Employment Intensive Investment in

Vanuatu

Activities of the Employment Intensive Investment Programme in Vanuatu

Historical Information

On 13 March, 2015, Vanuatu was hit by category 5 Cyclone PAM, the most destructive natural disaster in the country's history.
The ILO conducted an Employment Livelihoods and Social Protection (ELSP) assessment as part of the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) led by the Government and found that 504,050 work days and VT 1.6 billion of personal income had been lost, affecting the livelihoods of about 40,800 households or 195,000 people in the provinces of Penama, Malampa, Shefa, and Tafea, equivalent of 64.1% of national GDP.

Based on discussions with Public Works Department (PWD), with the support of Roads for Development (R4D) programme, the ILO launched "Vanuatu Employment Project - Increasing the quantity and quality of employment in recovery and reconstruction after cyclone PAM." Through this emergency employment project, the ILO designed a training programme on labour-based technologies on road construction an maintenance. The two-week training programme consisted of theoretical classroom training and practical on-the-job training. The training benefitted 23 local staff of the Island Based Contractors (IBC) and staff from the PWD. A manual "Labour Based Technology for Maintenance of Gravel Roads for Small Scale Island Based Contractors" was developed for the technical training with aims to equip the technical personnel with sufficient knowledge and appropriate techniques to plan, implement, and monitor the labour-based road maintenance and construction of culvert works.

Additional support to IBC was provided through the of Business Development Services (BDS) in collaboration with the Vanuatu Chamber of Commerce & Industry (VCCI), and Labour Law and Working Conditions training by the Department of Labour (DoL) and Vanuatu Council of Trade Unions (VCTU).