What is Emergency Employment?

EIIP supports governments to generate job opportunities in response to demands arising from crises. Such efforts result not only in creating quality infrastructure, but also in improving the performance of other sectors such as agriculture, the environment, transport, and trade and industry.

The initial short-term emergency employment transitions into a more integrated medium-to long-term term approach to recover from and be better prepared for future crises. Over the years, the EIIP approaches to infrastructure development have proved to be effective in both preparing for disasters and contributing to conflict prevention as well as during the recovery and reconstruction works.

Short-term emergency employment

EIIP supports direct short-term employment creation (emergency employment) that provides immediate short-term cash income opportunities to vulnerable people or communities. Work is mostly carried out on public or community infrastructure, which addresses the immediate economic and social needs of affected people, and supports the revival of the local economy and environment.
Emergency employment emphasizes productivity, impact and decent working conditions. These include occupational safety and health (OSH), saying “no” to child labour, equal pay for work of equal value, safeguards for environmental protection, the so-called graduating mechanisms (i.e. transitioning towards sustainable livelihood), and the creation of asset value in infrastructures.

Employment creation may also prevent the rise of tensions in communities, and contribute to social cohesion and dialogue.
In the case of conflict, the provision of employment to the disenfranchized can also contribute to defusing tension in volatile communities and lower the risk of future incidents. Equally, in societies where warring parties have recently promised a ceasefire or signed a peace agreement, they can respond to expectations of livelihood development, including infrastructure improvements and increased job opportunities.

Medium to long-term crisis response and disaster risk reduction

A key feature of most EIIP programmes is the commitment to provide long-term support through all stages of a crisis response process, starting during the emergency phase, continuing through the recovery phase and thereafter transforming the support into regular development assistance or national funding.

Most crisis response programmes involve significant reconstruction of infrastructure facilities and therefore provide an important avenue to apply EIIP’s unique combination of infrastructure and employment creation expertise.

The EIIP approach is an effective way of mobilizing communities to build up resilience, restore sustainable livelihoods in response to crises, such as natural disasters, conflicts and economic downturns. The programme’s fields of action also contribute to avoiding (prevention) and limiting (mitigation and preparedness) the impacts of crises.