BEIRUT (ILO News) - In the aftermath of the Beirut port blast in August, and with COVID-19 precautions and restrictions still in place across Lebanon, the International Labour Organization has been present on the field, mobilizing its resources to provide efficient support to Lebanon and its people on the local and national levels.

In commitment to its core mandate to promote decent working conditions and ensure that proper occupational safety and health (OSH) measures are implemented, the ILO has been concentrating many of its immediate efforts on the ongoing voluntary emergency, rubble-cleaning and reconstruction works. The ILO is supporting the Lebanese Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA) and the Lebanon Grassroots Initiative (LGI) by providing them with one thousand sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).

It also conducted a Training of Trainers (ToT) programme on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in construction, and COVID-19 preventive and protective measures, for one hundred OEA members. The programme aimed to promote safety and health standards and prevent work-related accidents, injuries, and infections during activities relating to damage assessment, demolition and reconstruction of buildings affected by the blast.

The ILO made this much needed and timely initiative possible through funds provided by its Employment Intensive Infrastructure Programme (EIIP), funded by Germany through the German Development Bank (KfW), as well as through mobilizing its own programme funds.