Community-based emergency employment

Community-based Emergency Employment (Cash-for-Work) and Reconstruction Project

The project aimed to implement an employment and livelihood recovery response in the aftermath of the Typhoon Washi and ensure a job-rich recovery process resilient to future natural disasters by applying a climate change adaptation approach.

The project developed guidelines and technical manuals that can be used in future disaster situations in the Philippines. The project will directly benefit 2,400 vulnerable women and men by creating 82,000 work-days.

The following summarized prescribed activities and outputs.

1.  Medium-term response
  • Focus on creating immediate employment by clearing affected areas of the tons of mud and debris left by the floods.
  • Improve on the residents' mobility to reach sources of basic goods and services.
  • Allow aid agencies to get to isolated areas to provide emergency aid and relief.
  • Consider provision of standard wages, health and safety of workers and role of women in the emergency response activities.
  • Apply labour-based methods in declogging drainage canals, clearing classrooms, repairing damaged school facilities and applying erosion control measures on unstable or steep slopes.
  • Provide appropriate tools with personal protective equipment (PPE) and social protection benefits such as PhilHealth, social security and accident insurance.
2.  Medium-term response
  • Assist the most vulnerable to have gainful jobs through medium-term employment-intensive reconstruction works as prelude to the longer-term livelihood development and recovery.
  • Help communities restore damaged infrastructures and community assets using local resources that include labour, skills and materials.
  • Help in the establishment of relocation sites, transfer of affected families and the rehabilitation and construction of disaster preparedness risk reduction infrastructures like river bank protection, erosion control, reforestation, improved drainage systems, all-weather access road and other utilities.
  • Provide local resource-based approaches for the rehabilitation of infrastructure and other community facilities.
  • Help affected communities to adapt to changing weather patterns and contribute to their long-term resilience.
  • Follow recent ILO guidelines developed for this purpose.
  • Ensure decent work standards are safeguarded in all activities.
  • Let 400 poor and vulnerable women and men and their families to benefit and create 32,000 work-days of medium-term employment opportunities.

For further information please contact:

ILO Country Office for the Philippines (CO-Manila)
19th Floor, Yuchengco Tower
RCBC Plaza, 6819 Ayala Avenue
1200 Makati City, Philippines
Tel. +632 8580 9900
Fax +632 8856 7597
Email