More than 5.3 million jobs lost due to floods

Reports of widespread destruction show that more than 5.3m jobs may have been lost in over 70 affected districts,

ISLAMABAD: Reports of widespread destruction show that more than 5.3 million jobs may have been lost in over 70 affected districts, an International Labour Office (ILO) report said on Tuesday.

Productive and labour-intensive job creation programmes are urgently needed to lift millions of flood affected people out of poverty, said the ILO Country Director Donglin Li. “By losing their employment even for a short period of time, workers in the affected districts have likely already fallen into extreme poverty,” said Li.

He said that as humanitarian and reconstruction efforts proceed, work must be done immediately to rebuilt people’s livelihoods.

Li said that rebuilding basic infrastructure such as roads, utility services, schools and hospitals, can create employment. Hence, labour-intensive methods will be utilised to ensue decent and productive jobs.

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. ILO said these programs will be undertaken immediately following the relief efforts currently underway.

According to the ILO, these programmes will 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 services will be rendered in both rural and urban areas to rebuild small businesses and income-generating assets. Institutional mechanisms will be created to ensure that financial support from the outside world, including remittances from overseas, is channelled toward meeting urgently needed basic services, the ILO said.

An initial assessment indicated that the floods caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, agriculture and livestock in all affected provinces - including Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The assessment found that residents of the badly afflicted areas are amongst the poorest in Pakistan and would require “substantial support to rebuild their income-generating prospects”.

The ILO also cautioned that the floods could aggravate the already vulnerable position of children, many of whom may be left orphaned, homeless, and out of school in wake of the disaster. In addition, women and youth 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.