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ILO/CRISIS participates in several frameworks and cooperative efforts with other international agencies. These further the goal of integrating employment concerns in crisis prevention and response, and allow the ILO to place decent work on the international crisis agenda.
ILO-UNHCR Technical Cooperation Partnership
This partnership, launched in February 2004, centres on the rapid deployment of ILO experts to conflict-affected countries. Together with UNHCR staff, the experts work to promote employment and income-generating opportunities for refugees and others of concern to UNHCR. The partnership covers several technical areas, including microfinance, micro and small enterprise development, Local Economic Development, support for cooperatives, vocational training, women’s empowerment, and employment-intensive investment. An ILO-UNHCR Working Group supervises joint projects, and the programme has also produced short guides and a CD-ROM on sustainable livelihoods for refugees and returnees. Projects have been concluded in 14 countries so far.
ILO-World Bank Partnership in Livelihood Recovery
The ILO and World Bank are working together to use demand-driven approaches to support livelihoods after armed conflicts. A key initial activity has been analysing each agency’s experience with its own such approach: Local Economic Development (LED) for the ILO and Community Driven Development (CDD) for the Bank. The partnership’s founding assumption is that generating livelihoods in conflict-affected areas improves self-esteem and self-reliance and boosts the local economy. This, in turn, promotes peace, stability and development. In October 2005, the ILO and the Bank published a joint study that explored ways to apply demand-driven approaches in post-war situations. The study identified several benefits of these approaches in conflict-affected areas and recommended eight “operational principles.” Currently, the ILO and the Bank are piloting the principles, practices and recommendations in the study in a co-led pilot project in Aceh Province, Indonesia. Aceh, which recently emerged from a 30-year civil war, is also one of the areas hardest hit by the December 2004 tsunami. The project will be evaluated and the partners will incorporate resulting findings on the application of the CDD and LED approaches in future joint operations.
International Recovery Platform (IRP)
This interagency platform is one of the major pillars of the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action, adopted in January 2005. The IRP aims to reduce disaster risks and vulnerability in the context of disaster recovery efforts. The strategy is to close capacity gaps in post-disaster response and recovery by eliminating the socio-economic factors that magnify risk and disaster damage. This stems from the conviction that natural disasters affect vulnerable people, perhaps those in unsafe dwellings or those excluded from relevant resources, more than others. The IRP’s efforts, then, focus on mainstreaming a culture of prevention, mainly by encouraging and facilitating the adoption of appropriate recovery practices across disaster-affected populations. The ILO is one of the founding members and leads work in the IRP’s Training and Capacity Building (CB) component. The mandate of the IRP’s CB component is to contribute to the enhancement of post-disaster recovery operations by ensuring that the necessary capacities are in place. This task will be accomplished by: 1. ensuring the full use and enhancement of available resources and tools; 2. fostering intra- and inter-regional partnerships among training providers and other entities active in disaster management; and 3. helping to address capacity building gaps by developing tools and curricula in those technical areas where deficiencies exist.
ILO-FAO Partnership
The ILO’s partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in joint emergency response builds on a tradition of cooperation between the two agencies dating from 1947. Currently, the partnership aims to help the most vulnerable crisis victims through joint needs evaluations and common work to promote livelihoods in urban and rural areas. This reinforces links between agricultural activities and income generation, reducing dependence on food aid as soon as possible after a crisis. Contact between ILO/CRISIS and the FAO on these themes began in 2005 in the framework of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Working Group on Early Recovery. FAO and ILO have been designated by the participating agencies as co-leaders of work on livelihoods, employment and agriculture. The agencies put their cooperation into effect during the UN response to the earthquake in South Asia in October 2005, when FAO and ILO teams worked together on issues of common interest. In another example of concrete collaboration, the agencies began joint activities on Nias Island, Indonesia, in January 2006. Nias was devastated by the December 2004 tsunami, with 90% of its more than 750,000 people affected and 80% of buildings in the capital city destroyed. ILO and FAO are focusing on restoring sustainable livelihoods and reducing socio-economic vulnerability in the fishing sector, where livelihoods were hit the hardest. The collaboration includes identification of job opportunities in the sector, provision of fishing equipment, vocational training in productive areas and methodologies, and capacity building in business management through the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business tools.
Post Emergency Centre (PEC)
The Post Emergency Centre initiative intends to build bridges between relief and development and function as a service provider for the UN system, donors, and national, regional, and local institutions. PEC will in particular support the implementation of post-emergency operations, training and capacity building, and knowledge management. In this context PEC will also organize technical meetings and conferences to promote the harmonization of post-crisis responses. The PEC Inter-Agency Steering Committee, which provides guidelines for the annual PEC work plan, will review project proposals submitted by one or more agencies represented on the Inter-Agency Steering Committee. Project proposals deemed of priority interest will be funded with resources made available through the PEC.
UN Working Group on Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (WGDDR)
Fourteen UN departments, agencies, funds, and programmes have been working since April 2004 on a common approach to DDR. The goals are to enable organizations to pursue
DDR activities in a clear, agreed framework while facilitating planning, monitoring, training, and funding. The ILO participated fully in the first phase of this effort, the development of the Integrated DDR Standards. These cover some 30 areas of work and were reviewed at a conference in October 2004 and tested in an inter-agency simulation in May 2005. An inter-agency working group has also developed other administrative and strategic elements, and the integrated approach has been piloted in two peacekeeping missions. The Integrated DDR Standards are to be launched in 2006. ILO/CRISIS intends to remain a key participant as this framework evolves.
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