Draft proposal on policy guidelines to combat labour market implications of climate change

WHEREAS: The recurrent disaster since 2005 has inflicted huge human and financial losses to communities in Pakistan with a minimum monetized value of losing to agriculture and livestock totalling plus 7 billion dollars only in the Province of Sindh.
-- A recent seminar of experts warned that lives and livelihoods of rural folks will experience further adversities if timely adaptation and mitigation measures are not taken to arrest the impact of climate change. A timely adaptation to climate change can increase the agricultural production by 30%, whereas a non-adaptation could reduce the agriculture growth by 15% over the time.
-- The seminar further warned that food security and in farm employment opportunities will dramatically shrink, resulting in wide ranging psycho-social disruptions where the malnourished populations are almost 50% of the total population.
-- The frequent floods and droughts have further worsened the lives of the landless peasants and farmer communities of Sindh and all the climate models project increase vulnerability in the future.
-- Climate change is therefore adding layers of vulnerabilities to the lives and livelihood of the poorest communities dwelling in Sindh. Climate change is thus a direct threat to human security as it is impacting and even destroying jobs and livelihoods which demand multiple actions to address the threat.
Therefore, there is a need to develop a policy to combat labour market implication of climate change.
OBJECTIVES OF THE POLICY:
The objectives of the Policy are proposed as under:
1. To identify risks posed by climate change to the employment conditions.
2. To enhance awareness on climate change and its adverse impact on farmer communities in Sindh.
3. To identify the strategic and policy level risk management possibilities, including measures to contribute to reduce the vulnerability of farmer communities, agri-businesses and the vulnerable groups by timely preparedness, adaptation, risk sharing, retention and mitigation measures.
POLICY GUIDELINES TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT:-
1- Awareness creation among the peasants and harris is crucially needed, for them to timely adapt and prepare for the adversities emanating from climate change. The produced knowledge on the subject be tricked down to agriculture extentionists without delays and media resources may be optimally tapped for the purpose.
2- Communities need to be sensitized on reducing the anthropogenic contribution to climate change, with women in focus. With this mitigation endeavour, the adaptation to climate smart crops need to be actively pursued.
3- Integration of the work of various organisations like Global Change Impact study Centre, Academia, Disaster management Authorities, UN and Civil Society and the concerned government departments is crucially important to collectively assess the risks and evolve integrated coping strategies with respect to the climate change.
4- Disaster risk assessment paradigm needs a re-orientation. The triggers may be emphasised, so that effective strategies could be evolved for converting the threats into opportunities.
5- Clear strategies, short, mid and long term may be evolved for building the resilience of farmers and at the same time reducing the probability of occurrence of emergencies through mitigation interventions at community, provincial and national levels. Jobs and employment of the harris and labourers are extremely prone to the adverse impacts of climate change induced disasters. Livelihood resilience through diversification need to be promoted. The skill development programmes of the government have a critical role to play.
6- Social protection of the vulnerable communities be ensured through risk transfer, micro-insurance and effective financial inclusion.
7- Investment in DRR infrastructure (community and area levels) be undertaken to reduce the risks from anticipated disasters.
8- Alternative skill training be provided to youth and women to help rehabilitate themselves in case of natural disaster.