As the government strives to improve citizens’ quality of life, Swiss government assistance is playing a crucial role in supporting poverty alleviation programmes and helping Laos to graduate from the list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by 2020.
Last week, the government of Switzerland announced that new funding, worth more than 100 billion kip (US$13.2 million), will be provided through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to support the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Fund (PRF) project II.
The construction of rural roads is an important part of development for improving villagers' living standards.
The PRF project II aims to alleviate poverty in 10 provinces by facilitating access to basic public services and providing the necessary infrastructure to raise living standards by promoting locally run commercial enterprises.
The project will also focus on increasing communities’ ability to implement effective planning processes and management frameworks that will contribute to reducing the development gap between rural and urban areas.
The funding will support the project’s basic infrastructure and services improvement activities, and strengthen participatory community plan-ning and development and the delivery of public services at the village level, especially access to a safe and reliable water supply for consumption and irrigation.
To reach its target of reducing the number of poor households in the country to less than 10 percent by 2015, the government has adopted a strategy focused on expanding and improving basic infrastructure, enhancing sustainable development, and incorporating groups of villages into small towns.
The PRF project I, which was financed by the government of Switzerland and the World Bank, has successfully concluded and yielded positive results such as the improvement of rural roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, health centres, irrigation and water supply systems.
Officials from PRF are working to improve villagers’ living standards in 27 districts in the provinces of Luang Namtha, Huaphan, Xieng Khuang, Savannakhet, Saravan, Xekong and Attapeu.
Through the continuing support of the Swiss government, the PRF project II will expand operations to include an additional 12 districts in Phongsaly, Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces, according to a report from the PRF.
The PRF was established by the government in 2003 in collaboration with the World Bank and aims to reduce village-level poverty by 2020.
In addition to helping poor families in the target provinces, the fund will be used to build underground artesian wells, build schools and provide teachers and educational equipment, support the cultivation of commercial crops and animal husbandry, and encourage local people’s participation in forest conservation.
Assistance from the PRF will play an important role in Phongsaly’s goal of reaching the government’s target for poverty alleviation in the province, Phongsaly Deputy Governor Mr Thongset Saenvong said this week.
Phongsaly provincial officials have vowed to work harder to achieve the government’s goal of boosting living standards as much as possible by 2015 and the complete alleviation of poverty by 2020.
The development of basic infrastructure and support for agricultural production and animal husbandry underpins the province’s strategy to improve villagers’ quality of life.
Provincial officials are currently focused on developing infrastructure and encouraging villagers to boost agricultural production in Nhot-ou and Samphan, the two poorest of the province’s seven districts.
According to a report from the National Leading Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (RDPE), the number of poor families nationwide has fallen from 20.4 percent in 2002-2003 to 18.77 percent in 2011.
The RDPE’s latest countrywide survey classifies 198,678 families, 3,175 villages and 45 districts as poor.
In the next fiscal year, the government aims to reduce the number of poor families to 99,000, or 9.4 percent of total families, and reduce the number of poor villages to 960.
The Lao government defines poverty as not having enough food, lacking adequate clothing, not having permanent housing and lacking access to health, education and transportation services.
