PESHAWAR, Dec 19: Policy- makers and experts at a seminar have urged the government to make intensive investment to create jobs in the earthquake-hit areas of the NWFP.

They also proposed that the federal and provincial governments should focus on governance in the affected districts which was in a shambles.

Regional Institute of Policy Research and Training organized the one-day seminar entitled “Unemployment and Income Generation Strategies for Earthquake Affectees in NWFP” here. Federal secretaries, representatives of UN and donor agencies attended the seminar.

The seminar through a unanimous resolution asked the government to prepare capacity building plan for the quake-hit areas and called for a greater coordination among the stakeholders.

The participants also proposed mobilization of local communities and participation of the non-governmental organizations in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process.

Federal Secretary of Manpower and Labour Malik Asif Hayat informed the participants that about 496,306 people had lost employment in the five earthquake-hit districts of the NWFP with agriculture sector being worst affected.

He said that quake-ravaged areas needed short and long term strategies to revive local economies.

For short term strategy, he said there should be temporary wage employment and assessment to focus on registering job seekers in the area.

He proposed to enhance capability of local people which could help in creating income-generating activities, specially women.

Federal Additional Secretary for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Saleem Khan Jhagra said that agriculture and livestock sectors in the affected required $225 million for rehabilitation and reconstruction. He said that 50 per cent of the irrigation infrastructure had undergone severe damage.

Elaborating sector-wise losses, he said, livestock had suffered a loss of Rs 6.24 billion, crop suffered Rs 1.48 billion and irrigation suffered a loss of Rs 76.2 million.

He suggested to promote appropriate technologies and extension methods and formulate new economic activities for livelihoods diversification.

Additional Chief Secretary of the NWFP, Mir Laiq Shah said that the provincial government was facing numerous challenges and foremost among them was the creation of employment opportunities in the devastated areas.

He said that the biggest challenge was to create fiscal resources for the uplift of these areas which required Rs 91.467 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

He maintained that a major task for the provincial government was to mobilize the required resources for the development of the quake-hit areas.

Mr Mazoor Khaliq, representative of International Labour Organisation (ILO) said that employment and livelihood should be included into the rehabilitation and reconstruction strategy.

He said his organisation was the first agency to launch cash-for-work programme on the ground. He said that recovery of livelihoods in the affected areas needed to start immediately in the relief phase to help survivors to cope with the loss.