Improving village life in the Lao PDR
Case Study
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| Teacher's Notes | Student Activities |
| The Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) |
The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is in South East Asia. It was originally known as Lan Xang, meaning 'land of a million elephants'. The French named the country Laos after the Lao people who are the main ethnic group. When the Lao people gained their independence from the French the country was named the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
It is a mountainous country bordered by China, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand. Lao PDR has many rivers, the most important being the Mekong River. There is a wet season from May to October and a dry season from November to April. The humidity is high for most of the year.
| Village life in Lao PDR |
The Lao have large families. Many families have no money or income and need to grow and gather all of their own food to survive. Rice is the main food. Many village families find it difficult to supply enough rice for their families at certain times of the year and have no other way of making an income to buy rice or provide for other needs. Some used to borrow rice from private lenders and pay back the amount they borrowed when they harvested their own rice. They also had to give extra rice to the lenders as interest and so they had none to sell. This kept many families in poverty. Villagers use bamboo from the jungles for plates, baskets, tables, walls and floors of houses, fish traps and cradles.
 Villagers use bamboo from the surrounding jungles to build their houses. |
| The Integrated Village Development Project |
The Integrated Village Development Project was set up in cooperation with the Lao PDR Government to ensure that poor villagers met their basic food needs and were able to make an income. The Project provided funds so the villagers could be lent rice and money. This is called a rice bank. The rice is borrowed by villagers to feed families until they can harvest their own crops and repay the loan. They have to pay extra rice or money into the village rice bank for interest. Gradually the rice banks have grown and so more rice and money are available to lend. The money loans are used to provide for other needs such as clean water, and to buy equipment to produce crops, raise animals and make other goods for use or sale.
By having access to the rice bank, families can stay on their farms and develop their food and cash crops rather than being forced to seek work elsewhere so that they can afford to buy rice. Cash crops include rice, jute and kapok. The interest from loans and money from the cash crops enable villagers to raise funds to develop other industries. In some villages a rice mill has been set up. This frees many of the women and children from threshing the rice, and so they have time to produce other crops and goods.
 Interest from loans allow villagers to develop other income making industries such as selling silk goods. |
In a village called Napae in the Bolikhamxai Province in central Lao PDR, the people have bought seventeen weaving looms to produce silk fabrics. Many of the women are able to make an income from selling silk goods. The villagers are able to provide enough rice and some money for three teachers so that they have time to teach others to read and write. They have enough clean water for the whole community. Electricity has been installed and some concrete toilets have been built.
Cow and buffalo banks have also been developed and work in a similar way to the rice banks.
| How does Australia help? |
The Australian Government is the major donor in the Integrated Village Development Project. The Australian Agency for International Development manages funds provided by the Australian Government to assist people in developing countries to implement programs to meet their needs. In this project, the Australian Government is providing funds to an organisation called Save the Children Australia and the Lao Women's Union to manage the Integrated Village Development Project.
The Integrated Village Development Project is providing people in 196 villages of the Sayaboury and Bolikhamxai Provinces with secure rice supplies, a variety of foods and clean water, as well as incomes to produce cash crops and goods to buy the things they need.
© Commonwealth of Australia