QUEZON CITY, March 9, (PIA) - -The International Labor Organization (ILO) will provide a livelhood grant to some 36 municipalities in Visayas that were ravaged by typhoon Yolanda.
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano–Soliman and ILO Country Office Director Lawrence Jeff Johnson signed a grant agreement on Monday (March 9, 2015) at the DSWD’s central office in Quezon City to support sustainable livelihood and community enterprise development in the 36 municipalities in Tacloban, Leyte, Northern Cebu and Coron in Palawan.
Under the agreement, the ILO will provide US$480,000 to DSWD to rebuild livelihood assets and to support community-driven enterprises. The agreement further stipulated that it will assist 1,200 vulnerable workers and guarantee minimum wage, social security, health, and accident insurance coverage. Personal protective equipment such as masks, hats, gloves, boots, and protective clothing will also be provided to ensure safety at work.
The ILO estimated that about 6 million workers were affected when Typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines in November 2013. Of these, 2.6 million workers were already in vulnerable employment and living near or at the poverty line even before the onslaught of the storm.
Typhoon Ruby and Seniang that entered the country in December 2014 affected the same communities erasing whatever progress made to uplift the affected people and further aggravated their situation.
The livelihood grant comes at an opportune time, when international humanitarian aid is dwindling and the focus of the response is shifting towards long-term development, with the government in the driving seat.
“This partnership with ILO will provide ‘Yolanda’ survivors with sustainable and decent sources of livelihood to help them regain normalcy in their lives as well as protect them from exploitation,” Sec. Soliman said.
On his part, Director Jeff Johnson said that ILO will support the Philippine government in building back the lives of the affected people through decent work and sustainable livelihood.
“Together, we will reach out to Workers in vulnerable employment, who often have no choice but to accept or create whatever work is available in order to survive,” emphasized Dir. Johnson
The project will continue until June 2015 and will take an integrated approach, using DSWD’s Cash for Building Livelihood Assets and the Community-Driven Enterprise Development approaches, while complementing ILO’s experience on placing decent work and livelihood at the forefront of disaster response and recovery. (DSWD/RJB/LFB/PIA-NCR)
See more at: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/221425912059/ilo-to-provide-livelihood-grant-to-36-yolanda-stricken-municipalities#sthash.iLk6ZDnW.dpuf
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