Improving capacities for employment, livelihoods and social protection assessments during disasters

The ILO delivered a first time training in Fiji on Employment, Livelihoods & Social Protection (ELSP) assessment as part of its technical assistance to the government led Post Disaster Needs Assessment.

News | 19 April 2016
ILO (SUVA) - The category 5 tropical cyclone Winston directly affected 350,000 people. Of these 180,000 are men and 170,000 women including 4,534 Persons with Disabilities [PDF, 2016]. Total preliminary damages are estimated by government to be at U$500 million. The housing cluster reports that 24,000 houses has been damaged and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) estimates F$208.3 in losses.

 The Fiji PDNA was launched by government on 29th March 2016 and ended on 19th April, which also is the end of the national emergency/humanitarian phase. The ILO was the lead development partner for the ELSP sector assessment of the Fiji PDNA, supported by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The government lead for this sector was the Ministry of Employment, Productivity & Industrial Relations. 

“This is an important training for the ILO, our tripartite constituents and partner local civil society organisations as it will prepare us better for the next PDNA”, said Mr Satoshi Sasaki, the Office-in-Charge of the ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries. He also added that this was the 2nd ELSP assessment in the Pacific, and lessons from the Vanuatu PDNA was drawn to formulate ILO’s technical assistance.

Delivering the training was prominent global PDNA specialist Ms Asha Kambon, who was also the ILO lead consultant for the Fiji ELSP assessment. Ms Kambon was the government lead consultant for the 2012 Cyclone Evan PDNA and therefore her local experience was valuable.

A similar training was also conducted in Vanuatu after the category 5 cyclone Pam in 2015 where the ILO also led the ELSP assessment of the PDNA.

A total of 25 people attended this training which included staff of development partners, government agencies and local non-government organisations, including the private sector. Majority of the participants were involved in PDNA process, however, did not get the opportunity to undergo training prior to the PDNA.

This ILO will continue to invest in training and sharing relevant lessons learned in this specialised area to ensure an adequate pool of trained human resources is available in the Pacific.

The ILO also held a Q&A with Ms Asha Kambon. You can access it here.