ISLAMABAD: The International Labour Organization has initiated short-term job creation opportunities for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan, aimed at avoiding their long term protracted unemployment.
The ILO will set up Emergency Employment Information Centre (EEIC) and start registering IDPs for provision of employment under different work modalities.
The immediate provision of short-term employment and livelihood opportunities in crisis situations around the world has resulted in numerous benefits including preserving human dignity.
The other benefits are creating a sense of ownership and pride to crisis-affected people for not becoming a burden on anyone rather contributing towards well-being of fellows, reducing the level of trauma and psychological stress by engagement in productive activities and providing adequate and continued income to look after basic human and family needs.
The provision of short-term employment would also be helpful in reducing the burden on resources of the government and host areas by provision of additional working hands and reduces the dependency syndrome.
In this regard, the ILO has also asked the government to provide short-term jobs to North Waziristan IDPs on priority basis.
An ILO's reconnaissance mission to Bannu on Friday revealed that a large number of IDPs were sitting idle most of the day either on the sidelines of distribution hubs or in the city areas due to non-availability of any productive engagement for them.
The mission also observed the prevalence of Child Labour in the area which seems inevitable due to economic stress on the families but this is not condonable and should be restricted by providing immediate alternate employment opportunities to adult family members.
Due to lack of credible labour force statistics on FATA, it is also very difficult to assess the actual magnitude of job losses and plan for the workforce accordingly.
In view of this situation, ILO in collaboration with other UN Agencies operating in the area (i.e. WFP and UNDP), has designed and funded a gender sensitive intervention to facilitate short-term employment for the internally displaced families and engage them in productive activities.
While some persons could be engaged in direct employment through cash-for-work, others would be supported through provision of work tools to look for work on their own and others could be facilitated in getting employment with other organizations or with well-off local families e.g. as domestic helpers or care givers.
In addition to its available resources, the ILO is also in process of mobilizing resources and developing partnerships for these interventions and will expand the scope of its interventions in future.
A database of skilled workers would also be prepared to be shared with prospective employers in the local areas.
The current strategy is an initial response plan designed in line with the initial priorities identified by the Community Restoration (CoRe) Cluster, co-chaired by the Government.
The strategy is two-pronged and will lay the foundation for short-term employment and livelihoods by (i) providing immediate quick impact support to the affected communities to generate jobs and incomes and (ii) put in place the building blocks for long-term recovery.
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