Integrating Livelihoods

Restoring livelihoods is a critical element for the
overall recovery of disaster survivors. Immediately
after a disaster, and for the first few weeks and
months afterwards, survivors are heavily dependent
on relief aid for essentials such as food, clothing,
shelter and bedding. But the sooner people can
begin to earn an income again, the better. It helps
reduce future dependence on relief aid, and helps
restore people’s dignity and sense of purpose.
Inevitably, some people will take longer to start to
engage in income-earning activities than others, but
all need to be supported and encouraged as soon as
is feasible.
The ambition of a ‘Building Back Better’
programme should be to not only rebuild livelihoods
to their previous levels, but to use the disaster
as an opportunity for actually reducing poverty.
There are documented cases where people have
ended up with higher incomes and more secure
livelihoods after a disaster. There are also examples
where people living on the margins of society have
emerged and taken active and respected roles
in their communities. On the other hand, some
approaches to reconstruction do not take into
account livelihoods, which has resulted in far less
successful recovery programmes.