GENEVA (ILO News) The International Labour Office (ILO) unveiled today a comprehensive plan for reconstruction, employment and skills training in East Timor.
The proposed plan of assistance will be made available later today to the members of the Employment and Social Policy of the ILO's Governing Body, meeting in the presence of Mr. José Ramos-Horta, East-Timorese political leader and co-laureate of the Nobel Peace prize in 1996.
Assistance foreseen includes emergency employment in labour-intensive reconstruction schemes, the rehabilitation of public utilities, the promotion of small and micro-enterprises and of micro-credit, the rehabilitation and development of vocational education and training, and the establishment of employment registration services. Complementary initiatives relating to labour administration, labour law and industrial relations are also outlined in the plan.
The cost of the total package of assistance programmes, to be implemented over a period of 3 years, is estimated at some US$ 22.7 million. The ILO proposal integrates social concerns with the economic assistance programmes being developed by international financial institutions.
In a first, quick-impact phase, 2,000 unemployed unskilled workers would be provided with short-term employment and on-the-job training in community-identified priority reconstruction projects throughout the heavily damaged territory.
More than 75% of the entire population was displaced and more than 70% of all private dwellings, public buildings and utilities destroyed in the wave of violence which followed the announcement, on 4 September 1999, of the results of the United Nations supervised referendum on the future status of East Timor. Nearly 80% of eligible voters voted for independence.
Unemployment, currently estimated at over 80%, is contributing to growing social unrest. Personal savings, where these might have existed, are quickly disappearing "and the impoverished population may well need to consume their remaining assets" says a project document, referring, among other scarce goods, to the seeds required for the next planting season. Compounding the problem, the exodus of Indonesian professionals and technical staff has greatly reduced the capacity to manage administrative services including schools, training facilities and employment centres.
The ILO programme, which is to be carried out through the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in full cooperation with the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET), would, among other measures, provide for:
1. Assistance in the rehabilitation of public utilities and essential public services;
2. Training and micro-enterprise development (8,000 beneficiaries);
3. Establishment of Local Economic Development Agencies at the district level to channel credit to small and micro-enterprises;
4. Establishment of Employment Registration and Services Centres in Dili and other designated towns;
5. Rehabilitation of the Becora Technical School in Dili and development of Vocational Education and Training facilities throughout the territory.
The project proposals presented today were prepared by the ILO's InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction set up by the Office in October 1999 as a means of building up its crisis preparedness and capacity to respond. The Programme is designed to address employment and other socio-economic challenges in post-crisis situations and, in so doing, to promote reintegration and reconciliation in the affected communities. "Because the ILO is not a donor agency, the rapidity and effectiveness of the Programme's response depends on donor support based on the recognition of the fundamental relationship between humanitarian objectives and social and economic recovery and development", says the Programme's Director, Eugenia Date-Bah.
Over the past year, the ILO has also participated in international efforts to provide urgent assistance in the wake of natural disasters or in post-conflict situations in Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Turkey and India (Orissa).