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[1]
OneWorld.net
19 October 2005
Quake could have destroyed 1 million jobs in Pakistan
GENEVA: More than 1.1 million jobs may have been
lost as a result of the south Asian earthquake
that devastated parts of Pakistan, the
International Labour Office (ILO) said today,
adding that productive and labour intensive job
creation programmes are urgently needed to lift
millions of people out of poverty that has been
aggravated by quake damage.
"Reports of widespread destruction show that the
livelihoods of millions of people are threatened
or have been destroyed", said ILO
Director-General Juan Somavia. "As humanitarian
and reconstruction efforts proceed, we must begin
working immediately to ensure that initiatives
are established to monitor and create decent and
productive employment and rebuild peoples'
livelihoods."
An initial assessment */ conducted in the days
following the south Asian earthquake on 8 October
indicated that it caused the widespread
destruction of most infrastructure and shops in
the affected towns in the region - including the
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan
administered Kashmir, with heavy loss of
livestock and agricultural implements required
for income generation in the rural areas. The
assessment added that residents of the badly
afflicted parts of Pakistan would require
"substantial support to rebuild their
income-generating prospects".
Compounding the devastation was the fact that the
areas affected are amongst the poorest in
Pakistan, the ILO said. The ILO estimates that
total employment in the affected areas was around
2.4 million at the time of the disaster and that
over 2 million of these workers and their
families were living below the poverty line of
less than US $2 per person per day before the
disaster struck.
"By losing their employment, even for a short
period of time, workers in the affected districts
have likely already fallen into extreme poverty",
Mr. Somavia said.
Impact on dependents, women and girls and children
Prior to the earthquake, each employed person in
the region also supported on average, more than
two additional dependants, the ILO said, adding
"this means that the 1.1 million workers who lost
their employment not only provided their own
livelihoods, but also the livelihoods of an
additional 2.4 million people, over half of whom
were estimated to be under the age of 15".
"Reviving the rural economy where most people in
the affected areas live and work is both urgent
and challenging", the initial assessment said.
"Prior to the earthquake over 1.4 million workers
in the area were engaged in agricultural
activities, an estimated 40 per cent or more of
whom are now without work. Livestock which
provides essential dairy products and the animal
power to cultivate the land has also suffered
badly."
The ILO assessment also noted that while the
medium and small-sized towns in the area that
provided jobs and incomes to almost a third of
the population lie in ruins, the informal economy
where most people worked in the urban areas had
also been destroyed. Rebuilding the minimum of
assets to revive the urban informal economy
requires urgent support, the ILO said.
In total, the ILO estimates that around 730,000
workers were employed in the service sector (many
in the informal economy), while 230,000 worked in
industry (comprised of construction,
manufacturing, utilities and mining). Taken
together, more than half of these workers have
likely lost one of their primary sources of
income.
Employment-Focused Response Needed Urgently
In order to meet the needs of the population in
the afflicted areas, the ILO urged that
programmes aimed at generating new employment and
other income-producing opportunities be
incorporated into the rehabilitation and
reconstruction programmes that will need to be
immediately undertaken following the relief
efforts now underway.
These would include employment support services
to provide both information and short-term
training for the jobs that will be generated
through the reconstruction effort; financial and
institutional support to rebuild small businesses
and income-generating assets in both the rural
and urban areas; channelling of financial support
from the outside world, including remittances
from overseas toward meeting urgently needed
basic services; and the creation of institutional
mechanisms to ensure that this happens.
"Rebuilding the basic infrastructure - roads,
utility services, schools and hospitals - can
create employment", Mr. Somavia said. "This means
ensuring that decent and productive yet
labour-intensive methods are utilised."
Such programmes would include:
- Identifying and registering the affected
population who have lost their livelihoods.
- Recording and classifying job seekers and
allocating workers to reconstruction efforts in
need of skilled labour.
- Developing local capacities to implement emergency employment services.
- Linking unemployed people with available work opportunities.
- Assisting in restoring the capacity of local
government to provide basic services needed by
the population and to coordinate rebuilding
efforts during both emergency and post-emergency
phases.
- Assisting in the rehabilitation and
reconstruction of public infrastructure with
focus on employment intensive approaches to
maximize job opportunities for local population.
* Providing short-term skills-training for
men and women from severely affected households
to be able to be engaged in reconstruction effort.
* Providing skills training and
micro-business management training to regenerate
immediately needed employment and livelihood
opportunities for severely affected households.
Proposals covering all these elements have been
included in a US$ 272 million flash appeal
launched by the United Nations on Tuesday.
The ILO also cautioned that the earthquake could
aggravate the already vulnerable position of
children, many of whom may be left orphaned,
homeless, and out of school in the wake of the
disaster, and force them to seek alternative
forms of support. In addition, women and youth in
the region have traditionally found it
particularly difficult to find decent employment
opportunities and to secure a life outside of
poverty. Without immediate help, poverty among
these groups will grow, leaving thousands more
young people and women with little hope for the
future, the assessment report said.
"Working in the aftermath of this earthquake is
not going to be easy", Mr. Somavia said. "These
are proud people who have over generations fought
against the region's difficult terrain to earn
for themselves and their families a better
living. Much of their hard won assets have been
destroyed. What is needed urgently is to monitor
and support the creation of decent jobs and
livelihoods in the future. The ILO stands ready
to play its part in a global effort, along with
the national authorities, to assist families and
communities in rehabilitating the region,
rebuilding lives, and restoring hope."
o o o
[2]
Radio Australia
Last Updated 19/10/2005,
Pakistan begins massive job program for quake survivors
The International Labour Organisation estimates
that Pakistan's massive earthquake has caused the
loss of at least one million jobs.
The ILO says nearly all the survivors supported
at least two dependents in one of the country's
poorest areas, where people were living on less
than $US2 dollars a day before the disaster.
Farmland was torn apart and washed away in the
October 8 earthquake that claimed more than
41,000 lives.
The government plans to create jobs by employing
quake survivors in reconstruction, but experts
warn it will be a long time before the Himalayan
region has anything approaching stable employment.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has set up a plan for
the "early rehabilitation" of earthquake victims.
An official in his secretariat says the prime
minister has directed government agencies to
employ local people in reconstruction activities
and train them, because thousands of masons,
wood-workers, supervisors and labourers are
needed.
However, the Sungi Development Foundation, a
non-government organisation that works with
mountain communities, says unemployment will be a
long-term problem as the disaster has destroyed
the entire economic base.
"The loss of livelihood and agriculture is
manifold and multi-dimensional, and would
continue for a long time," said Manzoor Ahmed
Awan, a disaster management expert at the
foundation.
"Thousands of families' bread-winners have died
or been injured or disabled in the earthquake and
because just one or two people usually fend for
the entire family, the loss of livelihood is
enormous," he said.
"In this bleak scenario the only silver lining is
the reconstruction activity when it starts in an
organised manner, because it would generate
employment for the local population."
Mr Awan stressed that Pakistan must ensure that
those desperate for work do not neglect
rebuilding their own homes.
"People must be paid a wage for building their
own homes. If they are working to sustain
themselves, they will not be able to reconstruct
their own shelters," Awan said.
Sources© ABC 2005
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