Resettlement plans for survivors of typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) will only go to waste if the government does not integrate job opportunities in relocation sites, an international aid agency said in a report.
In its study released Tuesday, Oxfam International said livelihood is the survivors’ “top priority,” and this has not been given enough consideration in plans to move 200,000 people away from the coast, now considered “unsafe” areas.
Many of these people are “fisherfolk, laborers, and vendors,” it added.
“The government has committed to the principle of ‘building back better,’ but it has yet to prove that through its relocation efforts,” said Justin Morgan, Oxfam’s country director in the Philippines. “Relocation is not only about houses; it’s about jobs, safety, transport. These cannot be afterthoughts.”
Earning a living over safety
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said earning a living “through their current or a new job” is “the most important” factor in resettlement, only next to safety (32 percent).
Relocation sites, Oxfam added, were as far as 15 kilometers from the survivors’ current homes, which prompted some “not to relocate because transport costs were too expensive from their new homes back to the coast where they work.”
Only seven percent of people were consulted or informed about the relocation plans by a government official, the report said. Moreover, 81 percent told Oxfam they “didn’t know their rights around relocation,” while half of the people said they didn’t know where they would be moved.
The group said the “vaguely defined” policy on unsafe areas needs to be clarified among residents since it is causing confusion among them.
Safe, unsafe zones
Aside from making livelihood assistance “an integral part” of resettlement, the government should also “fast track the determination of ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ zones,” Oxfam said in its report.
It likewise recommended the delay of relocation until these zones have been determined, as well as intensifying information campaigns and “meaningful consultations” with affected communities.
“Previous disaster responses have shown that when people aren’t consulted, plans don’t match their needs and they will either leave the relocated areas or become poorer,” Morgan said.
Goverment focused on housing
Leyte Governor Leopoldo Petilla told GMA News Online that they have “been trying to talk” to the survivors, hoping to convince them to move from the hazard areas where their homes were.
He added that they are also focused on pairing the permanent housing with livelihood assistance.
In the towns of Tanauan and Palo, about 1,200 to 1,500 families have to be relocated.
“We don’t want to build them (the survivors) bunkhouses because it means double relocation for residents,” Tanauan mayor Pel Tecson told GMA News Online earlier this month. “Second, we would like to cut down on cost, and third, we have limited lands here for housing.”
