After the Great Deluge: Rebuilding lives and livelihoods in Asia

Emergency relief aid is the priority in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe, but recovering jobs and livelihoods are an important part of reconstruction. Through labour-intensive infrastructure rehabilitation projects and other kinds of job creation, the ILO helps disaster victims rebuild their lives. Shukuko Koyama, Crisis Specialist in the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, reviews 10 years of ILO involvement in post-disaster reconstruction in the region. "Natural disasters cause not only loss of lives and tremendous physical damage but loss of employment and livelihoods too. Without the ability to support themselves individuals and their communities cannot rebuild," explains Sachiko Yamamoto, ILO Regional Director for the Asia and the Pacific Region. "Job creation and livelihood recovery issues should not be treated as an after-thought when creating disaster relief plans." Since the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, the ILO has responded positively to various crises that the country has encountered. ILO projects generated 150,000 days of work for women and men, helped to restore 100 kilometres of roads, trained 18,000 disaster-affected people in new skills, and rehabilitated more than 4,000 disaster-affected children from child labour. "Allowing people to regain their self-reliance and dignity is a vital part of sustainable social reconstruction," Ms Yamamoto concludes. "After disasters international assistance should aim to not only rebuild societies, but to build better ones. That requires decent work - work that is productive and comes with conditions of freedom, equity, with security and human dignity," she adds.