meets the requirements of the Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, in addition to its coverage of regional requirements such as (the Statistical Center of GCC countries) and the international requirements  of (ILO).

Second Stage: The design:

The stage of designing the statistical work as it is considered a whole product. Through this stage, the statistical community is determined, statistical framework, survey sample, and questionnaire are designed, methods and tools of data collection are identified, and sampling units are specified. Clients collaborate in all these procedures to benefit from their feedbacks, so that all requirements can be achieved within the statistical product..

2.1. Statistical community:

The most important outputs of this stage are: 

Statistical community of the voluntary work survey consists of all individuals (Saudis and non-Saudis) who habitually live in Saudi Arabia.

2.2. Statistics sources:

It is based on the Household Survey (Voluntary Work Survey) conducted by GASTAT for the first time in 2018 as a source of data. It is also a household field survey that falls under the category of (Social Statistics) in which information is collected by visiting a representative sample of all administrative regions in Saudi Arabia and completing an electronic questionnaire containing a number of questions. This provides estimates and indicators related to volunteers from the population (15+) who settle in Saudi Arabia, as well as the most important indicators of voluntary work such as the percentages of volunteers, in addition to measuring opinions about volunteering.

2.3. Terminologies and Concepts in the Voluntary Work Survey :

2.3.1. Survey Sample: all household members who share the same dwelling including domestic workers and the like.

2.3.2. Household: An individual or a group of individuals - with or without kinship binding them to one another - who share residence and food during the enumeration. The household includes:

1. 1Saudi individuals who usually live with the household but they were absent while the survey was conducted for being temporarily away  (abroad).  For example: businessmen, tourists, people who travel for medication, students studying abroad on a scholarship.
2. Individuals who usually live with the household but have been absent while the survey was conducted for taking shifts, such as guards, physicians, nurses, airport staff and fishers .
3. Domestic workers such as servants, drivers and the like who are living with the same household.   
4. Individuals travelling inside Saudi Arabia. 

2.3.3. Voluntary work: Any activity (or contribution) where an individual provides services for no financial gain to benefit another person or any (governmental, profit, or non-profit) organization, but not for any household member. The voluntary activity is not obligatory, it is optional.

Based on this definitions, a work is considered a voluntary one when: 

1. It is not paid (excluding allowances of transportation, costs of living, or the like which are paid for an actual action performed by the volunteer).  
2. It lasts for one hour at least during the reference periods. 
3. It is not provided for one of the household members, for example, taking care of one of the household members, or teaching them is not considered a voluntary work. 
4. The volunteer is not forced to work, but carry out this work with his /her own free will. The voluntary work can be done by (non-profit or profit governmental) institution, or by performed to serve someone, for example, (cooking or delivering food to poor people- helping a blind person- or taking care of a sick person). 

It is worthy note that the time spent for entertainment or on social media is not included within volunteer work domain. However, the time spent on social media for social / developmental / human purpose is considered volunteer work.

The volunteer work can be expanded to include all unpaid works done by an individual in activities for the benefit of public, institution, individual, or individuals. Some domains related to volunteer work are humanitarian activities such as: providing relief and support for vulnerable groups or needy persons as well as improving aspects of life of those in need. Volunteer work also covers development fields, such as: )education, health, environment, etc.( and services provided to pilgrims and Umrah performers..

2.3.4. Volunteers: Population (15 years+) who provided assistance including any unpaid work or (contribution) done by the individual for serving others for at least one hour during the periods of reference, provided that it is an optional work and is not for the benefit of any member of the household.

2.3.5. Volunteers over the past four weeks: Population (15 +) who carried out, during the periods of reference (the previous four weeks), one of the following work: 

Assisting and helping others for at least one hour for free, without salary or profit (cash or in kind) in the domains of business, industrial or agricultural work.

2.3.6. Volunteers over the past 12 months: Population (15 +) who carried out, during the periods of reference (the previous 12 months), one of the following work: 

Assisting and helping others for at least one hour for free, without salary or profit (cash or in kind) in the domains of business, industrial or agricultural work.

2.3.7. Volunteers using the internet over the past 12 months: Volunteers (15 +) who used the internet while carrying out one of the volunteer works.

2.3.8. Average voluntary work hours during the last four weeks: An indicator measures the average voluntary work hours for volunteers (15 +) during the last four weeks. It is the total number of volunteer hours done in the last four weeks to the total volunteers (15 +) during the last four weeks.

2.3.9. Average voluntary work hours during the last 12 months: An indicator measures the average voluntary work hours for volunteers (15 +) during the last 12 months. It is the total number of volunteer hours done in the last 12 months to the total volunteers (15 +) during the last 12 months. 

Examples of the voluntary work which is considered within or outside the scope of the recommended definition: 

2.4. Indicators:

To calculate teh Voluntary Work Indicators, GASTAT relied on the following formulas: 

2.5. Used Statistical Classifications: 

Classification is identified as an organized group of related categories which are used to collect data according to similarity. Classification is the base for data collection and dissemination in various statistical fields, such as: (economic activity, products, expenses, occupations or health…. etc). classifying data and information helps to put them in meaningful categories to produce useful statistics. In fact, data collection requires an accurate organization and based on their common features to create reliable and comparable statistics. On the other hand, labor market statistics are based on the international standards of data collection and classification and rely on the following classifications:  

2.5.1. The National Classification of Economic Activities (ISIC4)

It is a statistical classification that is based on the unified international industrial classification of all economic and productive activities. it can be defined as (all the works and services practiced or provided by the establishments whether these services have achieved a financial return or not as in the case of charity institutions which mainly depend on donations.   

2.5.2. Saudi Classification of Proffessions: 

It is a statistical classification which is based on ISCO that provides a system to classify and collect professions’ information where they can be obtained by statistical surveys and census.

This classification is used in the Labour Force Survey in order to classify employees based on their professions.

2.5.3.  Classification of Educational Levels: 

It is a statistical classification that is based on ISCED which is the reference for organizing educational programs and related qualifications based on the education levels and fields. It covers all the educational programs, levels and methods of learning as well as all the educational stages from kindergarten until higher education. This classification is used in the Labor Force Survey to classify individuals 15 years and above according to their majors and education levels .

2.5.4.  National Guide for Countries and Nationalities: 

It is an international and unified classification that covers countries and their affiliated territories, and based on ISO (country code 3166). The classification gives codes to countries and their affiliated territories. Using these codes and numbers instead of the country name is more beneficial for statistical purposes in which it saves time and avoids any errors.

2.6. Design of Survey Questionnaire: 

the survey’s questionnaire was prepared and designed by voluntary work survey specialists in the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). When designing the questionniare, the international recommendations and standards issued by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in the field of voluntary work statistics were taken into consideration. The questionnaire was presented to the ILO experts during their visit to GASTAT and to the relevant bodies as well to consider their feedback and observations. The questions were formed in a specified and unified way between researchers.