Fast Facts: Livelihoods and Economic Recovery

The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) provides technical, advisory, and programme support to UNDP Country Offices in crisis and post-crisis contexts.

Assistance to Country Offices includes: the design and implementation of crisis-sensitive employment and livelihood initiatives, disarmament demobilization and reintegration of former combatants and associates, and mine action in early recovery settings.

Since the 1990s more than 100 conflicts have ended around the world. In the aftermath of such conflicts, it is not only lives which are lost, the socioeconomic and political architecture are also destroyed. Important infrastructures are often leveled, governments weakened, foundations for economic recovery erased, and lingering injuries from landmines and small arms haunt recovery efforts.

Disasters affected three times more people in the 1990s than in the 1970s, and economic losses were five times higher. The situation is expected to worsen as global warming increases the frequency and intensity of severe weather events worldwide. In post-disaster situations, people’s livelihoods are often shattered. UNDP assists national actors to respond to the emergency and recovery needs of the population following the onset of natural hazards.