• Ensuring that people from vulnerable groups
are eligible to receive cash grants for their
livelihoods, and supporting the development of
savings and lending groups, and their links to
larger microfinance institutions.
• Setting up a crisis fund managed by the
community to provide limited support for those
who experience a sudden crisis e.g. the death or
serious illness of a family member.
• Supporting the development of group activities
and the emergence of local leadership,
especially promoting the active participation
of vulnerable groups in community action
planning, and in disaster mitigation and disaster
preparedness planning.
• Extending cash for work activities to include
the construction of infrastructure for disaster
protection e.g. embankments and flood barriers,
slope stabilisation, and restoration of forests
and mangrove swamps. This could be combined
with education campaigns about the causes of
natural disasters and their mitigation.
What does a PCR approach mean for
programming?
In the emergency response phase following a
disaster, agencies have begun to work in clusters.
As part of this, emergency shelter is separated from
agriculture. Other livelihoods do not have their own
cluster. The early recovery cluster is meant to focus
on bridging the gap between emergency response
and long-term development across a wide range of
areas including the restoration of basic services,
livelihoods, shelter, governance, security and rule of
law, environment and social dimensions.
In the initial emergency relief phase, it will
be important to use tools such as EMMA to make
sure that livelihoods are considered within each of
the clusters. Joint damage and loss assessments
should be carried out and coordinated by the Early
Recovery Cluster.
Some agencies involved in reconstruction are
specialised in particular areas. Does adopting a
PCR approach mean that an agency specialising
in housing also needs to become an expert
in livelihoods programmes? Probably not. All
agencies should be able to carry out a broad
assessment of needs. Housing reconstruction
agencies should seek to maximise the opportunities
for reconstructing livelihoods within their own
programmes. They should also, then, seek
partnerships with other agencies more specialised
in rebuilding livelihoods beyond housing. It is
possible that the residual effect of the clusters may
make this sort of partnership more difficult.
Other agencies work across a broad spectrum
of areas which can encompass both physical and
economic reconstruction. In these cases, there
will be a need to develop a cross-programme
Clusters for humanitarian response
1. Agriculture
2. Camp Coordination and Camp Management
3. Early Recovery
4. Education
5. Emergency Shelter
6. Health
7. Nutrition
8. Protection
9. Water, Sanitation, Hygiene
approach to development in the disaster-hit area,
blending their expertise in reconstructing housing,
infrastructure and livelihoods.
Housing reconstruction: its
contribution to rebuilding livelihoods
The construction of houses and infrastructure
following a disaster can be one of the most
important livelihood opportunities for people,
even if they were not previously involved in the
construction industry. This is particularly the
case where large numbers of houses have been
destroyed or damaged beyond repair (Sheppard and
Hill 2005). Houses themselves are also important
livelihood assets which people, providing cover or
storage for tools, equipment, seeds, animals, and
saleable goods or produce. Others use their homes
as workshops, sell produce directly from their
home, or rent out rooms to lodgers.
Initially people can be employed to assist with
clearing away rubble and pulling down dangerous
buildings. In urban areas where densely-built
multi-storey buildings have collapsed, demolition
machinery will probably be needed, in particular
where there is a risk of further collapse. However,
there is still a lot of work that people can do by
hand, provided that their health and safety is well
looked after.
Once house owners are ready to start rebuilding,
or carrying out extensive repairs, local people can
assist them, and earn a livelihood at the same time,
in two ways:
1. as producers and suppliers of building materials
and components
2. as skilled builders, to assist house owners with
construction of the whole house or just for more
difficult, specialised tasks
Under donor-driven reconstruction models, we
need to be cautious of two potential problems
which may limit the extent to which people can
earn a livelihood. First, contracts may be given to
large building contractors from outside the area
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