Suva, Fiji (ILO News) - As the Fiji Government moves from the post tropical cyclone Winston humanitarian phase to recovery and reconstruction phase, supporting the capacity building of government officials is imperative to ensuring strengthened planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of programmes.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) in recognition of this need facilitated the training of Ms. Ateca Vakatora from the Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations to a course on “Job Creation in Fragile States” at the ILO International Training Centre in Turin, Italy from 16-20 May 2016.

"Such training opportunities to up-skill and motivate staff of the Ministry contributes to capacity building and has the potential to increase our chances of achieving the objectives of the Disaster Recovery Framework," Hon. Koroilavesau Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations stated.

The objective of the training was to expose participants to a range of integrated approaches, tools and methodologies to create decent jobs in countries or regions affected by fragility or crisis, including natural disasters.

“I feel more confident in supporting my Ministry as I understand the relevance of designing and implementing technical programmes in the emergency/humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction phase. I also had the opportunity to present the work the Ministry is engaged in along with ILO in the recovery phase”, said Ms. Vakatora.

Mr. Satoshi Sasaki, Officer-in-Charge of the ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries, said “We should be well prepared as natural disasters occur more frequently these days. This is why it is important for the relevant government officials to know how to cope with these situations and to build back better.”

Mr. Sasaki added that income generation opportunities for cyclone victims are critically important at the time of recovery whilst Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) focus on recovery and address the medium to long term perspectives for disaster preparedness.