Press Releases : 18/01/05

ILO ESTIMATES 1 MILLION PEOPLE LOST LIVELIHOOD IN SRI LANKA AND INDONESIA
The International Labour Office (ILO) today urged that "employment-intensive" jobs creation strategies be integrated into the humanitarian and reconstruction response to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Asia that destroyed the livelihoods of an estimated 1 million persons in Indonesia and Sri Lanka alone.

The flooding of coastal areas, destruction of homes and buildings, tourism infrastructure, roads and bridges, water and electricity supplies, crops, irrigation and fishery infrastructure, productive assets and small businesses, has had a severe impact on the livelihoods of people in the most affected areas, the ILO said. What's more, the impact on the predominantly poor communities where people mainly live off the sea and marginal land has cost people not only their incomes, but also most of their meagre possessions.

In Sri Lanka, the tsunami has destroyed jobs numbering some 403,000 in the affected coastal districts. Up to two thirds of these jobs are in the informal economy (270,000). In addition to the 403,000 jobless there are a further number of people, estimated to be at least 400,000 requiring income support as a result of the disaster, having lost almost all sources of income either directly or from their family breadwinner (and in many cases also their shelter), making a total of about 800,000 men, women and children.

The victims urgently need some income replacement transfers to keep them above the subsistence level however most of the additional poverty is expected to prove temporary. Nevertheless, some people (including widows and orphans and the elderly) will require longer term or even permanent support through income transfer; this group is estimated to number as many as 55,000 people.

The ILO emphasized the importance that the response programme be delivered without prejudice or preference to any of the affected persons, and to reflect the ILO's concepts of Decent Work and collaboration amongst workers and employers.

To achieve measurable income security for the affected population the government has been working with the ILO to formulate a strategy which enables a mixture of income transfer mechanisms and rapid job recovery mechanisms to be put in place, which will comprise four components:

(1) Temporary conditional income transfer schemes through social assistance for the informal sector and unemployment benefits for the formal sector. This would include short-term labour-intensive community works schemes.

(2) Rapid job creation mechanisms through the wider use of labour-based technology in the infrastructure sectors achieved by selectively adjusting the balance between labour and equipment in current work methods;

(3) Rebuilding livelihoods in the micro, small and medium enterprises in the informal sector through a combination of grants, access to credit and training ;

(4) Long-term income replacement schemes for longer-term dependants for orphans, widows, the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Also important is the immediate protection and support to the newly vulnerable children through the ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

It is envisaged that this four-pronged strategy would be closely monitored through regular labour market and social protection field surveys in the affected areas, and through an expansion of emergency employment centres in the affected areas.

The ILO recognises in rebuilding the framework for employment, the pattern and distribution amongst different sectors of jobs in the future may differ from that prevailing in the past, and offers to some extent as an opportunity for modernization. The need for training or retraining in new skills may therefore well be important, and an initial, broad assessment of this requirement is presently being undertaken under the auspices of the MOLFE.

The ILO will work closely with other UN agencies, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on the country strategies for the recovery and development phase.