ILO Responds Quickly to the

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ILO Responds Quickly to the Gujarat Earthquake in
India
by J. Krishnamurty IFP/CRISIS
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The Impact of the Earthquake

• The affected population is about 16 million, more
  than twice the population of Switzerland.
• The total loss of property has been placed at US
  4.6 billion
• The death toll is now estimated at around 30,000.
  More than 165, 000 people were injured.
• Some 330,000 houses were destroyed and another
  750,000 were damaged.
• The immediate job losses and reduction in
  employment opportunities over the year have not
  yet been estimated.

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The International Response

• The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank
  have provided about US700 million for the
  reconstruction programme.
• Other governments and international NGOs have
  also directly assisted through projects and
  programmes.
• The United Nations is coordinating the relief
  efforts of 250 organizations within and outside
  of the UN system and has committed US50 million
  to the effort.

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The National Response

• The national and State governments have mobilized
  financial and real resources on a massive scale
  to address the problem. Other States in India
  have also assisted Gujarat.
• Apart from private philanthropy, the corporate
  sector, employers organizations, chambers of
  commerce and groupings of industry will take part
  in rebuilding the economy of the affected region.
• Workers and their organizations have contributed
  to the effort by donating, in many enterprises,
  one days earnings, matched by employers
  contributions. Unions and their members have
  also directly contributed to the relief effort.

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The ILO and Crises
Crises test our resolve to provide women and men
decent work in conditions of freedom, equity,
security and dignity. The ILO response has to
both coherent and rapid

• we need to develop a package of interventions
  which matches the expressed needs of our
  constituents and contributes to the efforts of
  the affected population to maintain dignity and
  self-reliance.
• we need to pick on our strengths and select
  interlinked activities that fall within our
  mandate.
• we need to design interventions and select
  partners in such a way that our response is truly
  rapid.

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The Immediate ILO Response

• Jointly with the ILO Area Office in New Delhi,
  the InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and
  Reconstruction at headquarters responded within
  days to the disaster by fielding three
  consultants to assess the situation and come up
  with suggestions and project ideas.
• This was followed up by missions by IFP/CRISIS
  and GENPROM from headquarters to develop a rapid
  response intervention with SEWA to promote
  shelter and livelihoods, and to initiate other
  activities.

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Some Obstacles

• The humanitarian assistance community does not
  often recognize that a major and immediate impact
  is the loss of employment and income-earning
  opportunities and related social and economic
  distress for significant sections of the
  population hit by the disaster.
• ILOs capacity to contribute right from the
  start, to relief, reconstruction and development
  is still not widely known to the humanitarian
  agencies.

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Some Positive Outcomes

• The presence of our national consultants in the
  disaster area within days of the earthquake
  provided the ILO with a field presence and an
  opportunity to articulate ILO concerns in local
  level discussions with other key national and
  international actors.
• Other agencies like the IOM, WFP and UNICEF have
  noted our early presence and work and have shown
  interest in collaborating with us.

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What Next?
The New Delhi Office, with the assistance of the
IFP/CRISIS and GENPROM, has put together a
package of inter-related measures to address the
crisis, focussing not only on recovery and
reconstruction, but also on the return to
development.

• The objective is
• to provide a quick response based on an
  assessment of the situation.
• to concentrate on what the people immediately
  need.

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The Package

• The package includes
• A model programme for social and economic
  reconstruction for 10 villages in Kutch District,
  funded by the ILO and implemented by SEWA.
• Further measures to promote labour-intensive
  reconstruction, including linking with major
  programmes for reconstruction.
• A study of the response of the corporate sector
  to the relief and rehabilitation needs.
• Studies of the impact of the earthquake (coming
  after successive years of drought in the region)
  on employment, poverty, migration, insecurity and
  coping mechanisms.

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Thank you