Labour and Livelihoods in Urban Humanitarian Response

When a humanitarian crisis occurs, one of the first considerations that must be made when assessing need is access to livelihoods. Indeed, many aid use a ‘Sustainable Livelihoods Approach’ to guide interventions. Much learning has been done to understand the importance of livelihoods for all aspects of a person’s well-being. But often, examples and analysis are based on rural contexts. The density of urban areas, presence and scale of markets and transportation channels, role of informal work and heterogeneity of the population’s labour and livelihoods activities requires a different lens for examining these issues in urban contexts.

This ALNAP webinar focuses on the labour and livelihoods aspects of humanitarian response in urban crises. It focuses specifically on the experiences of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in urban humanitarian response, including examples of the ILO’s recent experience in debris clearing and repair of critical community facilities and infrastructure in Pakistan (2010, droughts) and Haiti (2010, earthquake) and the Philippines (2012 and 2013 typhoons).

The webinar will outline the ILO’s Emergency Employment Programme, including the benefits of short-term employment in urban crises, the challenges of such an approach, and the result for crises affected people – where do they go when the programme ends? In addition the webinar will examine the ‘Decent Work Agenda’ led by the ILO, which focuses on the creation of jobs and livelihoods, the provision of basic social protection, the promotion of social dialogue and the enforcement of fundamental rights – all of which are critical to any humanitarian response.

Additional it will seek to answer the following questions by sharing case studies, ILO data and reference to additional resources:

What are the priorities and phases in crisis response in terms of labour?

What are the benefits and challenges of urban labour in humanitarian contexts?

Which sectors are most involved with humanitarian response in urban settings?

To register for this event, please follow the instructions within this link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1894937186960204545