ILO, AusAID sign P37.8-M grant for typhoon Pablo victims in Mindanao

The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) have signed a P37.8-million grant agreement to provide livelihood assistance to victims of typhoon Pablo (Bopha) in three municipalities in Davao Oriental. Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines, said in a phone interview that the grant agreement was signed Wednesday to “build back the communities and to create small jobs through a livelihood approach” in the municipalities of Baganga, Cateel and Boston. He noted that the project will provide over 1,000 families with health and social protection, trainings and skills development, and emergency employment to help them transition to longer-term and more sustainable jobs. The project will also take into account environmental protection and conservation to help prevent another Pablo in the future. “Workers who lost their income after the typhoon will have the chance to learn and to develop new skills, while earning within a decent and safe working environment,” Johnson said. AusAID and the ILO will work with the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Agrarian Reform. “ILO will also work with community-based organizations and local government units in the Pablo-affected areas to generate decent and sustainable employment and clean up of the areas through a livelihood approach,” Johnson added. Earlier, AusAID gave a grant of P12.6 million to help provide livelihood recovery initiatives in Baganga. Typhoon Pablo was the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Philippines in 2012, its 185 kph winds hammering Mindanao, Visayas and Northern Palawan and leaving thousands homeless and hundreds dead. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the damage caused by Typhoon Pablo reached P36.949 billion. — BM, GMA News