Context
The people of the northern provinces of Laos have so far gained only limited benefits from the country’s economic and social development. The region is characterised by poor infrastructure, difficult access to markets and very low agricultural productivity. The need to protect forest areas, as well as the allocation by the state of concessions for plantations, reservoirs and mining, have led to insecurity of land tenure. Associated secondary problems include internal migration and displacement, illegal land use practices with a detrimental impact on the environment, land disputes and low levels of investment in agriculture and forestry.
The country faces a range of challenges. The use of available land must be intensified in order to protect the remaining forest areas and natural resources. People’s living conditions will not improve unless they themselves are more deeply involved in the planning and implementation of development measures. Currently, local institutions do not have sufficient capacities to fully perform their coordinating role, and they lack appropriate staff and funding. The Northern Uplands Development Programme (NUDP) of the Lao Government is supported by GIZ and aims to reduce poverty levels in the northern upland region through targeted development measures and by enhancing incomes in rural areas.
Objective
Local development and participatory land use planning processes have improved, as have nutrition and food security for local people. The capacities of government agencies and district staff, and other actors at village, district, provincial and national levels have developed, enabling them to facilitate and coordinate sustainable, pro-poor local development.
Approach
Financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the programme ‘Integrated Rural Development in Poverty Regions of Laos’ is Germany’s contribution to the NUDP. It complements various other support measures, such as financial contributions from a group of development partners including the French Agency for Development (AFD), the European Union (EU) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), all of which contribute to a pooled fund that enables the Lao Government to procure technical assistance, services and equipment. These activities strengthen Lao organisations, promote Lao ownership and encourage donor harmonisation.
The NUDP and the GIZ programme work in some of the poorest regions of Laos. The activities include advice to a number of government authorities at national, regional and local levels, as well as the supply of materials, equipment and financing to support local planning processes, trainings and workshops. Under the NUDP, GIZ supports land use planning and land registration as well as local governance and development planning. Targeting rural communities of different ethnic origin, the programme’s measures encourage the efforts of local people to improve their own lives, to make better use of external resources and to deal with the causes and impacts of a changing economic and ecological environment.
Capacity development is a focus of the programme. To this end, it works with government authorities at the national level, as well as in the provinces, districts and villages. It provides intensive training and advice on strategic and operational planning, implementation and evaluation, addressing specific areas of expertise, logistics, finances, information and knowledge management. Experiences gained from these capacity development initiatives are fed into national policy discussions, economic development and poverty eradication strategies, and a dialogue on aid and development effectiveness.
Results achieved so far
About 34,000 people in about 450 villages have so far participated in village and district planning processes. They have identified about 6,700 local development schemes. In 160 villages, residents now manage their land use plans developed in a participatory manner. Village and land use plans are now used by district departments of the line ministries in the delivery of new government support services. Meanwhile, in more than 200 villages, information campaigns have taught people about their land rights. In about 40 villages, some 4,500 land parcels have so far been registered, making farmers’ land tenure more secure. In addition, the project started to support communal land registration in its second phase, already having secured about 70 large communal land-parcels.
The GIZ programme has carried out 65 small-scale infrastructure projects which improve food security as well as people`s access to irrigation and drinking water, and enhancing local road connections. 36 of these projects were funded by the EU. Up to the end of 2011, the EU and BMZ also funded awareness raising activities about nutrition, successfully improving nutrition-related behaviours. These activities reached some 1,420 households, where mothers also learned about the advantages of extended breast-feeding. Furthermore, 1,060 households established domestic gardens which improve their supply of healthy food.
The EU co-funded measures also included efforts to control rodent infestation, which cause substantial damage in the fields, as well as post-harvest losses. As a result of these measures, a greater proportion of the crops remained available for consumption. Rodent damage to plants and harvests decreased by 60% in 18 villages.
Based on its achievements, the programme has since influenced the introduction and application of official government standards and guidelines, introducing new technologies and conducting the training of hundreds of specialists. The many examples include national guidelines on village development planning, adjustments in land use planning, land mapping and registration technologies, internet-based village data management, and integrated rural development concepts in the Uplands Development Strategy.