Tuesday, June 19, 2001
Opening Ceremony
Opening Speech by HE Somsavadh Lengsavad, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lao PDR
On behalf of the Government of the Lao PDR, I wish to extend my warm welcome to all delegates participating in the conference in such a large number. At the same time, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, which is represented here by Mr. John McAuliff, for initiating the organization of the 10th Conference of the Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam for the first time in Vientiane. This conference will allow the participants to have a first hand impression of the actual situation in different aspects of the Lao PDR.
The government of the Lao PDR attaches importance and highly values this conference as it reflects continued support from international non-governmental organizations to the struggle for national independence of the peoples of Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia in the past. Furthermore, this conference is unfolding at the beginning of the 21st century, which is filled with opportunities and challenges. More specifically, the conference’s theme concords with the strategy outlined by the 17th Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party with the aim of bringing the Lao PDR out of the status of a least developed country by 2005.
By the end of the last millennium, sciences, techniques, technologies and communication have met with rapid development, linking production and finance at the world level. Many countries and especially industrialized countries, have developed their production forces to a high level. Simultaneously, developing countries, especially the least developed ones, have been confronted with a multitude of constraints, which have further widened the gap between the developed and developing countries. Almost half of the world population still lives in poverty and hunger. In addition, the 20th century has ended by leaving humanity facing many severe challenges, more specifically the threat of mass destruction from nuclear weapons, overwhelming debts, a degrading environment, poverty, epidemics, and the spread of narcotics. All these issues require international measures and cooperation.
From the establishment of the Lao PDR on 2 December 1975, the Lao people have upheld their patriotism, their self-reliance and self-strength building spirit. A policy of open door to external cooperation has people’s living conditions. The most prominent achievement to this date is that, for the first time in history, we have been able to produce sufficient rice to meet domestic demand and even produce a surplus as a reserve. The construction of socio-economic infrastructure is an on-going process, the country is governed by the rule of law, freedom and democratic rights of the citizens have been constantly upheld, and solidarity among the pluri-ethnic people has been relentlessly strengthened. All these factors have contributed to political stability, security and social order.
However, the most important challenge currently faced by the Lao Government in this new millennium is underdevelopment. About 39% of the total pluri-ethnic Lao households still live in poverty. This state of poverty is linked directly to the cultivation of opium, shifting cultivation and severe damage to the task and has set a target to reduce the current number of poor families by more than half by 2005. Efforts to achieve such a target will aim at terminating opium cultivation and basically stopping slash and burn practices. For this purpose, the Government has concentrated public investment in rural development and has mobilized participation from different domestic economic sectors, while also securing foreign assistance for these tasks. Furthermore, the decentralization policy enhancing local participation and ownership is being implemented by entrusting the provinces to assume the role of strategic development units, districts the role of planning and budgeting unites and villages the role of implementation units. This policy ensures the people’s full participation and exercise of their basic rights such as:
We have observed that in our efforts to achieve the poverty alleviation targets in our country according to said policy, international non-governmental organizations play an important role in bringing their contribution.
Another important role has been the assistance in training Lao local officials to upgrade their management skills and introduce appropriate technologies at the local level with the view of implementing local requirements – driven and low cost projects focusing on efficiency. Assistance to local levels aims at achieving firm ownership and building the basis for self-development in the future, while avoiding internal division by upholding the national laws, traditions and customs, and local rules. By the end of 2000, over 100 non-governmental organizations have assisted the Lao PDR in the sectors of agriculture, health, education, and rural development. To ensure highly efficient cooperation and assistance, past experiences need to be further reviewed and assessed.
In addition to assistance provided to the country, international NGOs can also perform the task of expanding relation networks at the regional and international levels.
I hope that this conference will provide the opportunity for the delegates to interact and exchange their views and experiences, and will lead to the elaboration of the conference’s theme into further detailed and tangible programs and projects. It is my conviction that the discussions will unfold in a spirit of friendship and mutual understanding and will certainly achieve success.
On this solemn occasion, I have the pleasure to declare the 10th Conference of the Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam officially open.
Lao Country Plenary
Moderators: Dave Elder, Director, Asia Program, AFSC and John McAuliff, Executive Director, Fund for Reconciliation and Development
Statement by HE Phongsavath Boupha, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Lao Delegation to the 10th Conference of the Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
On behalf of the Lao delegation, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you participating in the 10th Conference of the Forum on Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia being held in Vientiane. I also wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Fund for Reconciliation and Development and in particular Mr. John McAuliff, Director and Ms. Susan Hammond, Conference Coordinator, for their laudable efforts in organizing this Conference. Our high appreciation also goes to the US embassy, the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, and non-governmental organizations operating in the Lao PDR for their generous invitation extended to representatives from the central and provincial authorities of Laos to interact with them during this conference.
I would like to avail myself of this forum to briefly inform you of the socio-economic development of the Lao PDR, its international and bi-lateral relations, and in particular it relation with non-governmental organizations.
In the past half a century the Lao PDR has undergone a period of colonialism and neo-colonialism for the cause of independence and self-mastery, which has left the country with a lot of casualties. The Lao multi-ethnic people had waged a valiant struggle with patience and perseverance, and many of them had sacrificed their lives for the nation.
As a result, the Lao multi-ethnic people had opened a new brilliant era after gaining a complete national liberation and proclaimed the Lao PDR on 2 December 1975. From then on, the Lao multi-ethnic people has become the true master of the country and prepared all necessary conditions for national development and social progress.
Since the establishment of the Lao PDR, the Government has conducted a policy on healing the wounds from the legacy of the war and socio-economic rehabilitation with the view of eradicating poverty. Although in the first years, we had faced a number of difficulties in national development, we were able to maintain political stability, guarantee basic social security, and succeed in improving the Lao multi-ethnic people’s living conditions. In 1986, the country experienced a new turning point in its national economic development, the Government carried out a renovation policy by adopting an open door policy on the promotion of external cooperation and a market-oriented economy, building autonomous economic structures and considering agriculture and forestry as the main foundation for the development of industry and service, enacting new laws and regulations while concentrating on environmental preservation. To achieve these objectives, the Government has outlined 8 priority programs covering food production, stabilization of shifting cultivation and provision of sedentary occupation, commercial production, development of rural development infrastructure, human resource development, external economic relations and development of services.
Throughout the phase of implementing the renovation policy, we can see that up to now, the economy has shown a constant average growth of 6% per year. More prominently, in 2000, Laos became basically self sufficient in rice and had even a surplus for export. The development of technical, social, cultural and human resources foundation has also improved in quality terms, while the political people’s democratic regime has been gradually reinforced. Relations of friendship and cooperation with friendly nations continue to expand. All these are the initial important results coming from the implementation of the renovation policy in the Lao PDR.
Furthermore, the Government has shown great determination in pursuing its policy of adopting a market-oriented mechanism in the development of the nation through the implementation of 8 priority programs and expansion of external cooperation in order to build a strong nation, affluent people, a just and prosperous society.
In moving towards the 21st century, we are confronted with multi-faceted opportunities and challenges, globalization, liberalization that have become global issues and create a wider gap between the haves and haves not. Many people of the world still live in dire poverty. In the Lao PDR, the targeted poverty eradication is closely linked with several major issues requiring the adoption of various measures that need to be implemented in parallel, such as the stabilization of shifting cultivation, eradication of opium cultivation, preservation of the environment, the removal of unexploded ordinance, and decentralization of authorities to the local, provincial and district levels.
Shifting cultivation is an obsolete production method affecting the nature and environment with low yield binding farmers practicing slash and burn cultivation in a circle of poverty, unless a new production method is introduced. Therefore, the Government is faced with the necessity to permanently stabilize shifting cultivation through the introduction of sedentary occupations and permanent settlement to the people as well as to create conditions enabling the population to undertake income generating production activities based on their labor, funds and intellectual capacity.
Narcotics is an issue of great concern for the international community. The Lao PDR is one of the countries facing a narcotics problem, as it severely affects the national socio-economic development. Our country has exerted tremendous efforts in taking measures and cooperation at regional and international levels aimed at contributing to the eradication of this scourge. The Government has set a target to eliminate opium production by 2005 through the implementation of integrated rural development projects simultaneously with advocacy and suppression measures. Mindful of the threat from the narcotics phenomenon to the society, the Government has amended the Penal Code, where penalties applicable to related offenses have been reinforced, such as increasing the term of imprisonment from 10 years to life imprisonment and fines up to 100 million kip. In 2001, the amended Penal Code was again revised by enforcing penalties up to capital punishment. A national drug commission for drug control and supervision was established and drug control units were set up in several provinces. For the first tie, the Lao PDR was unanimously elected by the UN Socio-Economic Council as member of the Drug Control Commission in 1997.
Environmental issue is one of the important problems that the world community pays attention to. The Lao PDR is of the view that developed and developing countries alike hold sacred sovereign rights in exploiting their own national resources. In executing such rights, a sound economic development should be taken into account simultaneously with environmental preservation, while a focused environmental preservation does not represent a hindrance to economic development for fear of affecting the environment. Both aspects are inter-related and mutually affect each other. At the same time, they constitute the core of sustainable development for all countries. A balanced focus on both aspects would allow to ensure that efforts for development and alleviation of people’s poverty are successful
Removal of Unexploded Ordinance: As you know, during the Indochina war and more specifically between 1964 and 1973, our country was devastated by the unprecedented 3 million tons of bombs dropped by the US forces. To the present time, about half of the country’s territory is covered by a huge amount of unexploded bombs, which continue to cause a large number of casualties among the Lao multi-ethnic people, including children and women, threatening their livelihood and putting their daily lives at risk. Therefore, the UXO scattered over 50% of the Lao territory are not landmines but mainly bombies remaining from the wartime. Although the war has been over for a long time, the Lao Government is duty bound to solve the chronic repercussions as it hampers and directly obstructs national development. In particular, in order to expand the cultivation land area for the population, it is necessary to remove UXOs from the ground. The issue of UXOs is a major hindrance to poverty alleviation of the Lao people. To this effect, sustainable solutions are therefore required.
In conjunction with the outlined policies and directions for these important activities, the Government has done it utmost to ensure the participation of the Lao multi-ethnic people of all social strata in the implementation of those activities and entrusted greater responsibilities to its people through the decentralization of authorities to the local levels namely the province as a strategic unit, the district as the planning and budgetary unit, and the village as the implementing unit. This undertaking clearly demonstrates the enhancement of the concerted effort of the entire people in national development, in exercising their rights and obligations towards the nation.
In conducting its foreign policy, the Lao Government has always placed a strong emphasis on expanding international cooperation and tapping for assistance from the world community. Last November, the Lao Government, in collaboration with UNDP, held the 7th Round Table Meeting in Vientiane for the first time under the topic "The Fight against Poverty, Human Resources Development, Rural Infrastructure Development with the people’s participation and support from the public sector and international funding" for the purpose of mobilizing development funds for the Lao PDR. In addition, the Lao PDR has received valuable support and assistance from friendly countries, international organizations and non-governmental organizations. Such assistance represents an important factor to the strong contribution towards achieving the targets set by the Government. There was clear demonstration of that kind of cooperation in the past. I would like to give some examples of the cooperation in some areas such as in the reduction of opium production, where UNDCP, the United States and NCA have provide funds for development purposes in Oudomsay, Bokeo, Luang Namtha, Huaphan, Phongsaly, and Luang Namtha provinces. These projects brought a large contribution to the improvement of the local population’s living conditions through the provision of sedentary occupation, construction of schools, hospitals, basic infrastructure, and income generation. As a result, opium production and consumption has dropped sharply. In 2000, the opium cultivation area was reduced by 30% compared to 1998.
The UXO program has also received cooperation and technical and financial assistance from overseas namely from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United States, and the European Union, UNDP, UNICEF, and some NGOs. It is our hope that such assistance will continue and increase in the future so as to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
With regard to our cooperation links with the United States, the Lao Government has conducted consistent cooperation and more specifically in the humanitarian field. In upholding it humanitarian policy, the Lao Government, at all times, has shown its good will in cooperating with the United States in humanitarian affairs, and in particular in the search and recovery of American soldiers missing in action during the wartime. The Government has exerted great efforts in mobilizing the people living in zones adjacent to the airplane crash sites and graves so as to make them understand, cooperate and overcome any resentment left from the sufferings sustained from bombs during the wartime. This cooperation started in 1985 and is quite successful with 74 surveys and recovery operations, which allowed identifying the remains of 149 MIAs among a total of 569 reported MIAs.
In addition, in terms of investment, the Agreement on Overseas Private Investment Cooperation (OPIC) signed in 1996 has also been a strong impetus to the increase of investment from the United States that totaled $1.5 billion, ranking in the second place after Thailand.
Past experience has shown that Laos and non-governmental organizations have maintained long-standing relations of cooperation since the establishment of the Lao PDR. The Lao Government is proud to observe that such cooperation has gradually developed in qualitative and quantitative terms. Such growth clearly reflects the actual implementation of the open door policy and external cooperation of the Lao Government, and in particular with the non-governmental organizations in an active and constant manner. On the other hand, the different agencies have seen the actual needs for the socio-economic development of the Lao people.
In the beginning, two non-governmental organizations from the United States, the Quakers and the Mennonites, and one from Europe, Save the Children Fund UK provided assistance to the Lao PDR in healing the wounds left from the war. Their financial assistance was rather modest. Starting from 1986, that is since the introduction of the renovation policy, assistance progressed to a new stage of development, where the value of approved projects exceeded US $10 Million per year. At the present time, non-governmental organizations providing assistance to Laos have increased to over 100 agencies from Europe, the United States and Asia. The value of approved projects ranges between US $14 to 18 million per year. In the first 6 months of 2001, the Government has approved 31 projects worth over $7 million. Such assistance generally concentrates on the development of rural areas, agriculture, health and education in remote areas.
The Lao Government gives importance to the contribution made by non-governmental organizations to the development process and poverty eradication in remote areas. To ensure that such assistance runs smoothly and brings tangible benefits to the Lao multi-ethnic people, the Government has done its utmost to improve the administrative component, issued guidelines on the administration of non-governmental organizations operating in the Lao PDR, and entrusted the administration of non-governmental organizations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since May 1999. A Prime Minister’s decree and recommendations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also issued specifically to deal with the management of these agencies and their assistance.
In parallel with the hard-earned achievements, I recognize that there are still some difficulties requiring improvement such as widespread assistance without proper focus that does not meet the actual needs of the localities concerned.
Further cooperation links in a new atmosphere and higher quality are considered to be very important. I am of the view that cooperation based on mutual understanding and carrying out activities under the strict observance of the existing regulatory framework would lead to the real improvement and development of cooperation in the future. The Lao Government has a strong aspiration to see that such assistance would bear fruit and provide tangible benefits to the poor people and stands ready to extend good cooperation with non-governmental organizations, including donors.
Assistance should concentrate on priority sectors identified by the Government, namely in food production, health and human resource development. I am convinced that the participants to this conference will review the presented concerns and bring their contributions to the discussion hopefully leading to arouse donor’s better understanding of Laos and the constant growth of the relations of cooperation between our countries.
After this rather long presentation, the distinguished guests must now have an overview of the development status and particular of aspects linked to reduction of poverty, relations of cooperation with different countries and namely with the non-governmental organizations. It is my hope that this presentation will help you better understand the actual situation of our country and serve as a basis for better results in the discussion.
Taking the opportunity given by this important conference, on behalf of the Government of the Lao PDR and the Lao people, I would like to express our sincere appreciation and profound gratitude to the friendly countries, international organizations, non-governmental for their constant support and assistance to our country.
Finally, I would like to once again sincerely thank all of you and all agencies that have contributed to the successful organization of this conference and wish all participants’ good health and great success in your deliberations.
Soukaseum Phontisane, Vice-Governor of Savannakhet Province: Organizations, especially those working at the grassroots are limited first by funding limits. In rural areas, lack of infrastructure is often another limiting factor. Projects need extra funding. A third limiting factor is often the time frame of a project. Two years is not enough time to really change people's habits. To really make an impact, projects should last a full three to five years.
UXO, especially in the southern provinces, continue to be a problem. Again, cleanup efforts are limited primarily by a simple lack of funding. The effects of agent orange lingers in Laos as well. Once, the government could count on Soviet assistance with the health problems caused by Agent Orange, but that help is gone and more aid is needed.
Questions:
The first round of questions asked about the role of the Women's Union in poverty alleviation, gender equity and gender development.
Khemphet Pholsena, Vice-President, Lao Women’s Union, responded that the LWU is a forty six year old mass organization of more than 800,000 members and plays an important role in improving the quality of life for Lao women, especially rural and minority women. In 1998, the government approved an overall plan for the economic development of women that included four points of focus: [inaudible], increasing institutional strength & capacity building, promotes the advancement and preservation of the rights and position of women and [inaudible]. The plan incorporates projects aimed at reducing poverty and increasing women's knowledge and skill through vocational training, courses in family economics, and help establishing and maintaining small businesses. Women make up 51% of the Lao population, but are less educated than men. Women make a significant contribution to the overall economy, especially in sectors such as handicrafts and agriculture and forestry.
The Lao constitution stipulates equal rights for women in economic and cultural issues and in all aspects of life, and the country is presently implementing the convention on the equal rights of women. The Women's Union is also working to implement the Beijing Plan of Action and working to establish a national commission for the advancement of Lao women.
The next handful of questions focused on food self sufficiency, asking what policies were most effective, and what policies and structures the Lao government has found most effective in promoting development and transparency. What programs are really working and which are proving ineffective?
HE Phongsavath Boupha, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, answered that 2000 marks the first year that Laos has successfully achieved food self-sufficiency. Government attention to irrigation allowed two rice crops, so the improvement was primarily due to technical advances. He also credited government emphasis on openness with allowing people to understand what the government is actually doing and how policies are structured and implemented.
Lao PDR is working towards a state of law -- for twenty-five years, the country has used government and party policy to solve problems, but using laws to express policy is a new approach. This approach allows people to see that legislation can be used to express policy, and that everything should be done according to law.
Soukaseum Phontisane added to the vice-minister's comments on food security by observing that the improvement was due in part to a combination of intensification and diversification. Farmers have been told for some time that they should diversify, but they needed guidance with appropriate technology. Improved training and guidance allowed them to intensify and diversify effectively.
Improved credit and changes to import laws also helped support food security efforts. Farmers use imported goods for stages in their crop cycles, reduced import taxes mean that farmers can afford what they need.
A question on bilateral aid, patterns of external aid & effect on poverty alleviation, was answered by HE Phongsavath Boupha who said that at the 9th conference, in Phnom Penh, and at other round tables, donors did pledge assistance, in 2001, US$386 million shows that the donor community recognizes the importance of developing the Lao PDR. In addition, financial institutions like the ADB are incorporating Laos and working with the country's five and ten year strategies. Donor countries are more willing to support Lao PDR's own plans for long-term development, rather than imposing their own expectations on the country.
Another question addressed prospects for improving the living conditions of poor women, to which Mme. Pholsena responded that one program to set up development projects for women in rural areas has focused on improving education and teaching literacy in an effort to give women more income generating opportunities.
Soukaseum Phontisane added that poverty means something different in any country. Poverty alleviation means meeting basic human needs for food, shelter and health care. The poorest in Laos live in houses that only last them one year, they need homes that last three or four years or they do not have truly stable housing. Food self-sufficiency is necessary to alleviate poverty, and in addition, knowledge of appropriate technology for farmers allows them the extra income they need to pay for health care and to send their children to school. Good morals are equally necessary to poverty alleviation, people have to cooperate and work together, see themselves as part of a community. The most important tool for poverty alleviation, though, is human resource development.
HE Phongsavath Boupha added that Lao PDR is not faced with a single problem, there are many, and all of them have to be solved eventually. Implementing programs is one piece, but changing people's attitudes is harder. Slash and burn agriculture is destroying the environment, this and other forms of environmental destruction have to stop, which means that people have to dramatically change their approach. Further, he added, Lao PDR does not do enough to tap the nation's mineral resources or tourism opportunities. Each of those is ultimately related to improving the living conditions of the poor, both women and men.
A next round of questions asked how being landlocked effects development in the Lao PDR, about the challenges and opportunities of Lao's diverse ethnic character, and about legal structures that encourage foreign investment.
HE Phongsavath Boupha responded that Laos is actually the only landlocked country in South East Asia, but the country has the opportunity to be integrated into regional organizations like ASEAN and other greater Mekong cooperation efforts. Export corridors mean that Laos is now able to play an important role in promoting trade and investment in the region. Ultimately, economic cooperation means that no one is landlocked.
On the subject of minorities, he observed that Lao PDR is home to 50 distinct ethnic groups with unique languages, and that the government is proud of its policy with respect to minority groups. They are all represented within the country's power structure, enjoy the full rights of Lao citizenship and contribute fully to the economy in turn.
Finally, foreign direct investment increased in recent years but fell off after the Asian economic crisis. This is one of the nation's most important policy challenges. Changes have been underway since 1988, and today there is a foreign investment law that is based on investment laws in other countries. One of the greatest challenges to implementing the law is the task of making the law clear to the international community, who are hesitant to invest when policies are not clear to them.
Panel A: Implementation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child at provincial and local level.
Moderator: David Claussenius, Regional Director, Save the Children, USA
Ta Thuy Hanh, Program Officer with Swedish Save the Children in Viet Nam
Save the Children-Sweden has been working in Viet Nam since 1987, where their earliest focus was on working with children with disabilities, especially with community-based rehabilitation aimed at improving the social environment of children with disabilities. Viet Nam ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, and Save the Children-Sweden has used the comments of the CRC committee to shape their work to implement the convention in Viet Nam. Sustainable change for children requires NGOs working on behalf of children to collaborate with Vietnamese authorities, as well as with researchers, professionals and multilateral organizations.
In Vietnamese tradition, children are seen as having obligations, not rights, and Vietnamese organizations were initially hesitant to expose children to the idea that they have "rights." Children do receive care and attention, but not as active owners of their own rights. Children with disabilities present a unique challenge to those working to promote the rights of children, as it is very unusual for a child with disabilities to attend school. Their rights to education and social integration are simply denied. In collaboration with the National Institute of Educational Science, Save the Children/Sweden developed a model for inclusive education of children with disabilities.
Boys and girls living with disabilities have a right to life and development, to access basic social services and to be protected from discrimination and abuse. Inclusive education is essential to meeting these rights. Save the Children/Sweden implemented training courses at all levels of government to explain the rights of children and the importance of including all children in the mainstream education system. Teachers, parents and policy makers were included in these trainings, and teachers were further educated in basic elements of participatory learning and skills such as sign language and braille that allow them to teach students with disabilities. Community volunteers were also trained to support teachers and work in the community, and Save the Children/Sweden supported curriculum development and experience sharing sessions for teachers working with children with disabilities.
Some of the visible changes resulting from Save the Children-Sweden's work in Viet Nam include new Ministry of Education attention to inclusive education, and a stated goal to more than double the enrollment of children with disabilities in mainstream schools in the coming decade. Education and health authorities support teachers and allow teachers to adapt their curriculum to accommodate students with disabilities, and various mass organizations have become actively involved in fundraising to purchase educational aids and equipment that allow children with disabilities to participate more fully in their schools and lives. Save the Children-Sweden has also found that parents and families that participated in workshops on the rights of children and the particular needs of children with disabilities no longer hide their own children.
Children with disabilities are more fully integrated into their communities, both in school and on the playground. They are actively learning in school, according to their abilities, and have improved self-esteem and future prospects. They play and interact with their own peers and are no longer marginalized and isolated.
In a culture where services for children are primarily charity based, it is essential that advocacy work go hand in hand with practical training and produce visible impacts. Advocacy must incorporate children, parents, teachers, health workers and policy makers, and must involve adults with disabilities who can set an example of active participation in society.
Khamhoung Sacklokham, Director of General Education Department, Ministry of Education, National Commission for Mother and Child
Laos ratified the Convention in 1991, and established a National Program of Action for Children the following year. The strategy of the program of action includes establishing the commission on mothers and children, strengthening the capacity of agencies charged with implementing the convention and intensifying advocacy and social mobilization efforts to ensure that available resources are allocated to benefit Lao children. In 1996, the government convened a meeting of officials at all levels charged with implementing the convention, at which officials compared experiences in their efforts to implement child survival measures, immunization programs and preventative health care. The last five years have seen solid advances in survival and development issues for children, though new protection issues are emerging. These emerging protection issues have widened the mandate of the National Commission on Mothers and Children.
Goals for children in Laos are constrained most by slow socioeconomic development, natural calamities and the regional economic crisis, but despite these obstacles, Laos was declared polio free in 2000, and has achieved universal salt iodization which will eliminate IDD. Improvements are also visible in DPT coverage and vitamin A supplementation. Child mortality has been substantially reduced through improvements and expansion of health services and immunization efforts, and access to education for Lao of all ages has improved significantly.
Despite these gains, other tenets of the convention remain unmet. Maternal mortality remains high, as does protein energy malnutrition and many children lack access to sanitary latrines and quality basic education. Also, the gender gap in literacy and education persists, as do urban/rural and ethnic disparities in access to social services.
Goals for the coming years include universal elementary education, especially inclusive of girls and minorities, by 2015, as well as reductions in infant, mother and child mortality rates. The country also must address issues of childhood nutrition, drug abuse, poverty, HIV/AIDS and cross border migration of youth seeking employment income. All of these issues must be addressed if the country is going to reach its goal of graduating from the status of "least developed country" by 2020.
Sustainable poverty reduction, which is necessary for the well being of children as well as the rest of society, requires the country to set achievable short-term goals in every sector and create a healthy, educated workforce. Despite economic constraints, the government is increasing the money it puts towards social services, and the "Say Yes to Children" campaign is a national effort to give children and youth a voice in identifying the key issues affecting their lives.
Priorities for the coming decade include improving parenting skills along with health and nutrition services available to mothers and children, AIDS and HIV education programs to slow the spread of the disease coupled with community based care to reduce the impact on children whose parents are sick. The government is also working to establish a legal framework to protect the rights of juvenile's in the justice system, with a particular emphasis on creative and humane rehabilitation programs for young offenders. Poverty alleviation goals include expanded social services in rural areas and decentralization of government policy making to include communities in decision making. Health goals include improving access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, with particular emphasis on school sanitation.
With all of these goals ahead, the Lao PDR will also have to work hard to sustain existing achievements. The country will allocate more money internally to children, but needs also the support of donors who can help improve resources available to Lao children.
Chea Samnang, Director of Rural Health Care Department, Ministry of Rural Development, Royal Government of Cambodia
Within Cambodia, the government worked with UNICEF to establish a Community Action for Social Development program which emphasizes six primary components from 1996 to 2000, including capacity building, community education and health care, food, water and environment, health and hygiene, protection and care of vulnerable children and women and improving opportunities for credit, employment and income. This program was implemented in 8 provinces. For the coming five years, the government will be implementing the next stage, a program called "Seth Koma" which means "child rights" in Khmer. The program builds on lessons learned from the Community Action for Social Development program, and will be implemented in six provinces, which include 16 districts, 80 communes and 711 villages.
Seth Koma will measure success by increased survival rates for mothers and children, improved health statistics and expanded access to education. The plan will work on participatory child and mother centered village development. Nutritional status will be the primary measure of success. The two primary projects of Seth Koma are decentralized community empowerment and village plans for basic services. Villagers will formulate their own Village Action Plans for their to improve the situation of children within their communities, and the process is designed to build the capacity of the local government to implement these village plans. Village plans for basic services will support technical implementation of action plans and ensure that each village has access to basic health, education, water, sanitation and credit services, and that the most vulnerable are not left out of the process.
A variety of groups will benefit directly from the Seth Koma program in the coming years, young children, families and people living with AIDS, women of reproductive age, village development committees, government staff and local authorities, as well as technical staff affiliated with the program. Seth Koma working groups serve as coordinating bodies between sectors at all levels, and at the national level Seth Koma coordinates work between relevant ministries.
Village Development Committees, elected by the villages, manage Seth Koma programs at the village level and receive formal and on-the-job training as part of their participation. The VDC serve as mobilizers, educators, communicators and extension workers. Seth Koma will build on the lessons learned from the CASD program, which had some notable successes. Population with access to sanitation facilities has quadrupled since 1996, and basic health indicators such as prevalence of diarrhea, low birth weight, anemia show improvement over the study period, as do rates of stunting and underweight prevalence. A wide range of other indicators also show significant improvement over the years of the CASD program. The program tripled the number of wells available to villagers, digging 1500 wells, each one serving 250 people. Home gardening, cash and in-kind credit, and literacy class participation also increased substantially with the CASD program.
Seth Koma and CASD both incorporate a strategy of continual assessment, analysis and action, aimed at improving the health and well being of all people in the program villages. Through these programs, Cambodia is able to facilitate implementation of the convention on the rights of children.
Amanda Bissex, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF - Laos
While debate rages on most other issues, the convention on the rights of children is almost universally accepted. The challenge then is to facilitate implementation of the convention and to incorporate children themselves into that process. Not only are the rights to participation and expression clearly stated in the convention but as with any other form of development work, the target group must have a hand in developing the strategies to benefit them.
Some of the ways in which UNICEF has been working to incorporate children include a youth survey across Latin America, which formed a model for a survey of children in East Asia and the Pacific. About 10,000 from 9 - 17 participated in the survey, and the results have informed debate and influenced the wording of the Beijing declaration on shaping the future for children, in which governments committed themselves to ensuring that the well being of children is at the center of national agendas. The survey showed that children are generally positive about their future, but many are unprepared to deal with challenges they will face as they enter adulthood. HIV, AIDS and drug abuse stood out across the region. Children in Lao PDR were aware of some of their rights, but over half did not know that they have rights just as adults do.
With the support of a range of ministries, UNICEF is collaborating with the Lao government on the Say Yes to Children campaign, aimed at educating children and adults about the rights of children. Part of the campaign is a process of discussing rights with children of all ages.
In the survey conducted, many Lao youth knew little or nothing about drugs, drug abuse or HIV and AIDS. Though rates of HIV infection and drug abuse are relatively low in Laos with respect to the region as a whole, youth who enter adulthood without even basic understanding of these issues are unprepared to face them. Children who understand the dangers of drugs and HIV are empowered to make decisions for themselves. UNICEF has worked with the Lao Youth Union and the government to survey children and educate them about the risks associated with UXO. Children were actively engaged in developing their own safety messages and in informing their families and friends about the dangers of UXO. Their own participation in the process was essential to their safety education.
The survey showed that Lao youth often feel that they are treated differently from their peers and that their opinions are not important. Listening to the voices of children is essential to understanding where we must focus efforts to implement the convention.
Steve Gourley, Child Rights Advisor, Lichadho in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The question of promoting the best interests of working children is a challenging one within efforts to implement the Convention on the Rights of Children. Notably, Article 32 states that a child has the right to be protected from work that "threatens his or her health, education or development" -- this article uniquely impacts the economic and survival needs of families, and must be balanced with articles 3 and 6 of the convention, which respectively address the importance of taking the child's best interests into account in actions concerning the child, and the state's obligation to ensure every child's survival and development. Taken together these three articles present an interesting challenge. Instances of poorly implemented child labor initiatives have notably resulted in children moving to more dangerous work where their labor is not monitored. The question that these articles, take together, raise is: Is it always in the best interests of children to protect them from work on which they and their families depend for survival? The convention must be taken as a whole, and individual articles must not be implemented at the expense of other articles.
None of this discussion should be taken as a defense of the extreme cases of child labor in Cambodia. Most child labor in Cambodia occurs within the context of families and home communities. Strict implementation of Article 32 may be in conflict with children's survival strategies, and we must be very careful to ensure that responses to child labor always protect the best interests of working children. This means identifying those aspects of work that are harmful to children, as well as those aspects that are helpful to their development and survival.
Lichadho has developed a "Child Labor Matrix" that categorizes work into levels ranging from household chores and the worst forms of child labor. The matrix covers formal and informal work, and systematically lists assessment criteria and indicators for each category of labor. The categories of labor are:
Child Chores
Child Work
Light Labor
Heavy Labor
Worst Forms of Child Labor
Basic categories of assessment criteria include work hours, work days per week, number and length of breaks as well as more general criteria, such as the child's relationship to his or her coworkers and employer -- is he or she working with immediate family members or total strangers? Is work performed at home, or at the opposite end of the spectrum, does the child live and work outside their home country? Is the child able to attend school, and how are they compensated for their work. Does the work involve lifting, use of machines or tools and are those tools and machines used safely? How often are physical injuries sustained as a direct result of work process, and how serious are those injuries? Is the child subjected to emotional and moral injury or abuse, and how lasting is that injury, how frequent that abuse? How does the child view his or her own situation?
The matrix is designed so that labor inspectors, child rights advocates and employers can assess thirty distinct indicators and both record a clear picture of child labor as it occurs and compare circumstances of children working in various situations. The range of indicators included in the matrix serve an added purpose of helping all players see the difference between helpful and harmful child labor, and helps to focus child protection efforts on eliminating the worst forms of child labor while improving milder forms. The matrix also helps to identify the specific aspects of a given working situation which are most harmful and helps both labor inspectors, communities and employers to see how those conditions could be made less harmful.
The matrix is a framework, not a comprehensive description of the work lives of children, but it can be very valuable to efforts to address article 32 of the Convention without sacrificing other articles.
Pham Thi Nga, Department for International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In Viet Nam, of a population (in 1999) of 76.3 million, there are 8.2 million children under five, 31.7 million children under 18. Infant mortality is 37 per thousand, and more than 90% of infants receive immunizations. Viet Nam was the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and submits regular reports to the UN Committee on the rights of the child. In conjunction with ratification of the convention, Viet Nam established in 1991 the Committee for Protection and Care of Children in 1991, to manage the protection, care and education of children. The national committee works with village and district level committees to increase everyone's awareness of the rights of children and to disseminate information about the Convention itself. With the help of UNICEF, the Convention has been entirely translated into Vietnamese and a number of ethnic languages. In addition to the work of the Committee for Protection and Care of Children, Viet Nam has adopted both a national law on the protection, care and education of children, and a national program of action for the survival, protection and development of children. The action program emphasizes the responsibilities of each level of government with respect to the basic protection, care and education of children, while legislative reforms including directives on street children and on health, nutrition and education compliment the action program.
In 2000, Viet Nam had achieved most of its decade end goals for improving the lives of children and made great progress in providing for their basic needs. Standard health indicators like infant and child mortality rates declined, primary school enrollment improved and more children than ever receive vitamin A supplements and iodized salt in their diets.
Major challenges to improving the lives of children persist, though, these include rural malnutrition, lack of access to sanitation and safe water, low rates of primary school completion and secondary school enrollment. Children in need of special protection are on the rise, children with disabilities, street children, children with HIV, child legal offenders. The new National Program for Children, for the coming decade, puts special emphasis on these children. The Vietnamese government will collaborate with International NGOs to implement the rights of children in Viet Nam.
Q&A Session:
As a note, the moderator added that the Committee for the Protection and Care of Children formed the model for a similar committee implemented in Indonesia.
Does Lichadho look at the role of multinational corporations in exploitation of child labor?
ILO does monitor industries like the garment industry, and some corporations have sent their own monitors to watch over factories so that conditions do not put the trade agreement at risk. Overall, there is so little mass production industry in Cambodia that only 4% of working children are involved in manufacturing and only a portion of that is for export, so within Cambodia, the emphasis is on informal labor. Internationally, the manufacturing sector receives the most attention, and that attention tends to focus on quick responses over real efforts to improve working conditions and circumstances for children and adults.
A handful of questions focused on integration of child rights work into broader development projects at the community level and into national planning.
In Viet Nam, orphans are now raised as a part of their community, and street children and other children in difficult circumstances have access to drop in centers and counseling. Such programs mean that local communities are very much involved in protecting the rights of children even beyond their own households.
In Laos, the National Commission for Mother and Children is intended to be the national coordination body that links ministries of health and education together. Departments from within those ministries as well as departments from ministries of finance and of planning are represented, and through the Commission, planning and implementation efforts can be integrated.
In Cambodia, Ministries of Health and of Education are similarly incorporated into the national plans of Seth Koma, the Ministry of Health in particular has trained volunteers at the village level, especially as birth attendants.
Because so many of the presentations emphasized basic nutrition and child health initiatives, several questions addressed manpower and the lack of quality health care professionals in rural areas.
Within Laos, one manpower solution is that training programs come to rural areas to train prospective health workers. Because the country has so few health professionals, individuals who come to Vientiane for training have too many opportunities when they finish their education and they do not want to return to their villages to practice medicine. Some choose to stay in the capital even if they cannot work in medicine because they like the city. The same problems apply to educators. The solution that has been found in teacher training is that theoretical courses alternate with practical courses and teachers are forced to return regularly to their village to complete practical course work to keep them close to their communities. Comparable training systems could ensure that doctors return to their villages once they are trained.
What is the role of the private sector in meeting the needs of the Convention of the Rights of Children?
Multinationals have a responsibility to protect the rights of children wherever they work. Notably, Save the Children was active in a campaign to stop Nestle from running a campaign to encourage the use of sweetened condensed milk instead of breast milk or formula.
Also, companies have basic responsibilities to invest in the communities they are working in, and to develop human capital in those countries, to protect the rights of children. Most multinational corporations have a clause in their policies to be good corporate citizens, and NGOs can make them live up to those clauses.
Panel B: Building effective cooperation between humanitarian and development organizations and government structures.
Moderator: Dominique Van der Borght, Oxfam Solidarity – Belgium, Lao PDR
Pen Dareth, Advisor to the Council of Ministers on NGO Affairs and Human Rights
In Cambodia’s experience in building a civil society, the role played by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been crucial. They have provided assistance in the reconstruction of the Kingdom of Cambodia in its move towards a democratic society. The term "civil society" is new for Cambodia. With the arrival of the peace-keeping forces in 1991 and during the UNTAC period between 1991 and 1993, and with the opening up of the country with the flow of technical assistance, local NGOs began to emerge and subsequently mushroomed. This development represents a significant phase in the emergence of civil society in Cambodia.
The involvement of civil society contributes to the promotion of good governance, transparency in financial affairs and in support of the reforms initiated by the Royal Government. The state and civil society are partners in development with the same goals in mind- to work together for the common good of the people and society. Therefore, in order to mobilize the wisdom from all walks of life and backgrounds in nation building, the Royal Government of Cambodia widely supports the role of Civil Society and NGOs in the development of the country. The Government needs not only to recognize the constructive role of civil society but, wherever possible, to work with them as it contributes to the country’s development.
Currently, almost 1250 NGOs (whether international or local) operate in Cambodia and clearly mark a strong commitment to peace, stability and national reconciliation. In the process, they promote democracy and respect for human rights, while pushing an agenda for sustainable human development and reforms in Cambodia. The Royal Government hopes to establish a legal framework for NGOs, in order to support their programs and activities. These laws and regulations are designed to facilitate the role of NGOs; improve efficiency; strengthen their transparency and accountability; and enhance their partnership with the Government.
Bert Bosch, ZOA Refugee Services, Cambodia
ZOA has been working in Cambodia primarily as a humanitarian organization. Some of the unique elements of working in Cambodia include its history of conflict and its high dependence of foreign aid. ZOA's work includes emergency relief assistance as well as reconciliation and reintegration. Because ZOA's work is confined to refugees and returnees, it is a humanitarian organization, though projects tend to bridge the gap between long term and short-term development. Within Cambodia, ZOA projects include the O'Chrou Integrated Rural Development and Reintegration project, which offers assistance with agriculture and rural income generation, primary health care, education, water, sanitation and basic infrastructure and the Samroang/Ampil community reintegration and development project focuses on agriculture, basic health education, water and sanitation, primary education and infrastructure.
There are different forms of partnership often shaped by the particulars of the NGO. True partnerships are characterized by equality, mutual benefit and shared respect and support.
Development projects that do not have the support and partnership of a government are not sustainable. NGOs and government authorities contribute unique strengths to any partnership. NGOs are able to reach segments of a society that are not prioritized in public development programs, they have the trust and confidence of a larger group, can take more risks and often have more experience developing innovative mechanisms, and they are able to advocate for the groups they are working with. However, NGOs have no inherent interest in national strategies, and they are dependent on donors. Often, NGOs are not part of national multi-sectoral program design and planning.
ZOA's partnership with the government of Cambodia extends to support of the PoE and DoE in improving primary education in O'Chrou and Samraong, support of and dialogue with the PDRD and district authorities in relocating squatters from Poipet town, and support of the PHD to improve the quality of public health services in O'Chrou district.
Humanitarian NGOs are versatile, favor short-term commitments over long lasting impacts, are direct need driven and take an emergency approach. Development NGOs make long-term, though finite commitments, focus on sustainability, are driven by indirect needs and take a more participatory approach. Government organizations make an infinite commitment, are politically driven and provide structural aid.
In conclusion, ZOA has not built flawless partnerships, but they try their best. Some of the most valuable lessons in ZOA's experiences are that humanitarian assistance needs to be linked to long-term development from the beginning, and that governments need to be proactive in developing partnerships. Based on the experiences of ZOA, recommendations are that organizations identify different development partners carefully, define roles and responsibilities clearly, strengthen their commitment to build on mutual trust and cooperation, focus more on sharing of ideas, plans and a common vision and enable the government to execute its governance role appropriately.
Dr. Bountheuang Mounlasy, Director of International Economic Cooperation Department, State Planning Committee
According to Dr. Mounlasy, efficient cooperation is needed to minimize adverse effects from the absence of coordination, work redundancy, and inefficiencies in the utilization of each partner’s pool of resources and expertise. In the area of humanitarian aid, where humanitarian aid organizations are involved, coordination by all relevant actors, especially government functionnaires, is even more urgently needed than anywhere else. Dr. Mounlasy highlights six general points essential to the building up of an effective cooperation between humanitarian development organizations and Government structures. They include:
1) Understanding of Partners’ Institutions
Effective cooperation can only be built when each partner has a good working knowledge of the particularities of its institutions, vis-à-vis Government structure in which it intends to intervene.
2) Commitment to Work with the Appropriate Government Structure
Several mass organizations function in the Lao PDR, such as the Lao Women’s Union, the Lao Youth Organization, and the Lao Front for National Reconstruction. Building effective cooperation between humanitarian organizations and government structures will require working effectively with these mass organizations to link the partner institutions
3) Comprehension of Policies and Priorities
Development partners need to know about not only the institutional structure of the Government, its actors and operational links; but also the country’s policies, development priorities, and strategic visions. An important new policy of the Government comes from its efforts, since 1996, at decentralization. This process aims to make villages, districts and provinces masters of their own development and destinies, by empowering the grassroots levels to participate fully in their own socio-economic development. Development potential and needs are best known at the local level and the decentralization of planning and budgeting will interpret this knowledge.
In is in this new context of decentralization that the building up of effective cooperation between humanitarian development organizations and government structures will reach a new meaning and many more challenges.
4) Exchange of Information
Establishing good cooperation requires that information flow actively between partners, especially on urgent needs. Information also includes feedback- from experiences, evaluations, monitoring and targeted beneficiaries.
5) Mutual Trust
The higher the mutual trust between the partners, the more meaningful the exchange of information. Establishing mutual trust, based on mutual trust knowledge and empathy and genuine sharing of resources and information, requires duration and longer-time presence.
6) Availability of Capacity
Whether or not cooperation is effective depends on sustainability of cooperation programs, and this in turn depends on capacity. Most projects are not sustainable because of a lack of capacity, particularly at the grassroots level. Thus, to build effect cooperation, we have to build institutional and human capacity.
Jacquelyn Chagnon, International Consultant , Lao PDR
Mistakes are the best lessons: we can learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. Building effective cooperation is not an easy topic to address. Cooperation between whom? NGOs, multilateral agencies, beneficiaries, the government? Project beneficiaries are never just beneficiaries, they do most of the labor, building schools, digging wells. The government wants to be seen not as dictating but as guiding and supporting, internal support agencies like mass organization work alongside the government, while NGOs and multilateral and bilateral agencies provide external; support.
Partnerships and cooperation do not have to be formal. Sometime informal relationships are stronger, paving the way to formal partnerships. Partnerships and cooperation require mutual respect, dialogue and trust. But that trust is evolving in Lao PDR. Once, multilateral agencies would design projects and invite NGOs to implement them, NGOs had their own ideas and approaches that they weren’t ready to give up. Government wanted faster tangible results than participatory development can provide. Today, those stakeholders are beginning to find common ground, but it remains true that every stakeholder has an agenda and even in an ideal situation, every stakeholder gets part of what they want, not one gets all of what they want.
NGOs have a unique role in developing countries, they have the flexibility to test new grounds, new methods in ways that government and multilateral agencies cannot. For twenty years before UXO Trust began in 1996, NGOs like the Quakers, Mennonites and Handicap International had been working on issues, and by the time the Trust was established, those NGOs had spent $1.5 million on UXO work. There are countless other examples of NGOs clearing the way for larger developments, in integrated rural development, irrigation, and micro-credit projects that began as small NGO endeavors and grew into international models.
Multilateral agencies are just as necessary as NGOs. Roads and infrastructure take money and time that NGOs do not have. Multilateral agencies, however, need to learn to involve NGOs and government counterparts in their planning from the very beginning. The World Bank has tried participatory approaches in sanitation and clean water projects that have been enormously successful.
The final lessons is that every institution needs to learn from others. This is the lesson that needs the most work still, at least in Lao PDR. Review, consultations and forums need to happen much more often and are in short supply. Information is not being shared between organizations, but this is just the kind of learning that allows us to understand our own mistakes and to avoid repeating one another’s mistakes.
Nguyen Van Kien, Deputy Director, People’s Aid Coordinating Committee, (PACCOM)
The contribution of national and international NGOs in Viet Nam is valued, and is growing rapidly. NGOs from all over the world bring resources, linkages and ideas to development and relief projects. The number of NGOs is consistently increasing, and with it, the volume of their contribution. From 1975 to 1978 there were only fifty NGOs working in Viet Nam, transferring US$30 million in aid and spending. By 1995, there were 250 INGOs, the volume of their assistance nearing US $70 million. Five years later, there were more than 500 INGOs, bringing in US$83 million.
While INGO assistance is not as substantial as that of other ODA sources, NGO assistance responds directly to people’s needs, and their contribution to development goes far beyond the transfer of funds, to provide innovation, ideas international linkages and solidarity. Cooperation means working together towards a common purpose, and without effective cooperation between INGOs and the government of Viet Nam the country could not have achieved what it has so far. The sustained success of INGO projects also depends on this coordination.
Effective partnership can happen when partners adopt a focused and measured way of sharing experiences and capacities to achieve their common goals. The concept of NGOs is still somewhat new to Viet Nam and the government is working to create favorable conditions for INGOs in Viet Nam. In 1996, the government issued regulations on the operation of INGOs in Viet Nam and established a committee for foreign NGOs. The Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations, or VUFO, is the standing agency of that committee, and PACCOM is its functional body, the focal point for all INGOs working in Viet Nam. PACCOM, in turn, appoints a local committee to coordinate NGO affairs in each city and province.
INGOs in Viet Nam are asked to provide input on government affairs, and sit on the consultative group of donors to share their ideas and experiences with the gathered donors and government officials. Every 6 months, VUFO organizes an idea-sharing meeting for NGO representatives as well as smaller monthly meetings and active working groups, all of which are important to INGOs as they are to local partners. In addition these forums, INGOs usually work with government officials and mass organizations, so they have a ready-made mechanism for communication. Viet Nam is especially focused on improving the position of the poorest Vietnamese and replicating NGO projects that have been particularly successful.
The prerequisite to effective cooperation are commitment, dialogue, trust and respect. INGOs have a legal obligation to register with the government, which is the first step towards opening communication. For the government to create conditions that facilitate NGOs’ contributions to the country, they have to take an active role in coordinating the work of NGOs.
Phan Van Ngoc, Action Aid – Viet Nam
In this paper, Mr. Phan Van Ngoc from Action Aid-Viet Nam provides a perspective on some of the opportunities and constraints which development organizations may confront in their work in poverty reduction work within the clearly defined government structures in Viet Nam. The paper presents views from Action Aid’s experience as an international non-governmental organization (INGO) working in cooperation with government structures in Viet Nam.
Three types of humanitarian and development organizations operate in Viet Nam: i) mass-organizations from the early liberation period of the 1930s; ii) local NGOs, which currently have a limited role; and iii) INGOs, which have been providing support to Viet Nam for several decades. For most INGOs, like Action Aid-Viet Nam, the main form of cooperation in the past has been to work either through or with government agencies that also include mass-organizations at different levels. The distinction is determined largely by the extent to which local partners have the capacity to assume full management responsibility for development programs. At the beginning of program activities, some INGOs may choose to work with local partners with their own staff being actively involved in many aspects of program management and implementation. However, as local partners become more experienced, the type and level of support from INGOs evolves, and they may choose to work through local partners.
The Committee for Non-Governmental Affairs within the Prime Minister’s Office has overall responsibility for overseeing all aspects of INGO operations in the country. The People’s Aid Coordinating Committee (PACCOM) under the umbrella of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organization (VUFO) has responsibility over day-to-day work and provides INGOs with advice and guidance on a wide variety of issues related to their work. Working with the Government, INGOs in Viet Nam are well positioned to demonstrate to policy makers innovative approaches to poverty reduction, such as Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA).
Close cooperation with VUFO and other central government ministries and institutions can help raise the profile of INGOs and facilitate contacts with decision makers. Consequently, the open dialogue may create greater opportunities for advocacy work as well as other types of collaboration in emergency, consultations, etc. Advocacy can occur at the local as well as the central level. Several INGOs have developed strong links with provincial authorities. These links provide INGOs with opportunities to build on the new ideas and alternative approaches to planning, implementation and evaluation of poverty reduction programs. Some provincial partners have begun to recognize the value of these processes, which have contributed to a more participatory and effective implementation of program activities. Working with local government partners also provides opportunities for replicating, or scaling up, program activities.
In Viet Nam, donors and government officials alike have recognized the importance of institutional capacity in achieving sustainable impact on poverty eradication. In recent years, many policy reforms have emphasized, among other areas, the move towards a more decentralized decision-making process. However, planning methodology at the local level has not yet adapted to take advantage of this changing policy environment. International NGOs are well placed through PPA exercises, workshops and training programs to facilitate this process and improve the understanding of service-providers at local government levels. This process can be achieved by helping them develop critical skills in analyzing differences within communities and assessing the varying needs of different groups.
Where partnerships do exist, the lack of formal mechanisms for inclusion of NGOs has, in some cases of policy and advocacy work, hindered or constrained the participation of INGOs altogether. As a consequence, personal and institutional linkages and relationships of some well-established INGOs have often determined the inclusion of NGOs in such partnerships. Because of the lack of transparency in these selection processes, INGOs are not always well represented (or properly matched) as they should be in such partnerships. In particular, local NGOs suffer from this exclusion because they lack the donor network and institutional strengths with which INGOs are, to some extent, able to compensate.
The question remains whether the impact of the INGO work will be sustained after the phase-out of their support. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to assume that involving local government and the poor fully in the early stages of program appraisal and planning as well as the subsequent implementation and evaluation of activities offers the greatest potential for program sustainability.
Paula Kelly, PKA – Viet Nam
Effective cooperation in development programs results from excellent planning, strong commitment, respectful relationships, and sufficient and well-developed skills. From her experience working with multilateral organizations, NGOs and grassroots groups, Ms. Paula Kelly has learned that the key ingredients missing from development programs are cultural, and thus operational synergies.
Cultural synergy is more than respect for differences – cultural, attitudinal, working styles and experiences- and encompasses the active development of new program/project culture which chooses and works with the most appropriate individual values and cultures of the groups and individuals involved. What is appropriate is developed by all involved at all levels of association – what attitudes, skills, etc. will be more likely to maximize results and lead to satisfaction of all parties.
Too much is assumed in developing partnerships. Effective cooperation cannot take place without effective synergies. Time must be made available for this sort of relationship. The following method has proven to be effective in creating synergies at a large NGO in Viet Nam.
The values must be written down and the manifestations of these values are combined into the procedures and processes in which the laws are considered. Everyone agrees and there is common understanding. The relationships go from strength to strength and true teamwork and camaraderie have a chance to develop and thrive.
Discussion:
The discussion began with several questions to the whole panel, on the process of decentralization, and on the difference between working for and working with partners.
Cambodia is in the process of decentralizing its government agencies, as are Laos and Viet Nam. The speaker from Viet Nam observed that the strength and advantage of NGOs is at the grass roots. Every city and province has an established focal point for INGO work. INGOS should coordinate with those agencies so that their work is most effective. INGOs and others often object to requirements that aid projects of a certain size receive approval before they can begin working. The government takes the position that this money should not be taken lightly, it is the accumulated savings of people who worked hard for it, and to make sure that funds are used wisely, the government should have a say in approving external aid.
Laos, Dr. Bountheuang observed, is still learning, gaining experience. The purpose of decentralization is to root out and eradicate poverty allowing people to be the masters of their own needs and strategies. Decentralization, however, relies heavily on local government capacity that Laos needs help building.
Another question raised the issue of transparencies with INGOs, to which one panelist observed that nearly everyone on the panel had included trust in their definition of cooperation. Building on trust is also a question of how you see your role. When you see the INGO as a service provider, and the government or beneficiaries as clients, there is already an inequality. NGOs should share responsibility equally with the beneficiaries. Partnership must come from a willingness to work together and learn from one another.
In Laos and Viet Nam, what is the place of local NGOs with respect to mass organizations?
Dr. Bountheuang Mounlasy: Laos does lack a legal framework that accommodates local NGOs, and without that structure, local NGOs are not permitted. Laos does facilitate INGOs and recognizes their role. As Laos decentralizes to the grass roots, INGOs will need to be good partners. Without local NGOs, the mass organizations play the role of local NGOs, though donors are often not willing to use their services. Mass organizations are active at the grass roots and are very close to the people. Donors work with the Women’s Union, but not with other mass organizations.
Paula Kelly: The assumption is that NGOs are pure and independent from any government, whether they are local or international. Many NGOs are development aid organizations that receive their money primarily from their own government. When NGOs balk at working with mass organizations because they are government bodies, they should ask what exactly defines an NGO. In Viet Nam, there is business and there is NGO. There isn’t a distinction between community based organizations and professional development organizations where are more accurately described as non-profit businesses. And NGOs that object to working with mass organizations should consider their own and their colleagues funding sources and then look at what they can get out of working with NGOs.
Nguyen Van Kien: During the seventies and eighties, there were only mass organizations and people’s organizations. The Vietnamese have a saying, that each tree bears its own flower, each family has its own conditions. If you come to Viet Nam only to work with local NGOs, you will have a hard time, but if you look at the work of mass organizations you will find a lot of similarities. In Viet Nam, mass organizations work on the same goals, have the same interests as INGOs, so emphasizing their source makes it hard to work. The government is drafting a law on local NGOs, and even Japan only approved their NGO local in 1998, it did not take effect until 1999. So NGO laws are not universal. The main thing is that we are working towards common goals and should work together.
What is the place of government to coordinate between NGOs?
Nguyen Van Kien: The government of Viet Nam has created favorable legal framework for INGOs that come to help Viet Nam NGOs do not come to make a profit, so the government offers them some privileges, such as official visas rather than tourist visas, tax exempt status, and duty free imports fro goods they need to run their projects. The Vietnamese government places great importance on aid coordination, and works to encourage NGOs to work in remote areas and disaster zones where they can reach the most vulnerable communities. The government also has a responsibility to facilitate communication between NGOs, and so has organized the NGO Resource Center and regular forums for NGOs working in Viet Nam. These have been successful, as have efforts to look at where NGO projects have been particularly successful and replicate those successes in other areas.
What will be the priority issues for Cambodia to work with NGOs?
Pen Dareth: The constitution of Cambodia gives every citizen the right to establish associations, and operate independent of the government. The priority of the Royal Government of Cambodia cooperating with NGOs and associations is that they should actively participate to fill the gaps in the development program of the government itself. We are partners working on equal footing, civil society and NGOs have a role to play to develop the nation. The one restriction on NGO activity is that civil society organizations should not be involved in the political framework, should not compete with political parties. In the Cambodian context this is the one restriction on civil society. Eradication of poverty is a priority.
Some final ideas for the panel.
Jacquelyn Chagnon: The definitions of words are very important. When each NGO seems so different, it is hard to define what exactly an NGO is. Often NGOs are better described as "private development agencies" or ‘non-profit development agencies’. We do not have to figure out what each agency is, because lumping them together glosses over their differences. The World Bank does not operate the same as the ADB, Quaker Service Laos works differently from CIDSE or CARE. The challenge is to look at each agency in terms of what its own objectives are, and not to make assumptions and generalizations. Look closely and define for yourself what a given agency is. One of the greatest assets of NGO in the region is that there are directories that give a clear sense of where an organization fits into systems.
That said, all NGOs need a legal structure. Every government has a legal framework for its non-profit community, in the United States it falls under the tax structure, because donations to organizations fall under the tax structure. Other places there are specific laws. There is a whole institution devoted to helping countries create laws for non-governmental institutions. Viet Nam and Laos should continue to pursue a legal framework, because that forms the key to having an independent local movement that is strong. Mass organizations are very good, but they can only go so far, as there are topics that are outside of their scope. A legal framework will open the door to local creativity which can serve everyone.
Panel C: The role of women and their challenges in social and economic development
Moderator: Ann Helm, City University of New York
While equal rights and opportunities for women are mandated by the constitutions of Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam, each speaker observed that across the region, women participate equally or outnumber men in many sectors, and that overall, women tend to work longer hours and to devote more time yet to household chores. Specific figures from each country show that in general, women sleep less, and spend fewer hours on leisure than men do. Despite their economic contributions, women are less educated than men, less likely to have completed education beyond the primary school level. Other issues common to the three countries were that data collection tends to stop at the household level, so that there are not good figures that specifically address women’s experiences with health, labor, economics or local decision making. Also, though in the three countries women are generally well represented in National Government, they are less well represented in village politics. In the case of Viet Nam, women make up 26% of the National Assembly, but less than 5% of the People’s Committees at the District and Commune level. Where women are represented nationally, they tend not to serve on powerful Finance and Defense committees.
Speakers overwhelmingly expressed the need for better research data on women’s circumstances and real analysis of gender issues in development policy and planning. Two of the most interesting points raised show just how lacking gender analysis has been in policy design. HE Ing Kantha Phavy observed that one of the biggest obstacles to rural girls seeking higher education is that higher education often requires them to leave home. While boys can sleep at the pagoda while pursuing their studies, girls cannot, and projects as simple as building girls dormitories make the difference in opening up access to higher education for girls. Chantal Oltramare made an equally interesting observation, that family planning campaigns are most often directed at married women, while research shows that men, both married and single, are the primary decision makers regarding contraceptive use.
Mrs. Bandit Pathoumavanh, Director of Right and Development & International Relations Dept, Central Lao Women’s Union
The Lao constitution says that men and women are equal in political, economic, cultural, social and family life. According a 1995 census, women, who are 51% of the Lao population, make up 54% of the agricultural work force, 57% of the service industry and 41% of the handicrafts workforce. Women in Laos are afforded a degree of economic security by old traditions of matrilineal inheritance which mean that women do own property, though they are not traditionally heads of household. Some of the particular challenges to including women in development in Laos are that much of the population lives in rural areas, reaching out to women in remote areas is difficult, and often rural women are not accustomed to dealing with officials and outsiders. So while women contribute substantially to the economy and participate in household decisions, they tend to defer to men in community decision making. Also, though women work more hours than men and constitute more than half of the agricultural workforce, agricultural extension programs tend to exclude them, so men benefit inordinately from agricultural training that spreads new information and technologies, not only because women traditionally defer to men when dealing with outsiders, but because women have more household and child care responsibilities and do not have the same flexibility to attend trainings as men often do. Development programs too often take the easy path of dealing only with men instead of making the effort to reach out to and accommodate women in training programs and other projects. The response to this is two fold. The Women’s Union works to encourage women to step forward and participate in community decisions and continuing education, while Gender Resource centers established by the Women’s Union offer, among other things, trainings for development workers and other teams to help them understand how to better incorporate women into their rural work.
Somsisouk Inthavong, Asian Development Bank, Basic Education for Girls Project
The National Education for Girls project in Laos is one project aimed at reducing the disparity between male and female educational achievements. Within Lao PDR, there are some two million school aged children, which means that there are one million girls who belong in school. In urban areas, women and girls are far more likely to complete their education and enjoy a broader range of social and economic opportunities, but in rural areas, there are more pressures on girls to leave school early. Still, rural women have benefited from capacity building and continuing education programs, though in remote areas, where survival is a full time effort, women do not participate in leadership or training programs. Overall, ADB studies found that even where women do have access to higher education, that education has not translated into participation in decision making. Prevailing gender ideologies and gendered divisions of labor seem to be the primary barriers to including women in decision making, but these traditions also mean that schooling is not seen as important for girls. Gender division of household labor means that girls are far more likely to be asked to stay home from school to help with household chores while boys tend to finish school.
The Basic Education for Girls Project began in 1999, and works at the Ministry level to implement a nationwide program to educate ethnic girls in remote areas. The long-term goal of the project is to give women the opportunity to participate equally in all aspects of life, but in the short term, the goal is to give girls and ethnic minorities opportunities to study at the primary level, complete primary grades and continue with secondary and vocational training.
Though education alone will not change the status of women in Lao communities, it is an important step in the right direction.
Nguyen Thi Thuy, Expert, Department of International Relations, Viet Nam Women’s Union
As in Lao PDR, equal rights for women are written into the Vietnamese constitution. Women have always played an active role in the defense and construction of the country, and actively participate in all aspects of social and economic life. As in Laos, women make up just over half of the agricultural workforce. 68% of Vietnamese women work in Agriculture and women take on 92% of all new agriculture jobs. Women account for 44% of the industrial workforce, and the number of large scale business enterprises owned by women has more than quintupled in the last decade. Women play an active role in national politics, as well, but at lower levels, women’s participation in leadership roles is low compared to their participation in the labor force.
In family life, though Viet Nam remains primarily a patriarchal society, studies show that women do participate actively in family decision making, and women participate actively in community work and campaigns.
Challenges to improving the role of women in development are both external and internal. The two primary barriers to women’s equality are the rise of prostitution in Viet Nam, and government policies that view the household as the basic economic unit. Most policies to improve economic opportunities are geared at families, and when men are the heads of households, programs tend to benefit men. For instance, as heads of households, men are more likely to have access to credit. Also, household chores and childcare are still viewed as "women’s work" and even when women are working as many hours as men in the workforce, men do not pick up the slack at home. Women’s own biases compound the situation, women often accept traditions that say that they belong at home, so they do not seek out advanced technical or vocational training. Women, like men, are often unaware of the ways in which gender issues affect them.
The Viet Nam Women’s Union conducts workshops for Party and government officials to help them understand gender issues and to promote awareness of women’s needs and capabilities. In addition, the VWU works to incorporate women into local and national leadership positions, in part by organizing training courses to prepare women for elections and leadership roles. Other VWU programs advance the role of women through household based income generation projects and training on micro-enterprises geared towards women. Such projects afford women financial autonomy. Still, the biggest challenge to incorporating Vietnamese women into development strategy continues to be basic awareness of gender issues.
Chantal Oltramare, Program Officer UNDP
The UNDP in Hanoi has undertaken a project on Capacity Development for the Implementation of the National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women. One of the major tasks of this project was to collect reliable data on the social and economic circumstances of women in Viet Nam. The project generated an analytical framework for incorporating gender issues into research and policy advice. Components included legal and policy framework, legislation should never explicitly recognize gender specific constraints – land law should not be gender specific. All stakeholders are affected by gender issues and should be incorporated into policy development processes. Policy makers need to recognize that gender stereotypes tend to inform household decisions, and that while poverty tends to intensify gender inequality, gender inequality can also increase poverty. Finally, it is important for policy makers to understand how their work will specifically effect women, and understand intra-household dynamics and decision making patterns.
Other important findings of the situation analysis of women in Viet Nam were that gender stereotyping is persistent in textbooks which show girls and women as timid, emotional, hard-working and dependent on the help of others, while men and boys are shown as strong, rational, confident, independent and technically competent. Such stereotypes affect both teachers and students, most notably they influence teachers expectations and advice for students. An added finding was that in the last decade, the rate of women seeking out higher education in technical fields has actually declined.
Patterns of work are also important to note. Women take on 92% of new agricultural jobs, which means that men are moving away from agriculture. Women tend to be concentrated in light industry and agriculture where wages are lowest, tend to have less access to credit or to information about where credit is available. Despite the prevalence of women in agriculture, men make up a substantial majority of participants in agricultural extension training. Extension services tend not to address processing and marketing of agricultural products, work which is primarily carried out by women.
Health statistics show that women are not able to negotiate safe sex, even with partners who know that they are HIV positive. Domestic violence is prevalent in most regions, and not recognized as an issue in the courts.
Global economic integration presents unique risks to the status of women. Women are not likely to be able to meet new needs for a flexible labor force with technical, managerial and high level skills, and experience internationally shows that capital intensive mechanization of agriculture tends to displace women, as men are preferred for operating heavy machinery.
Female employment dominates light industries: footwear, textiles, leather and garment making, where Viet Nam has a comparative advantage. The country could promote exports from these sectors and thereby improve the economic situation of women. Sound, gender sensitive polices can mitigate the negative impacts of globalization and contribute to gender equality as well as to poverty reduction.HE Ing Kantha Phavy, Secretary of State, Ministry of Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs
In Cambodia, women make up 52% of the population and 20% of heads of households. This figure is high for the region. Other representative statistics are that 85% of the population lives in rural areas, and years of conflict left the country with deteriorated social and economic infrastructure. Social and political stability presents new challenges for Cambodia. Growing pressures on land means a need for viable alternatives to agriculture, and as Cambodia enters the global economy, the country must be able to compete. However, reconstruction presents the country with a unique opportunity to protect and promote the rights of women. Parties competing in the upcoming commune elections have promised to present ballot slates that include at least 30% female candidates.
As in the region as a whole, women participate actively in the economy. They make up 52% of the economically active population, a figure consistent with their place in the population as a whole. They constitute more than half of the workforce in agriculture and fisheries, in manufacturing and in wholesale and retail trade. In keeping with immediate regional trends, however, women are less likely than men to be literate or to complete elementary education. Young mothers do not have access to early childhood services and childcare, and market-oriented skills training do not make accommodations for the needs of women who are both caregivers and economic providers, so women are left out of training programs that could prepare them for participation in the economy.
Nearly half the population, male and female, does not have access to adequate health care services, and health care expenses eat up a third of family budgets. Compounding these challenges are legal issues facing Cambodian women. Close to half of sex workers in Cambodia were forced into the business, and others turned to the industry for want of viable economic options. Further, domestic violence is still seen as a "normal part of marriage" in surveys.
36% of households live below the poverty line, and women experience poverty more acutely because they take on multiple burdens of childcare, household work and income generation. Women tend to have fewer resources and assets than men, and less influence in economic decisions. Opportunities for the advancement of women are restricted by cultural expectations of women’s behavior and a shortage of role models for women in non-traditional occupations. Women tend to have more demands on their time and resources. Women who have to fulfill family needs first and foremost cannot afford to take risks, and cannot use extra income to invest in their businesses.
An old Cambodian proverb says that "Women are cloth, men are gold." The motto of the Ministry of Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs is "Women are Precious Gems," which means that women should be treated as equal partners to men.
Ros Sopheap, Director Gender and Development for Cambodia
The law and constitution of Cambodia do protect the rights of women, but as in Laos and Viet Nam, statistics show a gender gap in the participation of women in the Cambodian economy relative to the economic benefit they gain from that participation. In addition the wealth disparity between rural and urban Cambodian’s is growing, as 40% of rural Cambodians and just 10% of urban Cambodians live below the poverty line. Across all economic categories, gender disparities in indicators like illiteracy, child malnutrition and access to safe water and health care persist, which suggest that gender disparities will not automatically improve with economic development. Women suffer not only from poverty brought on by wage and non-wage discrimination, but also from extraordinary rates of domestic violence, and as victims of sex trafficking. Young women and children are brought to Phnom Penh from the countryside and forced to work in the sex industry, where HIV rates range from 70-80%. Nearly one third of Cambodia’s known cases of HIV are wives who were infected by their husbands. These figures show that women suffer acutely from lack of control over their own lives.
While girls perform as well as or better than boys in school, they are more likely to drop out and as adults they then do not have access to more advanced vocational training and education. Men and women alike equate leadership ability with educational attainment, and so women are less willing to stand for election where they believe they are not qualified. Further, legal intervention in cases of domestic violence is rare, and trafficking laws are rarely upheld. Women do not have access to capital or credit, either because resources are in a husband’s name or because they are the lone head of the household and thus their own resources are severely strained.
As globalization leads to a mushrooming garment sector, young women leave the countryside to work in low paid garment factories. Low prices for rice and agricultural products mean that men, who once migrated seasonally to urban areas to find work, stay year round, and so rural women, the majority of Cambodia’s women, are isolated in a declining sector. The challenge of taking advantage of the real benefits of globalization will be the real challenge for Cambodia’s women.
Questions:
The discussion session covered a range of topics, but one of the first questions was on improving women’s access to higher education.
HE Ing Kantha Phavy made a very compelling point. Throughout the region, higher education usually means living away from home. Male students can stay in pagodas while they complete their education, if they don’t have the means to support themselves. Female students do not have that option, so facilitating access to higher education is often as simple as building dormitories for female students.
A more difficult issue to solve is that in poor families, young girls are often needed to help around the home. Families need girls to help with child care so that mothers can work, thus girls cannot go to school while boys are allowed to finish their education.
On the question of what can be done for girls working in garment factories, the Lao panelists observed that the country is establishing weekend schools, as well as working with the Labor Union and the Youth Union to help those mass organizations understand the particular needs of women who are leaving school to work. Right now, young women in garment factories often work seven days a week, so projects aimed at serving those women must collaborate with the Labor Union to demand that labor laws be enforced so that women are free to attend weekend courses.
How do you measure awareness of gender issues in policy making and planning?
This is a complicated question, because awareness does not always mean that policy change will follow. One of the most important measures of gender awareness is whether a policy accounts for women’s schedules, which are often much less flexible than men’s. Ultimately, better data is vital to advocacy, especially when it shows that women do not have access to social services. Statistics and economic figures do not often reach gender issues because surveys too often stop at the family or household unit and do not address gender within the family.
A question on the role of local NGOs in Cambodia: Ros Sopheap observed that Cambodia is going through the process of drafting local and national laws, and women are very lucky to have a woman as Minister of Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs who is working to ensure that gender issues are incorporated into these new laws and into the upcoming provincial elections.
Panel D: Social responsibility of business in poverty alleviation and sustainable development
Moderator: Steve Sherlock
Home Vonxay, Chief of the State Planning Committee, Department of General Planning, Speaking on behalf of Singkham Khonsavanh
A basic overview of the economic position of Lao PDR, and of Lao PDR's strategic planning for poverty alleviation and sustainable development, set the framework for the presentation. Agricultural production accounts for 52% of GDP and employs over 80% of the Lao workforce, and in remote areas, people operate in a non-monetized economy. The expressed development aim of Lao PDR is to quit for once and for all the status of a least developed country by 2020. To achieve this goal, the government has set out eight priority programs which along with macro-economic priorities will form the major components of Lao PDR’s transition from a subsistence based rural economy to a production and services economy. The fundamental sectors which form the basis of the government’s strategic approach to poverty alleviation are agriculture and forestry, education, health and road infrastructure. Strength in these sectors, along with sound macro-economic management and decentralization can ensure successful implementation of the country’s poverty alleviation strategy.
Since Lao PDR began implementing plans to move towards a market oriented economic system in 1986,the business sector has contributed to national development through capacity building, employment creation, foreign exchange earnings, services and tax revenues which allow the government to pay for social development programs. Contributions of private sector education and health care facilities have improved literacy and reduced infant mortality in the Lao PDR. The private sector continues to work primarily in urban areas, and not in neediest rural areas, and the primary contribution of the private sector is job creation. In the coming years, the business sector can be more helpful to national economic development by looking towards diversified investments and improve capacity building activities linked to diversification.
The business sector can also engage in careful, sustainable business involvement either in production for export or for domestic consumption, building new ventures that improve the social conditions of the population. The government of Lao PDR considers the promotion of income generating activities and improved access to social services as the best ways to reduce poverty, the business sector’s role in that is to encourage employment and income growth.
HE Sok Siphanna, Secretary of State, Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia
Mainstreaming Trade Strategy for Poverty Alleviation in Cambodia: this is a new concept in economic development. How can commerce be a tool for combating poverty? The external economic environment is rapidly changing, and growth in Cambodia must be sustainable in order to alleviate poverty. In the last few years, economic trends show decreases in the agriculture sector and increases in services and industry sectors as a percent of GDP. Real GDP is beginning to grow again, and inflation has stabilized since the economic crisis. The bulk of Cambodian trade is in the garment industry, where exports have skyrocketed since Cambodia signed its trade agreement with the US. Still, Cambodia remains an agricultural economy, and job creation in that sector has not kept pace with the growth of the Cambodian labor force. Exports form the bulk of economic growth in Cambodia, either in the form of goods shipped abroad, remittances from workers abroad and value added by tourism.
Trade strategy in Cambodia must be pro-poverty alleviation strategy. Not all trade sectors work for the poor. The private sector is the true engine of growth. The last five years have seen Cambodia enter the US, EU and ASEAN markets, and their goal is to join the WTO by 2002. Cambodia will enter these trade agreements, the challenge is to make the agreements and free trade areas work for Cambodia. Cambodia has MFN status with 28 countries, has bilateral trade agreements with ten more countries. China’s accession to the WTO and the US trade agreement with Viet Nam will challenge Cambodia’s economic growth. Meeting those and other challenges will require improvements in agricultural output, employment growth in manufacturing, service and export sectors while developing new export sectors, new markets for exports.
A pro-poor trade sector strategy emphasizes competitive advantage over comparative advantage, and views competitiveness as an enterprise issue and a sectoral issue. A pro-poor strategy will also focus on regionalization and decentralization of the Cambodian export sector. Competitive advantage means that Cambodia needs to join the WTO. In recent years, the textile industry has benefited from quotas available to US trade. Companies that had filled their quotas in other countries moved production to Cambodia, which benefited Cambodia’s textile industry. However, when the Multi-Fiber Agreement expires in 2005, bi-lateral trade quotas will no longer be imposed on WTO members. Cambodia needs to be prepared to compete without the benefit of quotas to limit other countries. If Cambodia does not join the WTO, they will still be subject to quotas, while WTO nations are free of them.
Regionalization and decentraliziation are vital to a pro-poor strategy because manufacturing and industrial growth in Cambodia has been limited to specific isolated regions, which means that some regions continue to starve while others flourish.
David Hill, AESOP - Cambodia
Based in Cambodia, a rapidly changing society with a severe problem with poverty. A historically agrarian society that is experiencing a tremendous migration to cities. Every year for the next five years, 200-300,000 young people will enter the workforce in Cambodia, a large number, larger than the government can absorb, partially because today close to half of the population is under 20 years old. These young people are joining a labor market that is not large enough to accommodate them comfortably. The government can help by facilitating a good environment for investment. The biggest problem faced by small and medium sized enterprises in Cambodia is a lack of capital. To improve this situation, the banking industry must be reformed so that people can trust and in turn use the countries banks. What groups like AESOP can offer is capacity building and marketing skills, by helping farmers and NGOs develop business sensibilities. NGOs are beginning to move towards income generation projects, they too, need help developing market skills. NGOs and groups like AESOP can facilitate skills transfer and capacity building in areas where people do not have business skills.
Peter Fogde, Burapha Group, Lao PDR
The Burapha Group is a full fledged foreign investor, building on Swedish traditions of developing commerce and social services hand in hand. Projects of the Burapha Group provide technical consultants in forestry, agriculture, rural development and civil engineering. They provide forest plantation management and processing of plantation wood, and a thus far non-profit dairy venture, which provides fresh, hygienic dairy products to Vientiane. The goal of development must be to promote access to social services for all citizens. Development is sustainable when resources used are less than resources generated. In business terms, this is called profit. The most important businessman to support in Lao PDR is not the urban office worker, but the rural agricultural worker. In Laos, escaping the national poverty trap means that the government must increase tax revenues and decreasing dependence on foreign aid. The only way to make that happen is to increase the commercial sector. Does commercial development decrease poverty among the poorest? Not necessarily. Burapha activities do not even reach the poorest Lao, could probably do more to reach the poorest. Businesses and the commercial sector can work with the government to bring income and work to the poorest Lao.
Peter Evans, PlaNet Computers, Lao PDR
First came here with Telstra, an Australian telecommunications company and is now an independent consultant. Work with PlaNet Computers is only one endeavor. One observation at Telstra was that, while, structurally, the development sector was working with the private sector, culturally, the people two sectors did not socialize together. This is not to say that Telstra was not a corporate citizen. In Maldives, which is also a developing economy, not unlike Lao PDR and Cambodia in a number of economic indicators: low GDP and a very young population, the UNDP is supporting a consultancy which works under a government master plan to select a second internet service provider to compete with a telecommunications monopoly. The government saw that development of Information Technology within the country was necessary, and that affordable and accessible internet access was vital to meeting their information technology master plan. With a young population, developing industries beyond fishing and tourism was very necessary, and Maldives wanted to capitalize on their proximity to India and Sri Lanka and develop an IT sector. The goal was not to open the country up to multiple competitors, but to systematically introduce competition, with careful attention to economic, technical and cultural issues. The process, then was two-fold. On the development side, the UNDP was funding a study to help the government understand the market, establish regulations and tariffs and would select an operator that could operate a second ISP (Internet Service Provider). With the independent operator in place, the private sector would be allowed to take over. The marketing study showed that the private sector in Maldives was keen to have more affordable internet access, especially in the tourism sector, where a good internet presence is key to attracting tourist dollars. This project was very much a partnership between the government and the private sector.
These partnerships can work, and everyone should look for the places where these partnerships work. There is a real need for leadership in developing working and effective partnerships.
Nguyen Xuan Thin, Expert, Department of International Relations, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Viet Nam
Poverty in Viet Nam: Viet Nam has undergone a remarkable transformation in 15 years, as people’s relationship with the economy and the government has been transformed. After more than four decades of economic hardship, Viet Nam is held up as an example of successful transformation from a centrally planned economy to a market driven one. Poverty cannot be reduced through economic growth alone because poverty is a social phenomenon. Embracing a market economy is a two sided coin. On the one hand, it allows faster economic growth, while on the other, an increase in economic disparity. Viet Nam remains a poor country, with 28 million people making the minimum income necessary to live. According the UNDP Development Report, Viet Nam ranks 50th out of 92 developing countries in urban poverty indices, and 110th out of 140 countries in urban development indices. Too many people lack access to hygienic sanitation facilities and clean water. Efforts to reach targets in poverty alleviation were pushed back by flooding and environmental disasters in recent years. The question, then, is how to protect government and donor spending on basic social services to facilitate sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
The idea that basic social services can promote economic development is not new to Viet Nam. Hunger and illiteracy are prime enemies to economic development. Every child should be able to attend school, every person should have access to basic water, health and sanitation. In remote, deep lying areas, poverty alleviation programs must offer basic social services as well as income generation opportunities to the poorest communes and villages. The government has established a plan for the poor which includes providing small loans to poor households.
How can businesses contribute to these efforts? In Viet Nam, national and international businesses understand that they have a responsibility to the communities they operate in, and the business sector is directly and indirectly involved in poverty alleviation activities. Direct involvement includes direct funding to support infrastructure development and social programs, as well as emergency relief. Business enterprises also often independently approach communities and target groups that they wish to support financially, either by funneling funding through an NGO, a local association or a government program or by working directly in a community.
Discussion Period
What does social responsibility mean to your business?
There is always a minimum level of social responsibility stated in the laws of the country in which you are working, so your first obligation is to uphold those laws. The next level is to go beyond the law, where the law is not sufficient.
While micro finance projects see a double bottom line, companies today talk of a triple bottom line, one that meets the needs of your shareholders, while protecting the environment and the rights and needs of the people where you are working. This triple bottom line is not only a matter of conscience but of necessity, witness the Exxon Valdez.
Finally, it is actually easier to be above board, to be open handed, to be transparent. Once you start trying to do things under the table, try to avoid regulations, in the end it is too hard. So this is a question of enlightened self interest.
In the Cambodian garment industry, you see other examples, factories that try to cheat their workers and withhold overtime pay end up with regular strikes and disruptions. The bottom line is how the employer views their role with respect to workers. Would you rather spend you money on lost labor due to strikes or on paying people from the beginning?
With respect to Thai, Cambodian export processing zones, do these threaten sustainability?
Sok Sophanna replied that it can be a win-win situation if Cambodia is wise about their relationship. Cambodia does not have the market access or the track record that Thailand does. Cambodia has to choose between border zones, which they can manage and enforce, and nothing, because Cambodia is not giving up their own market share for these agreements. Agreements are not entered into blindly, and Cambodia is not relinquishing its right to protect labor laws, and should not and will not relinquish its rights.
Why isn't there business in rural areas?
BIRD, the Business in Rural Development slogan was popularized by Khun Mechai, who popularized the condom in Thailand, his projects are a good model for encouraging business to move into rural areas. Profit is quicker in urban areas, rural investments are long term and show smaller margins, so we have to work together to encourage businesses to make those long-term investments.
Why are contributions from private sectors for poverty alleviation limited in Laos?
The private sector in Laos is still primarily in urban areas, not rural areas. One cause is that investment in poverty alleviation is not profitable when businesses are not even invested in rural areas. Private businesses look to their profits first. Encouraging the private sector to invest more in rural areas could encourage them to then invest directly in poverty alleviation.
What is the purpose of social responsibility of businesses engaged in poverty alleviation, and who are the partners?
Partnership has to include every stake holder, and everyone has a stake in socially responsible business. Businesses that are plagued by strikes affect everyone in the country, visible strikes make the country look like a poor place to invest, discourage businesses from coming to Cambodia. The best way to prevent strikes is to pay workers fairly and honestly, so everyone has a stake in seeing that happen. Everyone has to meet everyone else halfway or we are all losers.
Is there any NGO involvement for finding markets for local products in Laos and Viet Nam?
NGOs try to help local people reach self-sufficiency first in Laos. Within Viet Nam there are a number of NGOs working to improve export markets for Vietnamese handicrafts, such as rattan, bamboo and porcelain products. NGOs that work to promote handicrafts form loose networks within the country to network their efforts. Within Cambodia, that work is not done, but it is very important, one of the important ways in which socially responsible businesses can help the country preserve its cultural traditions is to help find markets for local crafts.
Some final questions addressed the issue of how businesses can do more for poverty alleviation, and some of the businesses represented observed that one of the things that a good business brings is training and capacity building, and it is entirely reasonable to require businesses to build local capacity in order to operate within an economy.
Wednesday, June 20, 2001
Viet Nam Country Plenary
HE Vu Xuan Hong, President, Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations
Mr. Hong opened the plenary with the observation that after fifteen years of economic restructuring, Viet Nam has emerged from a food shortage to achieve food self-sufficiency and become a rice exporter. Individual income has improved and new attention is being paid to the rural poor, new jobs are being created which means that people have new access to social services such as schools and hospitals. Some remaining points of weakness include weak economic competitiveness, irrational investment policies and a decline in FDI. Nationally, macro economic institutions are the slowest to change, so in some ways they have not kept up with other policy changes. While other policy changes have improved life for urban Vietnamese poverty remains acute in rural areas, and underemployment is one of the biggest issues faced by the government. The other significant issue is HIV and AIDS.
Poverty alleviation objectives that Viet Nam has set for the near future include raising the GDP to twice its 2000 level, increasing domestic savings to 30% of GDP and establishing universal Junior High School. Areas where the country especially welcomes the assistance of international NGOs include poverty alleviation in remote areas, with particular help needed in impoverished rural communities. Help is also needed with education, which should be available to all school aged children, including making junior high school universal and improving higher education options for the least advantaged in the country. The Health Care sector needs help constructing and maintaining facilities and with training of local medical professionals. Mine and UXO clearance and education, as well as help treating victims of Agent Orange are also needed, and efforts to combat social problems such as HIV and drug use are also welcome.
Having offered an overview of the current situation in Viet Nam, Mr. Hong opened the floor to questions. The first round of questions addressed the relationship between the Vietnamese government and local NGOs in Viet Nam. Viet Nam still has no written law on local NGOs, but the concept of a local NGO is very new in Viet Nam. For ten years there were only state sanctioned mass organizations and people's organizations. Today those mass organizations are still very strong, but in recent years people have begun to form NGOs, but those organizations are just getting their footing, and legislation has not caught up with them. NGOs are covered by the Law on Associations, which is not so unusual. Japan's non-profit law only took effect in 1998. The Vietnamese NGO rules have been written and are waiting for legislative approval. There are local NGOs in Viet Nam, many of them are registered with the government, a number are represented at the Forum Conference. When you assess the numbers of local NGOs in Viet Nam, it is important to take local traditions into consideration and keep in mind that NGOs are not part of the Vietnamese tradition. Also, those organizations that work closely with the government are most likely to achieve their own goals.
A representative from PACCOM added that in addition to new local NGOs, there are 350 International NGOs active in Viet Nam, meaning that they have active programs and projects. Far more organizations are registered with the government but not actively engaged in the country. There are so many organizations actively working in Viet Nam because the needs of people in rural areas provide enormous opportunities for aid. Also, the legal framework in Viet Nam gives foreign NGOs an official role and provides them with permit assistance and other logistical aid that allows them to integrate their work with government policy.
International NGOs spend $1.15 per person in Viet Nam, compared to nearly $3 per person in Laos -- while there are far more organizations working in Viet Nam, per capita the figures are not so stunning. Also, many International NGOs choose to work in Viet Nam because the country is still grappling with the thirty year old effects of Agent Orange.
How does the government facilitate INGO work in remote areas?
Viet Nam 's legal framework for International NGOs operates in conjunction with the Committee for Foreign NGO affairs, and PACCOM, which coordinates INGO work. Government mechanisms at the central, provincial, and local level also help coordinate NGO work.
How is Foreign Investment Structured and Facilitated in Viet Nam?
Implementing a concrete investment law creates a better environment for foreign direct investment, and at present companies from at least 30 countries invest in Viet Nam in a wide range of sectors.
Several questions focused on policies dealing with the disabled poor. According to the Ministry of Health there are some 7 million people with serious disabilities in Viet Nam. Injuries are very often the result of war or traffic accidents, and 80% of those living with disabilities are poor, many of them in rural areas. The Ministry of Health operates hospitals and provides orthotics, and collaborates with INGOs to provide prosthetics. In addition, the Ministry of Education is responsible for making it possible for children with disabilities to attend regular schools, so that they are not marginalized and to provide them with an education that will allow them economic prospects as adults.
Another issue for the Ministry of Health is the evolution of medical insurance, as the Ministry remains responsible for ensuring that the poor will continue to have access to quality health care.
The discussion moved to employment and underemployment, and the panel noted that only 20% of the young people entering the labor market have any kind of vocational training, so one of the first challenges is to train enough teachers who can then in turn meet the country's vocational training needs. 63% of the Vietnamese population lives in rural areas to this day, so thus far migration to urban centers has been slow and the country has the chance to reduce underemployment in rural areas and prevent larger urban migrations. In particular, efforts focus on establishing food processing enterprises in rural areas so that work is completed near the farms where food is grown.
The Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations was represented on the plenary panel as well, VUFO works to coordinate the work of INGOs in Viet Nam. While figures are not available on just how many INGOs work directly in rural areas, INGOs share the government's poverty alleviation priorities and many do work in the poorest areas of the poorest districts which are overwhelmingly rural. The contribution of INGOs extends beyond financial contributions: INGO solidarity and support is vital to government functioning, and INGOs regularly consult with government agencies and have a say in legislation that will affect their work. INGOs bring skills and capacity building along with their budgets, and even if Viet Nam can meet its primary objectives, can double its GDP, the work of INGOs will still be very welcome.
Today, Viet Nam is a net exporter of rice. New technologies and international assistance played a large role in improving productivity. The country must also focus on environmental protection, as farming does impact the environment. At present, forest covers only 30% of the country. The nation's current goal is to restore the country to 40% forest cover in the coming decade. Pesticide and chemicals are another source of environmental destruction, but the agriculture and environmental ministries are working to encourage integrated pest management and reduce reliance on chemicals, not only because they are destructive, but because by the time that pesticides lose their effectiveness they have often ruined natural pest management mechanisms.
As the plenary drew to a close, an audience member wondered if salary disparities cause conflicts for government officials who see INGO staffers paid better than their own colleagues.
Mr. Hong joked that local staff of INGOs pay income tax, so no one minds, but added that opening up of the government and state enterprises means that pay will be diverse in Viet Nam, a fact of life that the government accepts.
Issues from water in the Mekong to immigration are very sensitive with both Cambodia and Laos, and Mr. Hong closed by observing that bilateral cooperation and mutual respect are the only way to build real friendships across the borders between the three countries, and that those friendships are the only way to solve problems. Problem solving, he said, begins with respect.
Panel E: Cooperative assistance to communities affected by land mines, UXOs and Agent Orange
Moderator: Mr. Richard Walden, Operation USA
Richard Walden opened the discussion with the observation that any assistance to communities affected by the legacies of war takes creativity and needs new ideas.
Thongdeng Singthirath, Deputy Program Director, National UXO Lao, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
The scope of the UXO problem in Lao PDR is dramatic. Over the course of the Indochina war, more than two million tons of bombs and millions of antipersonnel bomblets were dropped over half of Laos. Over nine years, bombing missions averaged one planeload of bombs dropped every 8 minutes. To this day, accidents involving Unexploded Ordinance, the legacy of that aerial bombing, average one every other day. Land rendered unusable by UXO is a major cause of food insecurity and poverty in Lao PDR. Whether it is land that cannot be cultivated or building foundations that cannot be dug, UXO continue to plague Lao PDR.
The National UXO Program works to identify those areas most affected by UXO and train workers, who in turn who can clear those areas. The goals of UXO Lao are twofold: to reduce the number of civilian UXO casualties, to increase the amount of safe land available for food production and development activities. To achieve this, UXO Lao trains teams who can then train more de-miners, surveys the impact and level of contamination, educates the community about the ongoing risks of UXO and directly undertakes clearance.
Because of the wide variety of ordinance left in Lao PDR, UXO clearance is a highly technical skill. UXO Lao clearance workers must determine what can be moved, what can be diffused on the spot and what must be detonated. Funding for the UXO Lao program is primarily short term, emergency funding, but the problem is a long term one, and ongoing donor support is very necessary.
Chan Ratha, Coordinator of Public Relations, Cambodia Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority
Like in Lao PDR, land mines and UXO scattered throughout Cambodia continue to claim lives and contaminated land cannot be used for cultivation or development. CMAC, the Cambodian Mine Action Center works on mine awareness, aimed at educating people about the dangers of mines, towards a zero victim policy. CMAC also undertakes mapping and land marking projects to identify and physically mark areas known to be mined to focus their efforts and reduce accidents. Finally, CMAC undertakes manual mine clearance, a dangerous and time consuming project which is the only way to free land claimed by mines. Within Cambodia, land mines account for sixty percent of incidents, UXO for forty percent.
CMAC has a calculated plan to control the mine situation within five to ten years, meaning that within five years, mined areas will be surveyed and marked and mine awareness programs will have significantly reduced accidents involving UXO, and within ten years the majority of significant mine regions will have been cleared. Even this long-term plan will take a persistent and careful effort. One of the important roles of CMAA, the Mine Action Authority, is to coordinate the efforts of all groups involved in mine action and all interested donors. CMAA is also responsible at regulating the efforts of mine action operations to prevent careless or uncontrolled mine clearance. CMAA is responsible for incorporating rural mine clearance projects into a long term national plan and maintaining a national database for mine related information and activities.
CMAC has completed initial assessments of mine areas in the most contaminated provinces, and will begin the process of surveying the boundaries of minefields and clearing those fields, after which a final stage of confirming clearance will begin.
Sok Eng, Coordinator Programs in Banteay Meanchey Province, Jesuit Refugee Service Cambodia
Imagine life in a mine affected community: more than half of the population has roofs that leak (71%), not enough food to eat (60%), do not have a job (63%). Almost half cannot send their children to school (47%), or have no land (49%). Land along the road has been cleared of mines, but nearby fields have not been cleared, you must resist the temptation to try and plant on uncleared land, though you have no land of your own.
Mine victims asked to reflect on what they want generated a list of basic needs, from water tight roofs to education opportunities for their children, as well as health care and prosthetics or aids appropriate to their injuries. Cooperative action can meet the needs of mine victims. Some of the projects of Jesuit Service include projects where disabled people help others, by repairing wheelchairs in remote villages and traveling the world to campaign for a ban on land mines. Demining agencies and development agencies must work together in communities, as demining is only the first step in resettlement. International agencies, too, mobilize international donations toward mine clearance, but these agencies must also be mindful of what happens after minefields are cleared. Land use planning is in its early stages in Cambodia and land titling is not entirely resolved.
Le Van Son, Program Coordinator, People’s Aid Coordinating Committee
During the Indochina War, the American Military dropped 15,350,000 tons of ordinance on Viet Nam, of which 800,000 tons remain unexploded and scattered across the country. UXO still kill or wound 2000 Vietnamese each year. Farmers, working their land and children, playing in the fields both regularly fall victim to unseen mines. Each flood season brings submerged mines to the surface. Provinces closest to the 17th parallel are most affected, but mines are found in other areas as well.
At the end of the war, 26 years ago, Viet Nam began the process of clearing mines and many soldiers were permanently disabled or killed by this work. The government must spend hundreds of billions of Dong each year on mine clearance efforts and mine awareness programs. As of 1999, less than 10% of mined land had been cleared. As Viet Nam works to build a highway along the old Ho Chi Minh trail, they must de-mine the route, where more than 1000 KM are mined.
The Vietnamese government works closely with a range of NGOs to clear mines, educate people in mined areas about the dangers of mines, provide prosthetics and wheel chairs to mine victims. The end of the 1990s saw a new emphasis on resettlement, victim assistance and development. Projects in all provinces are diverse, in approach and funding level, but all are valued in the communities where they are working. In addition to NGO work, bilateral assistance, including aid from the United States, provides money for demining. US aid for demining efforts is particularly important, as the US must recognize their moral and material responsibility for the mine situation in Viet Nam. In addition to the US, the Danish Aid Agency, the British Mine Action Group and the Australian government each provide funding for humanitarian demining efforts.
Viet Nam is still working to define a clear structure for coordinating cooperative assistance in humanitarian demining efforts. All projects must be approved by the government, and work in consultation with relevant government ministries, especially because these projects are categorized as sensitive or security related. Based on a study tour of mine action centers in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations will form the focal point of a master plan to be developed by the Landmines/UXO Working Group.
The government very much prefers equipment donations and technical assistance in demining, so that actual implementation of field work is undertaken by Vietnamese. Cooperative assistance that would also be welcome includes help establishing an operational coordination system, formulation of regulations on aid to victims of mines, formulation of a framework for cooperation with similarly afflicted countries in the region and with formulation of an effectively comprehensive humanitarian mine action program.
Le Cao Dai, Fund for Victims of Agent Orange, Viet Nam Red Cross
UXO and mines are not the only lingering legacy of war in Viet Nam. The effects of Agent Orange continue to plague the population nearly three decades after the war. Between 1961 and 1971, more than 3 million ha were sprayed with chemical defoliants, of which one million show no sign of recovery. Forest destruction lead to severe wet season flooding and dry season forest fires. In the highlands, soil erosion caused by lost forest cover has left once fertile land barren. While most herbicides degraded within a matter of months, dioxin, a by-product of Agent Orange lingers in the environment.
Since 1970, groups of scientists have analyzed samples of mothers milk, fish and shrimp from heavily sprayed areas of Viet Nam and found consistently high dioxin levels. Even fourteen years after the spraying, in 1984, tests showed that sprayed areas had levels of dioxin significantly higher than non-sprayed areas in the north. More recently, tests have showed that food stuffs and agricultural soil in highly sprayed areas have dioxin levels similar to that of industrialized countries. However, in the areas immediately surrounding former American air bases soil tests continue to show high levels of dioxin in the soil, and blood tests continue to show populations near those bases have high levels of dioxin. While in the country as a whole, dioxins have broken down, hot-spots persist around highly contaminated areas where the chemical was stored.
Dioxin is a human carcinogen, and American veterans of the war who were exposed to Agent Orange also experience a marked increase in birth defects, just as Vietnamese veterans do.
Major General Nguyen Don Tu, Chief of International Department, Central Standing Executive Committee, Viet Nam Handicapped Children Relief Association
UXO and mines are not the only lingering legacy of war in Viet Nam. The effects of Agent Orange continue to plague the population nearly three decades after the war. In 1972, along the 17th parallel, dry, dead, trees, their branches bare of foliage had replaced the hill forests, the result of mass application of defoliant chemicals. In 1972, no one understood how Agent Orange would affect human health, and the Vietnamese who marched through defoliated forest land had no idea how these toxic chemicals would affect their lives.
General Tu's youngest daughter was born in 1973, just after he marched through the defoliated line of demarcation. She was born an invalid, with severe cerebral palsy and mental deficiencies. She is completely mute and entirely dependent on others for her survival. His companions from that visit to the 17th parallel each died of liver cancer by 1980. Foreign physicians credit Agent Orange, dioxins left in his own tissues, with his youngest daughter's birth defects.
As many as a million Vietnamese people have been affected by Agent Orange, including 150,000 handicapped children. Soil and human tissue tests show that dioxins linger in the blood of those people who lived or fought in heavily sprayed areas. People living in the district closest to the site of one American Air Base continue to have dioxin levels in their tissue close to 135 times that of people who were not exposed to Agent Orange. Dioxins near the sites of former air bases continue to threaten even newborns. The American Government must take responsibility for cleaning up former air bases in Viet Nam, at Bien Hoa and elsewhere where dioxin contamination continues to plague the population. While this is a logical and reasonable step towards improving US-Viet Nam relations, the US Government has a humanitarian duty to clean up all areas still contaminated with dioxins. Internationally Agent Orange must be banned for all forms of combat. The time has come to form an International Association of Agent Orange Victims that could unite people from the region and in the United States who continue to be victims of Agent Orange.
Questions:
One of the first questions asked was where the land mines found in Cambodia originate from. The answer is that they come from all over Asia, though the answer was given by an audience member who did not have a microphone.
What programs work best for education and victim assistance, what kinds of programs would you like to see NGOs exploring?
The consensus in responses was that there is a real need for mine safety and awareness in elementary school curricula. Programs in Viet Nam have been very successful, in Laos and Cambodia there are similar programs that speakers would like to see expanded. In Viet Nam, Peace Trees has set up centers where children can drop in and learn about how to be safe from mines and UXOs. One potential program could offer educational services and/or scholarships specifically geared towards mine victims.
As an added note, though, one participant reminded everyone that as Sok Eng observed, mine awareness is only a piece of the puzzle: where people are desperate for land, it is possible that they will enter a mined field even when they fully understand the dangers. An added economic concern is that Vietnamese press accounts of mine accidents suggest that most accidents in Viet Nam are the result of people attempting to diffuse or dismantle ordinance in their hunt for saleable scrap metal. Again, these are people who realize the dangers and continue to take those risks.
Income generation projects are important to divert people from scrap metal trading and to meet the needs of injured mine victims. Other projects under consideration in Viet Nam, some which are being tested, include projects to train immediate response teams that can respond to the first aid needs after an explosion. In conjunction with those teams, the mine problem draws attention to a basic need for access to quality health care facilities in rural areas overall.
Another question directed at Agent Orange experience brought out a discussion of the Peace Villages built in Viet Nam to serve children and adults disabled by birth defects linked to dioxins. Teams of doctors move around the country to help teach children with minor disabilities, unusable or missing limbs with prosthetics and basic physical therapy that can allow them to care for themselves.
What is money most needed for to address Agent Orange?
Priorities are clean up of seriously contaminated areas. These areas present economic and strategic challenges. The soil must be burned at 1000 degrees centigrade, local residents must be relocated. There are firms in Australia that may have found ways to treat soil at lower temperatures that may be cheaper, so money is needed for more research or for the expensive cleanup. The second priority is to help people affected by Agent Orange, both with scientific research and humanitarian assistance. We don't fully understand what part dioxin plays in birth defects, or how those problems are compounded by asphyxia during delivery or pre-natal viral infections. There might be ways to mitigate neonatal effects of dioxin contamination.
Panel F: Patterns of development at the local level: strengthening traditional rural economic life while connecting to the new market economy
Moderator: Jacquelyn Chagnon, International Consultant, Lao PDR
Eric Deflos, United Nations Credit Development Project, Lao PDR
In 1996, the UNDP and UNCDF collaborated to fund a national survey on the demand for microfinance in Laos. They found that financial services available do not meet demand in Laos, and that in rural areas only 12% of people have access to credit, and only 1% of people deposit savings in banks. Based on that survey, the government of Laos agreed to collaborate on a micro finance project in Laos. The project is executed by the Ministry of Finance and funded by UNCDF, UNDP, the Lao government and AIF. The project operates with a national component and a provincial component. The national component is charged with establishing a regulatory and legislative environment conducive to developing micro-finance in Lao PDR. A micro-finance coordinating committee organizes study tours to expose policy makers to successful micro-finance initiatives in the Philippines, Cambodian and Bangladesh among other places. Some of the primary accomplishments of the project were that Bank of Lao staff were exposed to micro-finance projects at the grass roots level, the project was asked to recommend draft regulations in cooperation with technical partners, and the project followed up with a workshop and study tour on regulatory environments conducive to microfinance.
Based on demand from existing credit schemes for training in best practices, and for Lao language training for local practitioners, a Microfinance Training Center trained a bilingual microfinance training team and trained more than 290 practitioners and policy makers in micro finance and was able to recover 71% of its costs after 2.5 years.
Winona Dorschle Microfinance Technical Advisor for PACT, Laos, PDR
The objective of the provincial component is to provide sustainable microfinance services to the poor in Oudomxay, Sayboury and Vientiane. In partnership with a local credit union in Vientiane and with accredited agents in Oudomxay and Sayboury. As of May, 2001, the Vientiane partner, Sipsacres, was working in 30 villages in Vientiane, serving 1,318 clients, more than half of whom are women. In Oudomxay and Sayboury, five accredited agents, including Lao agencies and international NGOs were trained and given assistance with writing funding proposals, opening their offices and developing work plans. These accredited agencies began delivering loans in October of 1999. The basic solidarity group lending methodology used by PACT involves self-formed groups of five to ten members who guarantee one another's individual loans. Loans start small, and after perfect repayment of prior loans, individuals have access to large loans. Repayment is always in the form of equal installments of interest and principal repaid fortnightly.
Operational sustainability is achieved through extensive capacity building and monitoring, accounting and internal controls. The project uses a village approach that starts with meetings with leaders and the village as a whole followed by formation of the solidarity groups and savings and credit training. The village and group leaders form a team out of which they build a Village Savings and Credit Organization.
Financial products offered by PACT include savings account and low interest loans, beginning with very small six month loans after which clients have access to larger loans with longer repayment periods. Plans are in the works to begin offering small enterprise loans and market loans as well as life insurance.
Local partners already work in 73 villages and manage just over 400 savings and credit groups. 2,544 clients served, of which 95% are women. Repayment rates at 99% suggest that the program methodology can continue to serve rural households.
The program has a ways to go, but success so far proves that it is possible to provide rural microfinance in Lao PDR. Careful microfinance strengthens the market economy by increasing production and trade, and contributes to poverty reduction through social and economic improvements at the household level.
Ann Thomas, Bilingual Non Formal Education and Market Skills Training in Ratankiri Province, Cambodia speaking with Mr. Meng Thoeun and Ms. Savang Ia
International Cooperation for Cambodia is working in Ratanakiri province, which borders on Lao PDR and Viet Nam, in the crocodile's tail of NE Cambodia. Population density is low, but the region is home to six different languages. Within the province, the vast majority of the population is completely illiterate. A very few men can read, and almost no women. Similarly, very few people know how to count money, and very few can speak Khmer at all. The Bilingual Non-Formal Education program is the first bilingual program in Cambodia, and focuses on non-formal, functional literacy. This program is also the first time that indigenous languages have been written, and the program is structured around community ownership. Content is based on the needs of the community, teachers receive no pay: a volunteer village development committee may ask students to volunteer a few hours in exchange for the teacher's work. Trainers come in for half days during the week and are paid only a per diem.
The project starts by teaching literacy in the mother tongue: For the first year, students are taught 80% mother tongue and 20% Khmer. By year two, the split is fifty-fifty, and by the final year students are taught entirely in Khmer. The end result is that students are fluent and literate in both their mother tongue and in Khmer.
Volunteer teachers are trained regularly, so that they are only one to two months ahead of their students. Solar panels allow classrooms to be illuminated at night, and a high percentage of women do participate. The program provides tin roofing and nails on occasion, but villagers are responsible for all construction and labor and for other upkeep requirements.
One graduate of the program joined the presentation to explain the importance of including women in education and development programs. Including women in bilingual education is an important step towards including them in decisions that affect their communities. Within the village, during the process of setting up the school, women's participation in decision making was facilitated by a process through which women would meet together to discuss issues at hand before sitting down with men in the whole group. Otherwise, women are too shy to speak up and men dominate the discussion.
One of the products of the program is a series of story books and math text books in Khmer and in indigenous languages, many of the stories the product of graduate's new ability to record stories told by their elders.
Houmpheng Boubphakham, Social Welfare Division, Central Lending Committee for Rural Development, Lao PDR
Lao PDR has only 5.2 million people, of whom 85% live in rural areas. Economic development is a collaboration between the government, NGOs and the private sector. Long and medium range plans in a village should be submitted to appropriate government agencies. If not, plans cannot be implemented smoothly. Otherwise, the government cannot be helpful to those villages in realizing their local goals. Efficient use of government resources requires local groups to work with the government
Michael Zeiss, CIDSE Viet Nam
CIDSE, or Cooperation Internationale pour le Development et la Solidarity is a non-profit organization supported by 12 Catholic development agencies in Europe and Canada. CIDSE has worked in Viet Nam since 1978.
In a market economy there are always going to be both benefits and risks. A farmer's benefits from the market economy can include greater food security, especially where a farmer can produce one crop efficiently and sell that crop to buy more and better quality foods than he would be able to grow on his own. Secondly, income can meet other family needs, for health care or education. But there are going to be risks: income will fluctuate with prices, which can lead to an increased gap between rich and poor. There is also always a risk of over-exploitation of resources that can destroy long term prospects for the land. A quote to keep in mind, from one sustainable agriculture expert, is that "what is sustainable is not any given technology, but rather, innovativeness. Innovativeness is what lasts and makes agriculture a profitable business in the long term."
The question in rural areas today is not whether to connect to markets but how. A "farmer first" approach begins by asking what products are most appealing to the farmer, easiest to produce, best for their health. Alternately, a "customer first" approach begins by asking what products can best be marketed.
CISDE undertook two "farmer first" projects in Viet Nam that yielded some very important lessons. In Thai Nguyen and Phu Tho they trained farmers to grow clean teas, and near Hanoi formed a group of farmers growing organic vegetables. Crops were chosen that were already major crops in those areas but were being grown with heavy pesticide use. Crops were not chosen based on market considerations. Farmers were trained in integrated crop production to reduce chemical use. They used shade trees to reduce insecticides in teas and compost to reduce the need for chemical fertilizer. The next step was bringing those products to market, which begins with a basic understanding of the local marketing chain. In Hanoi, farmers offered home delivery of organic foods by subscription through "Hanoi Organics," while tea growers were not able to find a way to bring their product to market locally. Some strategies to develop a local market included samples, press conferences and customer field trips to the organic farms, however, customers were still distrustful of products being marketed as organic without certification.
The first lesson was that you cannot wait until later to study consumer preferences or educate consumers or you won't have a market when you need it. The teas faced other challenges: organic teas can be sold to Fair Trade buyers in Europe, but must have certification and quality controls. IPM teas faced other challenges: while a major tea distributor expressed interest in buying from these growers, the farmer groups were not organized enough to provide the uniform volume that large scale buyers require.
Some best practices, built on from these lessons, include looking at the customer first. Organize marketing cooperatives and use a market analysis and development methodology. CECI organized farmers into marketing cooperatives, modeled on shared marketing and services, not cooperative land ownership. These coops were organized on the commune level, allowing them to span several villages, and CECI training provided a management board, a quality control committee and a marketing committee. Trainers also helped with product development and placement, so that co-ops were able to meet the needs of large scale buyers who want volume and consistent quality. The second "best practice" is use of market analysis and development methodology. This three step methodology was developed by Isabelle Lecup with the help of the FAO and RECOFTC. The first step is to assess the existing situation: financial goals, resources and constraints. Next identify products, markets and methods for marketing and then plan enterprises for marketing. From a list of promising products, the group must select the most marketable product and develop a detailed business plan and financial projections. While the final step might seem the most important, it is vital for farmer cooperatives to go through each phase themselves, so that they come out of the process with a clear understanding of how to market their products, not just sell them.
Farmers themselves are responsible for gathering information about demand, competition, transportation needs and supply, credit needs and supplies. Farmer co-ops must be trained to produce, process, promote and distribute their products. Technical advisors can reduce the risks of the market economy by encouraging diversification, mutual support (cooperatives), quality products (because the market for these is more stable) and careful market analysis using MA&D methodology. CISDE does produce and distribute technical manuals and field manuals for those who want more.
Discussion:
What methodology is most appropriate to microfinance in Lao PDR?
Deflos: Any methodology that works in the Lao PDR have from the beginning, in its design, consideration of the social and economic aspects of the poor, who are the primary targets of micro-finance. At the same time maintaining an objective of recovering all of its costs and becoming sustainable. There are many different methodologies that can work on a practical level. While there are not local NGOs in Lao PDR, programs that have worked elsewhere have brought large commercial into microfinance sector or by launching credit unions or other forms of credit cooperatives. Private and semi-private lending institutions can be created -- there is no single methodology that is required.
Dorschle: Some notes on involvement of the community in the microfinance process: The group leader is responsible for collecting payments but every member is required to attend every disbursement meetings. More training to group leaders is necessary in the long term, and participants have made a strong request for monthly payments, but a month to month repayment schedule means that every payment is larger, which requires villagers to save over a longer period and when working with villagers who do not have a lot of experience with making payments, monthly payments are riskier.
How do you work NFE links into the microcredit sector? Have you ever tried microfinance projects in non-Lao speaking villages?
Thomas: Our work in Ratanikiri was in a primarily barter economy, so microcredit was a long way off.
Dorschle: There are projects that are called non-formal education that use pictures and other non traditional methods to explain concepts of savings and credit.
What are the hours of bilingual education courses?
[In Lao] People work in the fields all day, and when they come back from the fields they have to cook dinner and eat and take their baths, so classes do not start until 8 PM and they go until 10 PM. Classes are held in village meeting houses where there is a large communal meeting house, classes meet every evening, seven days a week, though there is sometimes a break for the beginning of the planting season. Each village sets its own schedule of meetings and breaks. The agency supplies a solar panel, batteries and lights, but the village must take responsibility for the rest. The entire village, children to old people participates in the classes, and villagers who are not participating often gather to watch.
Health, women and agriculture?
[in Khmer] Let me say a few words, examples of women's involvement in health and agriculture: Before, we had no concept of modern health care, immunizations, clean water for our children, sanitation. Since we have learned about this, we are very eager to participate in more educational activities. Another example is agriculture: women are very motivated to join in agriculture training session. Before, the women were never involved in these trainings, and now that women they have opportunities, they are fully involved.
Thomas: there are class and non-class based non-formal education curricula that address topics like gender, natural resources management, health, agriculture, development topics. Non-class based education efforts use popular education techniques, songs, role playing, study tours, demonstrations to reach non-literate populations. One example is that health role playing is used to teach village health volunteers about hygiene. They will turn around and demonstrate to villagers and lead a question and answer session. The whole village turns out for these sessions, where there isn't a light, there are bonfires. MFE components are always strongly linked to projects of other NGOs working in the area.
Could bi-lingual NFE projects be undertaken in Laos or Viet Nam, where ethnic diversity is greater than in Cambodia?
Thomas: How can you do community development in remote areas without using the local language? How can you communicate with the women, or discuss development topics like health and agriculture when you have to rely on one translator or the minority within the village who can understand you? Yes, there are applications for community development and for literacy in bilingual non-formal education. Anyone who says that women are too shy or there is a language barrier needs a trainer who is bilingual. You need to be training the local people to be trainers for their own people. You do need back-translation to make sure the message is getting across. When the message is presented in their own language, trainers almost always get the message accurately.
What policy allowed you move from rice-deficiency to a rice surplus?
Nguyen Quoc Dat: We don't have one policy, we have a system of policies. The most important policy was to identify households as the economic unit. Before renovation policies, the household was not the basic economic unit. Other provisions, land provisions, are also important, but this was the most important.
What are the guidelines of the poverty alleviation program of the government?
The two main objectives boil down to eating and drinking. Eating: for the poor farmer, this is a question of food security at the household level, and Drinking: this is a basic demand, clean water is vital to everyone, especially in mountainous and remote areas. Overall, the goals are to increase production and income generation. Increased production is vital to meeting food security needs, while income generation projects can bring education and health care to poor families.
Are there examples of urban agriculture or market driven urban agriculture in Viet Nam, providing income or direct food security in urban areas?
Zeiss: There are several income generation projects that the Youth Union is working on with urban poor, that could probably benefit from the same kinds of market methodology that gets used in rural areas.
What is the link between urban based consumer organizations and rural based producer organizations? Not rich consumer groups like Hanoi Organics, but can poor consumers benefit poor producers?
Zeiss: There is a group working through the Quakers in Viet Nam to put rural women producers in contact with urban women consumers, making people to people links between consumers and producers via the women's union. Those consumers are not the urban poor, but they are not rich either.
What are the obstacles to microcredit in Laos?
The potential is there for credit programs in Laos, there is demand that has not been met, there are poor who do not have access to credit. The greatest obstacles in Laos are around low population density, poor road and communication infrastructure and small villages that mean there is low efficiency for credit workers trying to deliver services. All of these factors mean that microcredit is more expensive in Laos. PACT is trying to reduce the time to client and to improve efficiency, those things will facilitate microcredit in Laos.
What kind of policies should be practiced to encourage teachers to work in remote areas like Ratanikiri?
The local people in Ratanikiri said that they want to train their own people, want local teacher training centers. People ask for quotas to make sure that spaces in dormitories are actually reserved for ethnic minorities. The teacher training system in Lao PDR used to be five plus one, teachers who finished elementary school themselves can do one more year and return to their villages and teach. This program was eliminated in Cambodia, and so there are no teachers at all in remote areas. So the emphasis must be on training local people over encouraging lowlands Khmer to work in remote areas.
Panel G: Addressing the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS
Moderator Nina McCoy, Australian Red Cross, Viet Nam
Dr. Chanhsy Pimmachanh Director of Cabinet, National Committee for Control of AIDS, Ministry of Health, Lao PDR
Laos is a country with low prevalence of AIDS surrounded on all sides by high prevalence countries. The objectives of AIDS programs in Lao PDR include preventing transmission, improving surveillance and counseling systems, to improve AIDS combating capacity of both central and provincial staff, while at the same time mitigating the impact of AIDS on infected persons. Laos has a unique opportunity to prevent HIV and AIDS from becoming prevalent, through a multisectoral treatment and education strategy. The earliest achievements of the National Committee for the Control of AIDS include incorporation of AIDS in the formal curriculum and establishment of a national surveillance system. Also, condom marketing programs have distributed condoms and information. One of the primary roles of the NCCA is to coordinate international organization and NGOs that work on HIV and AIDS issues in Laos.
Cases of HIV infection and AIDS reported over the last decade show a rise in infection, particularly in the young people in their twenties that form the bulk of infected people. Statistic collection is limited, because there is not a mechanism for general HIV testing. Most cases are not recorded until a patient enters the hospital. Figures on AIDS deaths are similarly un-reliable, because people who know they are dying often choose to stay at home and AIDS is never recorded as a cause of death.
The primary challenges for the NCCA in the coming years are to strengthen the committee's coordinating capacity, and to educate high risk groups about how to prevent transmission.
Oun Kom, UNAIDS, Lao PDR
There are only ten international NGOs working to address HIV and AIDs in the Lao PDR. An overview of who those NGOs are, who they partner with and who they target. NGOs work on peer education programs, condom marketing, capacity building for counselors and educators and direct trainings on sexually transmitted diseases and direct health care services. One organization works with the Lao Youth Union to target young truck drivers who are a statistically high risk group. Another group, Population Services International, has worked on social marketing of condoms and condom distribution for three years, distributing millions of condoms across the country, to the population at large, to sex workers and to youth in and out of school. A third NGO, CARE International works with a unique methodology to conduct focus group discussion to increase awareness of sexually transmitted infections including HIV and to help participants negotiate safe sex. Another organization, NCA, offers training on home based care and support for people with HIV and AIDS. The Australian Red Cross focuses on youth in 8 provinces, training them as peer educators. Save the Children, UK, targets youth in central Vientiane, and operates a drop in center where they offer counseling and reproductive health services. Other INGOs focus on unique challenges of HIV prevention and intervention among minority groups.
Peer education is one of the most popular forms of intervention, followed by focus group based services. Most INGOs offer communication materials, but only one works directly on condom marketing. Almost all INGOs include capacity building in their work and about half offer services to people sick with AIDS.
Dr. Tran Trong Hai, Director, Department of International Relations, Ministry of Health, Viet Nam
The organizational machinery for HIV/AIDS prevention and control started in 1990, under the direction of the ministry of health. By 1994 it was clear that AIDS is a multisectoral issue, not just a health issue, and a intrasectoral national committee was formed to address AIDS, addiction and prostitution, as these three issues are closely related. By 1998, all 61 provinces of Viet Nam had found HIV infections. In May of this year, there were 36,500 known cases of HIV in Viet Nam, though by some estimates that figure is only a tenth of the true infection rate. 5,490 patients are actively being treated for AIDS, and the mortality rate is very high. 85% of known infected persons are men, only 15% are female. Broken down by risk groups, more than half are injection drug users, followed closely by commercial sex workers and other groups. As in Laos, the highest infection rates are among people in their twenties who should be the most productive group in society.
Information, Education and Communication are the keys to combating AIDS. Information includes accurate surveillance, blood transfusion control and treatment skills. Counseling and education can reduce transmission of HIV infection from mothers to children, and NGOs work in all of these methodologies.
HIV is a low level epidemic in Viet Nam. While infection is high among IV drug users, infection is not high in some other risk groups, which suggests that some early intervention efforts have been effective.
Yvan Thebaud, Medicin Du Monde, HCM City, Viet Nam
Medicin du Monde has a total budget of $100 Million, and one third of its projects are within France, the other two thirds in more than 100 countries around the world. They have been working in Viet Nam since 1989, in HIV/AIDS work in Viet Nam since 1995. Their primary projects include development of HIV/AIDS education curricula and training for home care, and they have been very involved in Viet Nam 's new condom cafes.
Viet Nam is a young country: half the population is under 24, and the country is a least developed nation, which means that the Vietnamese have few resources for entertainment. Medicin du Monde estimates that there are 200-400 thousand cases of HIV infection in 2001, which makes Viet Nam a "low prevalence" country by international standards, as adult prevalence is not over 0.5%. The trend of the disease takes a classic pattern, spreading from high risk groups to the general population. Infection rates are still low among army recruits and pregnant women, but that is in keeping with infection patterns and low prevalence overall. Young people are as vulnerable in Viet Nam as they are anywhere in the world. The highest risk activity is still drug use, but those infections put all sexually active young people at risk. Data shows that young people are sexually active younger than they once were, unmarried young people are sexually active: one in three Vietnamese women will have an abortion before she is married, but premarital sex is still taboo, which complicates education efforts aimed at stemming the spread of HIV and other infections. Condom coffee shops help meet the need for broader sex education that can reach past those taboos and address sexual health as well as relationships with partners and their family. The condom coffee shop is an expansion on the concept of peer education, peer educators trained there can pass on their knowledge, either in coffee shops, through specialized theater sessions, and through trained peer educators working as bartenders in those coffee shops which gives them a unique opportunity to provide counseling on a small scale and to advise patrons about other resources available in the cafe. Peer educators also conduct workshops outside of the cafe. Intensive capacity building efforts are key to the impact of the cafes.
The nature of a partnership is closely tied to the success or failure of any endeavor. Partnership with the government is mandatory for NGOs. The Vietnamese ministry of Health began to address AIDS before the first case was discovered, and in Viet Nam programs like elementary sex education and needle exchanges which are controversial in the US were quickly instituted in Viet Nam. However, HIV policies in Viet Nam conform to international standards, but social evil policies towards sex workers are in conflict with those forward thinking HIV policies: repressive policies towards sex workers and drug users make HIV prevention work more difficult. Another problem in Viet Nam is that "community" tends to be represented by top down mass organizations. Also, when the government views international organizations not as funders and not as technical advisors, they do not get the most out of their skills.
Dr. Seng Sut Wantha, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs, Cambodia
STDs were integrated into the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs which works under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health in Cambodia. The AIDS epidemic in Cambodia is the most serious in SE Asia. The first cases were detected in 1991, the first AIDS patient diagnosed in 1993. In the year 2000, Cambodia saw 533 reported deaths from AIDS, 3,684 reported cases of AIDS and an estimated 169,000 HIV infections. AIDS is more than an health problem, it is an economic problem. While children have only a 30% risk that their mothers will pass an HIV infection on, hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned by AIDS. Orphaned children are far more likely to leave school and live in serious poverty. The most fundamental economic impact comes in the form of the direct costs of treatment, prevention, blood supply testing, caring for orphans and paying for funerals. Indirect costs such as the lost labor and skills both of people sick with AIDS and those who must care for them. AIDS mortality is highest among young people who should contribute the most to the economy. The impacts of AIDS echo outward from the individual, to the family and community and on to the nation as a whole.
Households grappling with AIDS are often required to sell off their assets, beginning with heirlooms and jewels, but ultimately often including land, to pay for care once household savings have been absorbed. Borrowing from money lenders is also common in families treating AIDS -- far more common than in rural areas of neighboring countries.
The health care system is on the front line of treating AIDS, as they are faced with increasing AIDS related conditions like TB, money is diverted from other concerns. Money must be divided between treatment and prevention efforts, between health spending and spending in other sectors. Over the next ten years, estimates suggest Cambodia will have to spend nearly $30 million on AIDS treatment.
Partnerships across sectors and between the public and private sectors and NGOs is the only way to tackle the epidemic. Every new HIV infection is avoidable, AIDS deaths from new infections are avoidable. Even without new infections, AIDS illness and deaths are a certain prospect. Immediate action is essential.
Pok Ponhavichetr, Executive Director, Khmer HIV/Aids NGO Alliance (KHANA), Cambodia
Khana is a national NGO support agency, and was established as a local organization in 1996. Today it is a National NGO that works to provide capacity building, technical support, and small grants to local NGOs working on HIV and AIDS issues. Activities include prevention and care work to reduce vulnerability to HIV and mitigate the impact of AIDS, community mobilization projects to provide home care and support for children orphaned by AIDS or living with AIDS themselves. Khana has forged partnerships at many different levels of government. One project of Khana is a comprehensive home based care partnership with the government to improve care available to people living with AIDS.
3.2% of sexually active adults are infected with HIV, primarily transmitted via heterosexual sex. Studies suggest that men serve as a bridge from sex workers to married women who then often pass the virus on to their children. Behavioral Surveillance Systems in urban centers show that visiting sex workers is the norm among urban men, especially among highly mobile groups with ready access to cash: soldiers, policemen and motorcycle taxi drivers. Many of these men are married and carry the virus home to their wives.
UNDP development indices rank Cambodia 137th based on low GDP and high infant mortality. Quality health care is scarce, and most people seek out private health care over using the public system, which means that people are treated by untrained staff and that they often go into debt to pay for care. In addition to issues described by Seng Sut Wantha, lack of accurate information about appropriate treatment means that people spend a great deal of money on inappropriate treatments. Families are further fragmented and isolated by burdens of guilt and shame. Women with HIV are stigmatized by social service providers and their community and tend to receive substandard care and are often pushed out of their communities. Economic impacts multiply when participants in microfinance fall ill and cannot pay their debts or otherwise meet their financial obligations in their community.
Some of the lessons that Khana has learned in its own work are that work is slowed by the lack of concrete data about the impact of AIDS. People working on AIDS issues need to do more advocacy and lobbying work, and donors who are too focussed on serving a single sector cannot support the breadth of work that must be done to address HIV and AIDS in Cambodia.
Political will is there in Cambodia, to address the epidemic, and funding has increased in recent years. Funders also recognize the need to address HIV and AIDS in the context of seemingly unrelated projects. A Japanese loan to rebuild one port included funding to address HIV and AIDS problems that could be exacerbated by the mobile labor required to complete the port project. Capacity building work and multisectoral partnerships as well as expanded community participation have been effective and are promising for the future.
Still, research is needed to fully understand the impact of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, and HIV/AIDS must be integrated with all community development activities. Responses must continue to be multisectoral, and maximize the input of the private sector.
Discussion
There are many Vietnamese sex workers living in Cambodia, often they are HIV positive. How do you address HIV in sex workers and is there cross border coordination?
Outreach programs that serve both direct sex workers (in brothels) are being expanded to indirect sex workers, at karaoke bars and dance halls as well as beer promoters. There have been cross border meetings of HIV/AIDS authorities, but there is not true international coordination. Vietnamese sex workers are not working in border areas, they are spread out across the country, and outreach is directed at all sex workers. Materials, basic information on STDs including HIV are available in languages like Vietnamese. However, prevention and collaboration should not stop at the national level, not only between Viet Nam and Cambodia but across any borders.
Furthermore, fewer than 5% of sex workers are infected with HIV. So the primary problem does not lie with sex workers, local or international. HIV needs no visa, we said this at the 9th forum and it is still true. HIV knows no borders and needs no passport.
How do you address problems like pregnant women denied care when they are HIV positive?
Outreach and peer education are vital to this effort. Women should not hide the fact that they have HIV. Medicin du Mond has facilitated trainings and workshops to help nurses understand that they should treat all pregnant women. Staff of home based care teams are role models for other health workers, by touching patients and caring for them, while teaching other health care providers what precautions are necessary, how to care for HIV patients safely. Home based care programs are an ideal way to deal with treating patients subject to discrimination, but within health care institutions staff must also be trained to overcome discrimination and respect patient privacy.
How do you make peer educators comfortable talking about HIV and STD issues?
Saying no to drugs is easy, but talking about sex is more difficult. Peer educators are recruited for communication skills and knowledge of HIV and AIDS issues so they come to the cafes somewhat comfortable with the work they will be doing. They then go through an intensive two week training where they learn about issues of sexual transmission and sexuality. Then they work with a mentor as they get their footing. Still, fighting cultural taboos is a daily effort.
Are condom coffee shops financially self-sufficient?
They combine a social activity which costs money with a commercial activity which should earn money. At present, the cafe incomes cover salaries and operation costs but do not cover activities related to training of peer counselors and other services. Part of the reason is that making services available means that the cafes themselves cannot be expensive shops. Also, the peer educators are social workers, not business people.
What strategies can reduce mother to child transmission of HIV?
Within Viet Nam, the national standard is that every pregnant woman should see an obstetrician three times while she is pregnant, and providing adequate obstetrics is the first step to reducing mother to child transmission. In addition, programs to educate HIV positive mothers about how to care for and feed their children without risking HIV transmission can reduce mother to child transmission.
Also, couples who wish to marry are encouraged to get tested for HIV, as are pregnant mothers who have not been tested. Prospective mothers who find that they are HIV positive are encouraged to abort, and short term AZT treatment is made available to mothers who choose not to abort.
Can you monitor STIs through pharmacist reporting?
In Laos, pharmacists are trained to follow treatment protocols introduced by the Ministry of Health in serving people seeking STI treatments, and asked to report on their practices. Pharmacists who do not follow protocol are asked to return to group meetings to discuss protocol. Studies show that people are more likely to seek treatment from a pharmacist than from large public facilities like hospitals.
Does Laos need NGOs to help deal with HIV/AIDS?
Just because prevalence is low does not mean that Laos does not need to do anything. There are already NGOs working in Laos. Any NGOs that want to work in Laos should start by identifying the needs of the area or target group they are interested in. Based on the results of their needs assessment, NGOs can submit proposals to the NCCA for approval.
Who is infected in Laos?
One study aimed at identifying future risk groups focused on asking sex workers what the profession of their last client was. Police, soldiers and taxi drivers were already known to be groups engaging in high risk behavior, but government workers and business men were also visibly present in this study, which shows that these men are also engaging in high risk behavior. So the Behavior Surveillance Survey shows what groups are potentially at risk.
How can you address the situation of orphans in Cambodia?
Orphans are primarily the responsibility of the ministry of social affairs, but that ministry is represented at the National Center for HIV/AIDS.
Khana is very aware of problems faced by children affected by AIDS. Partner NGO projects include providing children with food support and school supplies so that those children can stay in school. Projects are designed through participatory interviews and discussions with children orphaned by AIDS, living on the streets, with family or in orphanages. Part of what that participatory process shows is that orphans do not want to stay in orphanages, so projects offer support to extended family members who can then afford to take orphaned children into their homes. One of Khana's immediate goals, though, is to develop a better strategy to address the needs of children orphaned by AIDS, based in part on experiences in Africa.
How do you provide HIV and AIDS education to young people in remote and rural areas or who work in risky situations?
Laos is a multi-language and multi-ethnic country, so international NGOs collaborate with the national youth union to reach out to youth in remote areas. People living in remote areas are under the jurisdiction of provincial committees for the control of AIDS. These provincial committees design outreach programs that can reach remote youth. One project in cooperation with UNESCO found that the most effective way to reach ethnic minorities is by radio. They have gone about designing public information campaigns to be broadcast over the radio, but much more needs to be done to understand how to best reach out to rural populations.
Do Buddhist monks play any role in HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns?
They have not in Viet Nam, but one UNICEF project works with monks to get involved. In Laos, monks play an important role in health care and family planning, and the hope is that monks can get more involved in HIV and AIDS campaigns.
Voluntary Testing?
All testing in Cambodia, Laos is entirely voluntary. In Viet Nam, doctors are obligated to report positive test results, but in many cases hospitals have balked at mandatory reporting by allowing people to give false names when they come in for tests, and an entirely anonymous clinic is being opened in Ho Chi Minh City.
Condom Use?
Condom campaigns have always been geared towards primary sex workers and are being directed now at secondary sex workers as well, at least in Cambodia.
[An added note, that campaigns geared towards sex workers do not address the fact that often women are not able to negotiate safe sex.]
NGOs work closely with volunteers, who can be effective peer educators, especially if they are infected with HIV as well. Volunteers allow groups to extend their reach beyond their staff, and volunteers benefit from their work as well.
Panel H: Innovative agricultural techniques
Moderator: Hans Luther, NOSPA, Lao PDR
Hans Luther opened the panel with the observation that Innovative Techniques are only part of the puzzle, they need to be met with innovative products and innovative markets. Organic food products are a primary example, they get much higher products at market. A potential and as yet truly explored niche market is health food tourism, which would encourage environmentally sound agricultural techniques and serve a valuable tourist market.
Dr. Bounthong Bouahom, Deputy Director of Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lao PDR
(Spoke entirely in Lao. The simultaneous translation was not recorded.)
Ly Don Son, Capacity Building Center, NEDCEN, Viet Nam
The Capacity Building Center for the Sustainable Development of Small and Medium Enterprises in Viet Nam (NEDCEN) is built on a vision of allowing communities to be productive and sustainable, for industries to be harmonious with the environment and with human needs. The issue is how to introduce new ideas, new techniques and technologies to the rural poor. Programs support SMEs and household businesses and teach them how to protect natural resources in their business projects, through green production and reduced energy consumption which reduces pollution and emissions. Programs develop business enterprises which link environmental protection to human needs, gender development and labor.
Rural farmers face huge economic risks, even when a crop is good, if prices are too low they lose money. Eco and Organic products can address some of that uncertainty. Such products are defined as having natural characteristics, meaning that they are ecologically appropriate to their climate, as being safe and free of pesticides, and being produced in a manner which does not harm the environment. Cutting forestland for firewood to dry organic tea is not ecologically sound. Development of organic and eco-products is an effective means of sustainable rural development and poverty alleviation. Products can reach a market segment willing to pay higher prices for high quality organic products, which means that products get a better price. Additionally, in many rural areas, people do not have access to chemical fertilizers. Connecting them to organics markets by identifying their products as organic means that they will get the best price for goods they are already producing organically. Finally, society as a whole benefits from reduced environmental degradation.
The challenge is that the organics are a new concept worldwide, rural poor do not have the education, support or connections to compete in the market as a whole, let alone an understanding of the potential value of organic production. CBC must win the trust of rural communities and explain concepts and economic benefits of organic and eco-products.
Building that trust comes out of a careful methodology that starts with discussing ideas with a particular community, with local Women's Unions and farmers groups, and work with communities to build a business plan. An important component of their methodology is that NEDCEN does not do the work for anyone, but rather guides the process which forces the community to learn from each step. One important decision that the community has to make is whose standards they will meet. There are international organic standards, but they are very particular and certification is quite expensive. If a community cannot afford certification, meeting more moderate organic production standards is a more realistic approach. The community, having decided what criteria they will use must look at their production methods and decide what will have to change to meet those criteria.
[A note, raised later and echoed by other speakers is that organic certification is indeed expensive, but is almost required to sell organic products. The American and European markets will not carry products that are not certified, so there is real room for an NGO that can facilitate that international certification.]
One example of the methodology in use is in eco-tea production. Conventional teas are grown using chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and dried using forest firewood. Teas are sold in the local market where prices are quite low. Eco-teas are grown using biological fertilizers and pest management, dried using plantation wood and sold at higher prices. After three years, eco-teas from CBC coops are being sold in German and Dutch markets, though in small volumes. The benefits go far beyond the improved incomes, people now have the capacity to continue on their own, communities are organized. Newer projects in four provinces are cultivating organic honey, rice or mushrooms, in addition to tea projects.
CBC offers technical support, help with marketing. There is no shortage of projects that bring organic methods to communities, but if those projects do not also teach people how to market their products and adapt to a market, those projects will fail without the continual support of the NGO. Everything stops if there is no market.
HE Dr. Tao Seng Hour, Deputy Chairman of the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development, Cambodia
Agriculture includes forestry, fisheries, livestock, but I will limit myself today to agriculture. Cambodia is an agricultural country: agriculture sustains the national economy, contributing just over 45% of GDP and employing over 80% of Cambodian people. Rural poverty alleviation depends on agricultural development, which in turn depends on public and private investment in infrastructure and technology transfer. Agricultural development can provide both income generation and food security for people living in rural areas.
Cambodia's strategy focuses on integrating new techniques into family agriculture, to give farmers control over their own production resources and environment. To realize this strategy, the private sector must deal directly with farmers, and public capital must be invested in research and technology transfer, especially through programs to teach and develop water and soil fertility management, zoning of rice farming areas and introducing fertilizers appropriate to particular soil types. Research must go beyond rice crops and include maize, beans, soy, fruits and vegetables.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries along with the FAO implemented a Special Program for Food Security (SPFS), which integrates water, seed, soil, pest and livestock management skills and provides farmers with technical assistance through an integrated field school. After two growing seasons, farmers who have participated in SPFS show improved income and food security.
Dr. Yang Siang Koma, Centre Etude et de Development Agricole Cambodgien (CEDAC), Cambodia
Cambodian agriculture is broken into four zones: flood zones, rain fed lowlands, rain fed uplands and coastal areas. CEDAC works in flooded and rain fed lowlands, where most Cambodian farmers make their livelihood. These are areas with high population pressures, with both subsistence and commercial (large and small scale) farmers. Each of these groups has unique needs that must be met. The System of Rice Intensification was developed in Madagascar to help small farmers increase rice yields without depending on hybrid seeds, or chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The method uses some techniques which have long been a part of Cambodian farming, but they are integrated into a precise system which is new to Cambodian farmers. The basic idea is that high yielding rice can develop in good soil and field conditions. Traditional rice growing is in flooded paddies, but in fact you can grow stronger rice in aerated soil. The second principle is skillful transplanting of young seedlings, which will retain their full potential better than older seedlings. Frequent weeding aerates the soil and removes competition for soil nutrients, and regular application of mulch provides additional nutrients. Rice is grown in small plots, which reduces the amount of land available to cultivation, but dramatically improves yield from the land that is used. Small plots are counter intuitive in a country where land is scarce, but it works.
The Rice Intensification system significantly reduces the amount of seed you use, because careful transplanting of young seeds means that the young plants will reach maturity healthy and not crowd each other out. Careful timing means that when the heaviest rains come the plants are well rooted, the rice grows unusually high and yields more, larger grains. Farmers are hesitant to take on the risks of new technology and started by giving over small plots to the intensification process, but they were satisfied with the results and say they will grow using this method in the future. Even taking into account the overall high rice yield across Cambodia last year, results were significantly higher than in conventional plots.
The process of technology transfer begins by working with farmers who are interested in testing the technology and willing to commit to applying the whole methodology, not applying select principles. After the first growing season, those farmers assess their own results and new farmers are trained. The process is not true technology transfer, but a participatory approach that starts with small groups of farmers that take careful notes and observations and understand the process. The process results in social gains as well, improving cooperation and communication between farmers.
Hans Luther
The trend in agricultural technology is moving from extensive production to intensive production. The emphasis tends to be on rice crops, but income generation requires interim crops. Internationally, people want organic foods, and they are willing to pay as much as four times as much for organics.
Questions:
Vegetable consumption
In Laos, there is not good information about vegetable consumption. In urban areas, studies suggest 30-50 grams a day. Consumption should be closer to 200 grams a day. In Cambodia, estimates range to 200-300 grams per family per day depending on whether you are including root vegetables with leafy vegetables. Neither country keeps records of organic food consumption, mostly because agriculture is dominated by subsistence farmers who cannot afford chemicals. An added note, though is that for rural consumption, production tends to be organic, but food produced to be shipped to urban markets tends to be produced on a larger scale using chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Livestock and Fisheries
Regionally, the biggest livestock challenge is not innovation but reducing reliance on imported feed. There is some work on integrated aquaculture, but wild fishing is still dominant. So there were few answers. A follow up question asked about tissue banking,
A final question raised an interesting issue based on the experiences of the Lao Youth Union, that often rural youth are crossing borders and moving to cities because there is a stigma attached to farming. What can be done to encourage youth to be proud of farming?
In Laos and in all developing countries, especially countries with relatively more developed neighbors, young people are looking for a better life, they don't want to stay in agriculture. The Lao Youth Union offers trainings to encourage youth to work in agriculture, which holds some promise. In the development process, keeping youth in the village is a real challenge.
Part of the problem is that even in Germany, rural young men cannot find wives. The same is true in Cambodia, where the young women leave to work in garment factories. Young Farmer programs try to teach professional agriculture to young farmers who do want to stay in the countryside. An important element of the young farmer programs is to teach young farmers in their own community about their own community and culture. When all of their education is focused on cities and histories of things that happen in cities, they don't realize that their own village does have something to offer.
The problem does in part boil down to a lack economic opportunities for rural young people. Viet Nam 's experience suggests that when there are economic opportunities in rural regions, the cities lose their appeal and people do stay in the countryside.
In some circumstances, young people who have left for cities return when economic opportunities become available closer to home or when food security improves. Also, young people who are involved in agriculture extension and training programs tend to see their work as more important and challenging. An observation during the Asian economic crisis was that people returned to rural areas where there was food security. Often, though, urban migration is temporary, and money earned in cities is ultimately brought back to the countryside.
Where are pesticides coming from in these three countries?
In Cambodia, the pesticides are coming primarily from Viet Nam and Thailand, in border regions more than half of the pesticides come from the immediate neighbor. Often those pesticides are banned in Thailand or Viet Nam but make their way into the Cambodian market.
In Viet Nam, pesticides come from everywhere. Everything is available in China so many things come over that border.
In Laos, pesticides tend to come from Thailand and China. Herbicides from Thailand are used in upland areas where weeding is a labor intensive task. Rodenticides used by farmers often come from China.
What are the emerging trends in agricultural extension?
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry recognizes that extension services are weak, and there are plans to expand and improve extension services through the establishment of an Extension Agency within the Ministry to work more at the provincial and district level.
One innovation in Viet Nam has been the development of local farmers groups or common interest groups that meet together away from the central agencies and invite extension workers to speak to them. This has come out of a realization that extension workers were not reaching out to communities. Extension workers are paid by the government, on salary, but they are available to local groups who invite them to teach workshops on topics selected by the farmers themselves.
Cambodia, also, sees a trend towards decentralization of extension services. At the community level, people are promoting farmer-to-farmer extension programs, where each village has one or two farmers who work with extension workers, so those farmers pass knowledge on to their village. Because farming is primarily subsistence, the expenses of extension services are paid by bilateral aid and international agencies, however there is at least one pilot program that is testing user fees for advice on rubber plantations.
Thursday, June 21, 2001
Cambodian Plenary
HE Tao Seng Hour, Vice Chairman of the National Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development, Council of Ministers
Though last year Cambodia suffered severe flooding, some areas of the country continue to face low rainfall and drought conditions, which mean that food insecurity persists in Cambodia. Low agricultural growth only compounds the problem. The reasons that agricultural growth remains low include inadequate technology transfer, inadequate rural infrastructure, lack of access to cultivable land and to credit and lack of markets or access to markets for rice and other crops. Localized food shortages threaten rural communities that produce cash crops rather than food, cannot get those crops to market. Subsistence villages are especially vulnerable to a single natural disaster that can destroy their crops.
At the household and the national level, women are key to food security. They prepare and produce food for their families and bear primary responsibility for nutrition of children. Agricultural labor is divided along gender lines, which means that men and women have distinct roles in the field. Civil war and increased seasonal migration have reduced available male labor, and 20% of rural households are headed by women. Other factors that affect food security include rural poverty, rapid population growth, transportation and market constraints, land entitlement and lack of sanitation and health facilities. Land entitlement is key among these in Cambodia: you cannot address food security without addressing land security. Land policy and reforms can secure access to land.
The Royal Government policy for sustainable and just economic development gives priority to agricultural and rural development, and to education. A slate of specific priorities emphasizes improving the prospect for agricultural exports, above and beyond food security, through macro economic policies that facilitate investment, local credit, improved irrigation, community based forestry management and livestock farming, diversified and intensified agriculture, and development of quality agricultural products suitable for an export market. Meeting any of these goals calls for capacity development at all levels in those ministries that work together on rural development: the Ministries of Agriculture, Water Management and Rural Development. The first step in this strategy is to diversify and intensify agriculture and irrigation. The second step is to focus money and resources on securing farm land for the rural poor.
UNICEF's analysis of nutrition in Cambodia confirms that malnutrition is most common in rural areas, among people suffering from food insecurity triggered by natural disasters. National Studies show that half of Cambodian children are malnourished and mother and child malnutrition is on the rise. Women and children both suffer micro and macro malnutrition, lack of Vitamin A, Iron and Iodine as well as insufficient protein and overall caloric intake. Cambodia's rate of malnutrition is the highest in the three country region.
Every Cambodian needs economic and nutritional security, and access to adequate health care, and the Royal Government has established an economic structure to increase GDP, promote irrigation systems, expand farm land and organize micro-credit in order to solve the problem of malnutrition and food insecurity in Cambodia, so that all families can benefit from economic development. The national Poverty Targeting Program will implement the new social agenda, and the government has increased the budget for priority social service sectors. Village and District Committees play a key role in this process, sharing information and skills on sanitation, nutrition, clean water and maintaining small home gardens. In this way, Cambodia can build a foundation for economic growth, social equity and justice.
Dr. Mam Bun Heng, Secretary of State, Ministry of Health
Cambodia's 11.4 million people must share 181,000 square kilometers, where four out of ten Cambodians do not have reliable access to safe water, schools, health care, or sanitation. A maternal mortality rate of 473 per 100,000 live births in 1998 was quadruple the regional average. The primary causes of child mortality could be prevented by adequate sanitation, nutrition and health care, diarrhea diseases, acute respiratory infections, dengue, vaccine preventable diseases, protein-energy malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiency. HIV/AIDS remains a serious public health problem, as do malaria and TB.
The Ministry of Health's strategy to promote individual health and enable all Cambodians to participate in socioeconomic development began with a process of organizational and financial reform that started in 1996. Deconcentration of control is structured to improve equity and accessibility to quality basic health care. Cambodia's national health care infrastructure has been reorganized to establish regional hospitals that work with local health centers, so that local centers can provide basic primary care which is supplemented by hospitals. User fees have improved the quality of health care services, while new guidelines address funding inequities and access.
There are positive and concrete achievements: Cambodia has been declared free of poliomyelitis. This is the beginning of a long process.
Financing of care is one of the biggest constraints to improvements in health services. Though the health budget has increased, as the country shifts spending priorities from defense and security to social service sectors, Cambodia still needs to address the shortage of health managers with a real capacity for managing funds.
The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Cambodia is now preparing to develop a long term health Master Plan which will be composed of the visions and strategies of all stakeholders in Health. Today's goals are to increase access to quality, affordable health services for the entire population, reduce morbidity and mortality among mothers and children, stem the spread of deadly and debilitating communicable diseases, promote health seeking behavior and contribute to economic development and poverty alleviation.
Pok Than, Secretary of State for Education, Youth and Sport
The Ministry of Education can participate in National Poverty Alleviation policy through reforms to the education system which will allow equitable access to education for all Cambodians. 80% of Cambodians live in rural areas, they are mostly illiterate and poor and do not have access to education or other social services. Half the population is under 18, 36% live in poverty, without reliable shelter, secure food or health care services, or land to cultivate.
Equitable access to education is a priority for the Ministry of Education. Today, most poor can only attend primary school, many do not even complete that. Only the wealthiest 20% of the country sends its children to high school. To make education available to all, the country must build some 10,000 schools over the next five years, mainly in remote and rural areas, and deploy teachers with incentives to teach in rural areas. Also, the Ministry of Education is working to eliminate or reduce required parental contributions to schools as well as illegal fees charged independently by teachers.
Across the system, curriculum and textbook revisions will bring Cambodian schools up to par with the rest of the region, especially in primary and lower secondary grades. Planned decentralization will give rural schools more leeway in decision making, planning and spending. Teacher training, including distance learning programs are planned. The country must also address the problem of students, especially girls, who drop out early.
HE Tho Gary, Secretary of State for Environment
In Cambodia people once called their country a golden village. It was a green country, 65% of the land was forested thirty years ago. Today, people again see the importance of sustainable natural resource use, but urban growth and pollution can ruin natural resources and hurt agriculture and fisheries. Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Water, Land Management, all work together to implement sustainable environmental strategies. More than 80% of the population depends on natural resources for their basic livelihood, so wise use of natural resources is vital.
In 1993, Cambodia developed a national action plan on the environment, which covered six areas: forest policy, fishery & flood plain agriculture, coastal fishery, biodiversity, sound energy development and waste management. Twenty three wildlife sanctuaries and other protected areas were established in 1993 as well. The Ministry of the Environment has jurisdiction over 18% of the country's land, and has introduced sub-decrees on water pollution and waste management, while new sub-decrees are planned that will address community forestry and land management.
On the international level, Cambodia joined the Convention on Biodiversity in 1995 and the Climate Change Convention in 1996, and other world heritage, water habitat and environmental protection decrees.
HE Sok Siphanna, Secretary of State for Commerce
During the last few days, we have been talking about social issues: environment, education. Commerce is private sector, and not supported by the donor community. In the last few years, however, there has been a change of attitudes as people recognize that trade is the primary contributor to economic growth. International organizations, especially in light of the WTO, have begun to realize that trade must be part of national development policy. A slate of international multilateral agencies have joined hands to establish an Integrated Trade Framework for Least Developed Countries, and selected Cambodia as a pilot country to participate in that framework.
Cambodia's macro-economic strategy must meet challenges to mainstreaming trade. China is preparing to enter the WTO, Viet Nam to seal a trade agreement with the US, the multi-fiber agreement expires in 2005: these and other factors will directly affect Cambodia's own prospects and economic position. To avoid being marginalized by these global trends will take careful planning. Cambodia's macro economic situation is stable: GDP growth has been steady at 4-5% for several years, inflation and the exchange rate are reasonably stable, and foreign trade has grown exponentially in recent years and can be expected to reach a surplus with in several years.
Still, garments make up more than 80% of trade exports, which is too narrow. Cambodia must create 150,000 jobs a year to meet the demands of the new entrants to the job market as the countries overwhelmingly young population ages. Most jobs are in the agricultural sector, which is not prepared to absorb so many people. Rapid population growth leads to unemployment growth, low per capita income and poverty, which leads to continued rapid population growth. Trade can break that cycle, by bringing new job opportunities and increased income that can balance the cycle. Since 1996, Cambodia has achieved Normal Trade Relations with the US, and later, entered the EU and ASEAN markets, all of which have allowed external trade to grow rapidly. The goal, though, is bringing Cambodia to the world market, through accession to the WTO.
It took China fourteen years to join the WTO and they are still not quite there, this will not be an easy process for Cambodia, so in the meantime, Cambodia must develop and improve the agriculture sector, and continue to use trade to combat poverty. Today the garment industry employs 160,000 workers, which means new money circulating in the economy, this money ripples through the whole economy, as garment workers send their earnings home and families invest in seed or livestock. This is a tremendous catalyst for economic growth.
The next challenge is to regionalize the growth of trade. Most growth to date has been isolated to three poles, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Even with an overall rice surplus, some regions of the country still experienced food shortages: growth needs to be spread more evenly through out the country. Cambodia is negotiating with Thailand to open up Special Economic Zones along the border that will allow Thai companies to bring in their skills and market knowledge and use Cambodian labor, Cambodian resources, and Cambodia's preferential trade status to export goods to third countries. Not only will this bring skills and capacity that Cambodia still lacks, it will open up jobs in areas that have been left out of economic development so far. Cambodia must be able to work with its industries and make them competitive.
HE Son Koun Thor, Chief Executive in the Micro Finance and Rural Development Bank of Cambodia.
The peace accords brought democracy and peace to the Cambodia, along with 400 national and international NGOs. In 1991, Cambodians owed $100,000 in outstanding loans. By 2000, that figure was $13 Million, and micro-credit reaches 25% of families in rural areas.
Sustainable financial services have both a supply side and a demand side. On the supply side are institutions which provide financial services. To be sustainable, these institutions must be profitable. If they fail, who will offer financial services? The demand side must also be addressed: without microfinance institutions, money lenders charge interest rates of 10% and 20% per month. With the presence of organized microfinance, interest rates closer to 5% are now available. This is not because the government has restricted interest rates, rather they have a liberal interest rate policy and do not impose rates on micro-finance institutions.
The questions for the country now are how to help these institutions progress, how to monitor their effectiveness and how to keep micro credit sustainable and available. The Royal Government hopes to address these questions through three institutions: The Office of Central Supervision of the Decentralized Banking System, within the Central Bank, the Credit Committee for Rural Development, and the Rural Development Bank.
Panel I: Best practices in building the capacities of partners
Moderator: Jenny Pearson, VBNK - Cambodia
Sao Chivoan, Director of the Department of Planning and International Cooperation, Ministry of Rural Development, Cambodia
Chan Sophal, CDRI Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in an Aid dependent Economy
Sivixay Xayxanavongphet, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department, State Planning Committee
John Connell, Care International
Margrit Schlosser, Co-Director, VUFO- NGO Resource Center
Dang Ngoc Quang, Rural Development Services Center
Margrit Schlosser, Co-Director, VUFO- NGO Resource Center
As co-director of the VUFO-NGO Resource Centre, I am mainly dealing with information and information sharing. When the Resource Centre was established in 1993, under the auspices of PACCOM by then a small number of representatives of international NGOs active in Viet Nam, its main goals were to facilitate the sharing of information and data within and for the international NGO community; to serve as a focal point for cooperation in a number of sectoral areas; to provide practical advice and assistance to new as well as already established INGOs; and to assist PACCOM in its work as main sponsor agency for international NGOs working in Viet Nam.
Today, the VUFO-NGO Resource regroups more than a hundred international NGOs and Foundations and alongside with PACCOM has become a focal point for strengthening the relationship and enhancing the dialogue between the INGOs and the wider development community. Ensuring exchange of experience through various Working Groups, coordinating INGO representation and imput in various for a, sectoral meetings, and joint consultations between Government institutions, donors, bi, and multilateral agencies, and local organizations among are among our main tasks.
We believe that INGOs have made a contribution to the development in Viet Nam. While their financial assistance may not represent a large percentage of total ODA, ‘the primary value if INGO efforts may now be their ability to innovate, to experiment with new approaches, to do essential research, to provide high-quality training, and ot assist in providing policy makers with good ideas." (Quote from "A Preliminary Note on INGOs as Learning Organizations", Ford Foundation, March 1999.)
In the year 2000, the Steering Committee of the VUFO-NGO Resource Centre commissioned a study on the lessons learned from a decade of working experience and cooperation in Viet Nam. The study report written by Ms. Nguyen Kim Ha bears the title "Lessons Learned from a Decade of Experience, A Strategic analysis of INGO methods and activities in Viet Nam 1990-1999. Although ‘many opinions and lessons learned could not be included’ as it is said in the foreword, this INGO Study Report highlights some crucial ideas with regard to international cooperation, partnership and development in general. And it will not come as a surprise to you that one of the crucial issues raised in the report is capacity building.
When I read the INGO Study Report for the first time, I got the impression that we, the INGOs, do not always practice what we preach or, to say it in other words, that our practice is different from our rhetoric. We speak of ‘partnership’ yet our partners sometimes feel that we do not estimate them, that we look down on them. We speak of ‘capacity building’, yet our staff, our collaborators, our partners, and eventually even the concerned population feel that we do not really want to let go.
Could it be that expressions like partner, partnership, participation, capacity-building – the list is quite long- are mere expressions of jargon in the changing fashions of what we use to call development work?
Capacity building: saying what we mean, or meaning what we say. The title of this initial presentation, which we owe to a publication from Oxfam Great Britain, gives an indication of my critical approach to the topic of this panel.
What do we mean when we say capacity building?
IN the mentioned INGO Study Report, ‘institution capacity building’ is defined as ‘providing training opportunities for local organizations or partners so that they improve their skills and take charge’. Hence, capacity building would be the provision of training, know-how, techniques, tools, resources, etc. to enable our partners and/or partner institutions to be more effective.
More effective?
My colleague Matt Desmond from the NGO Training Project in Hanoi, whom I consulted with while I was preparing this presentation, pointed out to me that, many INGOs perceive capacity-building as a means to enable their partners implement more effectively (their own) development projects or programs, adding that "the high interest in ‘capacity building’ may signal nothing more than the INGOs’ frustration at their own ineffectiveness" – With due respect to the organizers of this Forum, it seems to me that the working title of this panel indicates to some extent the same perceptions, as if we could list a number of "best practices in building the capacity of partners."
Matt shared the following experience with me: "Government partners tend to rate their capacity (in a particular area) as up to double the rating given by the INGO partner. Similarly, INGO partners tend to rate their own capacity as up to double the government rating of it." – Could it be that we do not mean the same thing when we say capacity building? Could it be that the INGOs have a more limited and interested approach to capacity building, that is to say a project and/or program oriented approach; whereas our partners, and especially government partners have to deal with far larger entities? Could it be that we have a more technical approach to capacities than our partners, or that we rank specific capacities differently?
At this point I would like to share with you a quote which I found in the already mentioned Oxfam publication entitled ‘Capacity-Building, An Approach to People-Central Development (written in 1997 by Deborah Eade). The quote is originally from a publication of the Community Development Resource Association, CDRA, in South Africa). It reads as follows: "We all know the classic development cliché.. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime’. This is a laudable sentiment, but it becomes more complex on two counts. The first we have known for some time – it does not help to teach people to fish when they are denied equal access to the resource base…But the second complexity is more intractable. What if those of use who claim to do the teaching do not know how to fish? This not at all far-fetched. Can we – as NGOs, as donors, as governmental extension services – honestly claim to have achieved that much capacity in our own organizations, we who strive to teach others? Have we really mastered what we teach, have we been able to organize ourselves sufficiently to achieve meaningful impact?" CDRA comes to the conclusion: "Clearly we have not."
I’d wish we would perceive capacity-building as an integrated approach to development rather than a set of discrete or pre-packaged technical interventions. The foundations of such an integrated capacity-building approach, or the three elements of a capacity-building relationship, as the NGO Training Project perceives it are: the capacity of the NGO, the capacity of the partner, and the capacity [or the quality] of the Partnership. My colleagues in Hanoi, who deal with capacity building, understand effective capacity building as a reciprocal arrangement. And, I guess, one of the fundamental questions is: what can the different partners contribute to this arrangement?
The best of the best practices in building capacities of partners may in fact be: that we acknowledge our own weaknesses; that we value our partners strong points and potential contributions; and that both of us engage in a mutual learning and capacity building process.
Under this premise, capacity building becomes essential prerequisite for a people-centered, equitable, and sustainable development.
Dang Ngoc Quang
A survey of local social development organizations in Viet Nam found that, like international NGOs, local organizations are engaged in diverse areas of development. Education and awareness raising, health, nutrition, community development were common, as were legislative advocacy. When asked about their plans for the future, local NGOs say they are planning to expand, some by diversifying their activities, others by working in more communities. Local organizations surveyed often say that they feel they are weak in organizational and financial management.
Best practices in Viet Nam are learned by doing research and work with other organizations, and by looking at lessons and failures to develop curriculum for training courses that allow staff to train communities directly. Within Viet Nam, training needs are met by very few organizations -- the NGO training project is coming to a close, but the Asian Institute of Technology is an academic institution that also meets some management training needs, but many needs remain to be met. As a local organization, the Rural Development Services Center is often asked to help with training efforts.
In monitoring and evaluations both staff and managers say that training needs remain high. Main management needs are identified in surveys, and when matched with existing courses available you see that certain gaps persist.
Nationally, Viet Nam is looking towards a project that would review the last decade of experience with international NGOs and mass organizations, in the hope of developing a capacity building curriculum that can be more formally incorporated. The aim is to develop a Vietnamese designed and inspired management development program based on national experience. The hope is also to strengthen Viet Nam 's capacity to design and deliver this management development program, and to enhance management and decision making capacities of social development agencies within Viet Nam.
Part of this process is directly helping communities organize local organizations that provide technical or financial services to members. The community can identify needs, which might also include educational or health care needs, and then can organize themselves to address those needs.
Sao Chivoan
Social capital and local institutions in Cambodia were weakened by decades of civil strife, and the country only established long-term development plans in 1995. This is the context in which development occurs in Cambodia. Development in Cambodia is structured around Village Development Committees which coordinate with Commune, District and Provincial staff. Agencies also work with Pagoda Committees at times. A focus on developing the capacity of local institutions is a major component of the Royal Government's rural development strategy. Forty percent of all villages in Cambodia have working Village Development Committees, and by the end of 2001, that figure should be up to 69% of all villages. VDCs are democratically elected and directly involve rural households in all stages of development projects, from identifying the community's most urgent needs to contributing labor and materials to project implementation. VDCs are also the focal point of interaction with government departments, development agencies and funding sources. Village Development Committees are a necessary step towards truly participatory economic growth in Cambodia, paving the way for the commune level elections to be held in 2002.
Pagoda committees are a traditional Buddhist institution, and in many communities the pagoda committee paved the way for the VDC. Within a village, other institutions, often organized by women and less visible to the untrained eye, have long provided mutual aid for house construction, schools, savings and credit and celebrations. Pagoda committees are only one such mutual aid institution in a village. International organizations have worked with pagoda Committee's to begin a participatory development process. Communities generally trust their pagoda committees, and committee members often have experience mobilizing a community to complete a project, raising and managing funds and resolving conflicts. In addition to pagoda committees, international NGOs and agencies have increasingly been organizing other mutual aid groups in communities. International NGOs have been instrumental in building the capacity of village and commune level development committees and in facilitating a participatory rural development process.
Poverty alleviation in Cambodia depends on the multitude of competent, independent and self reflective community based organizations working in the country today. These organizations can keep the excesses of state power or of the marketplace in check by empowering people to act locally to right imbalances.
Chan Sophal
After the peace agreement in Cambodia, the international community promised massive aid, both technical and financial. The scale of aid in Cambodia is of such a magnitude that it distorts the country's economy. The best educated in Cambodia work for or with NGOs, and not on skill intensive production or exports. Donors and NGOs have taken over funding of most social services, while the government focuses its own spending on defense and security. Donor monies supplement government salaries where officials are working as project counterparts. These drawbacks are well known, what we don't understand is how foreign aid impacts capacity development, the ability to perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably.
The Cambodia Development Resource Institute undertook an in depth study, Technical Assistance and Capacity Development in an Aid Dependent Economy, which looked at individual capacity, institutional capacity and financial ability of counterparts to continue similar work once outside funds have been withdrawn. The study lasted for two years and looked at 50 projects, multilateral, bilateral and NGOs. What they found was that the extent of the success of technical assistance projects depends upon the importance attached to capacity development in the projects purposes. While once, the purpose of technical assistance was to ensure that aid was spent reasonably, the consensus of technical advisors and counterparts in the study was that the purpose of technical assistance is capacity development. Often technical assistance was used to facilitate resource flow or directly impact incomes.
Often, governments take shortcuts like asking TA experts to do tasks that local counterparts should be trained to do, which gets a job done faster but ignores the importance of capacity development. Often, agencies circumvent government authorities, which can make a project easier, but means that projects are not structurally well placed for capacity development. The study found that individual counterparts own capacity was significantly enhanced, organizational capacity, less so, more often than not, projects completely lacked financial sustainability. Only a handful of projects had any prospects to carry on.
This observation raised a number of questions during the discussion period about what financial sustainability means in this context:
Ultimately, the government should pay for the economic sustainability of its own institutions, which is why it is important for technical assistance projects to work through government structures, so that when the state does have the resources to fund social services, projects can continue. The importance of financial sustainability is more apparent when you look at microcredit projects that last for one or two years, and ask whether the participants are better or worse off than they were before. Projects should plan for their own long terms sustainability, or be realistic about what benefits will have been gained if a project ends after two years. Less than half of the projects studied in Cambodia had convincing plans for long term continued funding, either through cost recovery or soliciting future donor support. Local NGOs cannot expect to use cost recovery strategies, but expecting to rely on outside funding entirely is also not realistic in the long term.
He concluded with the observation that: The biggest threat to sustainability of capacity was that government salaries are too low, and counterparts who have been through capacity development leave to find other jobs and do not stay within their ministries, which raises the issue of whether the government can actually utilize capacity built. One of the strongest recommendations of the study is that project implementation units, usually set up by bilateral and multilateral donors, should be reviewed. Donors should be working with existing government structures. NGOs should not bypass government altogether.
Sivixay Xayxanavongphet
Efficient coordination is the key to a productive working relationship between partners in development. Building cooperation between development organizations and development structures takes real talent, and should never be considered an easy task. Meaningful capacity building has five characteristics:
Information and Knowledge: all parties should have adequate information about one another's institutions, long term goals and strategies for reaching those goals. For NGOs, this means that knowledge must go deeper than simply knowing the mandate and responsibilities of each government agency. All groups must have enough information to asses their partners' needs, skills, aspirations and values.
Planning: Good planning optimizes capacity building, and requires mutual trust, as well as broad coordination and participation. Building that trust takes time and should be part of any project.
Participation: Decisions are made by national consensus in Lao PDR, and mass organizations are essential to finding that consensus, so any meaningful capacity building means coordinating with relevant mass organizations as well as with government agencies and local groups.
Duration: Experience shows that long term involvement is the only way to build meaningful, lasting capacity, instead of isolated skills that cannot be applied to other situations.
Monitoring and evaluation: Including an element of monitoring and evaluation in a project plan allows everyone to articulate the objectives of the project. Building an evaluation phase into the project both allows participants to reach a finite goal, and helps all partners assess what they have learned from the project and what challenges lie ahead.
John Connell
Within CARE's work, capacity development partners are the government staff at the district and provincial level, rather than institutions or organizations. Rural development projects undertaken by NGOs often coincide with the regular responsibilities of local government agencies and should be part of their normal work. Even when those agencies lack both technical capacity and planning or project development skills, working with district staff is a real opportunity to make your work sustainable.
Effective capacity building means asking what you want district staff to be able to do at the end of your program that they weren't able to do at the outset? Technical knowledge and skills are important, as is an understanding of development dynamics, of the importance of including villagers in a process that allows them to accept new ideas. District staff need a real vision, as well as communication and organizational skills to allow them to plan over a period of time. District staff need to see that their own relationship with villagers should be participatory as well.
CARE's capacity building strategy begins with in-house workshops with the group that will be implementing a project. Workshops introduce general concepts and approaches that will be used, along with facilitation, planning and reporting skills. Workshops are followed by on the job training in a careful mentoring process. External training is available to staff who need specific skills, and study trips to other organizations and projects that can offer some perspective on their own work. The mentoring process is not a casual, learn by looking approach. Rather, before setting out into the field, the team sits down to discuss what they will be doing on this trip. If they are leading planning meetings with villagers, experienced staff may lead the first meeting and step back and allow less experienced staff to take the lead. Then the whole team comes back together to talk about how it went.
Rural development work itself also begins with a workshop like phase, planning and preparation meetings with villagers to identify their needs and priorities. The village often is asked to select a small group of people who will test a new technology working closely with staff and report back to their community. Follow up is provided throughout the season and into several seasons, and the group reports back to the village. Rather than relying on project staff, this engages villagers in making assessments and decisions themselves. One of the benefits of this process is that it helps project staff, NGO and government, to keep in mind that sustainable change does not happen over night and to be satisfied with work that can seem to be moving slowly.
Project staff work under a district monitoring committee and a provincial advisory committee, and part of CARE's capacity building work emphasizes developing the skills of these administrators as well, so that they can really support the local staff's work. Part of the shift from working with to working through begins with training these administrators so that over time NGO involvement can be dramatically reduced.
Discussion
The discussion opened with one audience member encouraging anyone interested in meaningful capacity building to look at the report Chan Sophal discussed. It breaks capacity building and technical assistance down into three phases, a preparatory phase, where no systems are in place yet, and the bulk of the work is external input; a capacity phase, where the basic structure is in place and the local counterparts have more responsibility and external input is minimal; and a consolidation phase where responsibility lies in the hands of the counterparts and external input is provided only when asked for. The report can be a very useful tool for sitting down with local counterparts to really assess where your project is along that process and what still needs to happen to reach the point where the external NGO can step away from the project.
How does Cambodia expect to go about establishing Village Development Committees in 69% of all villages?
Sao Chivoan: Achieving this goal will require the help of the Royal Government as well as local NGOs and other community structures. Pagoda committees form the base model for VDC, and the government is leading rural workshops, "Partners for Development" to clarify the concepts and methodology of VDCs. In addition to plans to set up VDCs, the Royal Government will continue to monitor Committees once they are established, to look at how to build and maintain local capacity through the VDC structure. This is a process that will never end, even as VDCs last for generations.
Is there a sector in which the government of Laos particularly welcomes the support of NGOs?
Sivixay Xayxanavongphet: Asking this question is the best example of the kind of cooperation that makes for efficient capacity building. Rather than in a specific sector, the biggest gap in Lao PDR development is in project preparation and management skills. NGOs can help in all agencies at the central and grassroots level, by contributing planning and project management skills.
One question argued that while a holistic participatory process is more likely to be institutionalized than some specific participatory tool, this approach is time consuming and skill intensive. Will people carry through with a holistic process, or wouldn't a specific tool be more realistic? If counterparts won't put the effort in to complete an intensive process, wouldn't capacity building energies be better spent on something that will actually be used, even if it is a compromise?
Connell: CARE does use PRA [one such specific participatory exercise] when we come to a new village, but you cannot expect people to be open when they have just met you. Over the long term, an open and participatory approach allows you to adapt as you get to know the community you are working with. Tools and exercises work best when you do have someone well trained and thoughtful to convene them, and it is just as easy to cut corners with a defined exercise. One of the things CARE often does is lead a workshop in village and then leave to let them mull the ideas a bit, when they return, villagers have thought about their needs more, and often have new things to add. As for staff commitment, CARE's experience has been that, while local counterparts are often paid less than NGO staff or not as skilled, NGO staff and local government counterparts are equally enthusiastic and committed. Counterparts often report that they see their work as meaningful and effective, often for the first time.
Usually, NGOs work in partnership with government agencies, but it often appears that agencies only want the money. Is this true? How can you encourage governments to prioritize capacity development?
Schlosser: Internationally, most NGOs work with local NGOs or directly with the people. The phenomenon of working primarily with government counterparts is somewhat unique to Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. Often, where an NGO is not working directly with the government, they are coordinating with mass organizations, which straddle the line between government institution and civil society. As for the question of government agencies interested only in money rather than capacity building, there was a time in Viet Nam when what the government needed most was solidarity, and NGOs provided it. There came a time when what the government needed was money, and in some cases they have simply asked for it. Today, Viet Nam still needs finances for development, but the government, in word and in deed, has made it clear that they appreciate the breadth of contributions that INGOs bring to the country: innovative approaches, human resource development, solidarity and financing. All of these are necessary and the government recognizes that. For the answer to how to encourage governments to take capacity building seriously, look to the experiences of Cambodia and Laos, to what has been said on this panel about building trust and partnerships. We are all part of a very long process of collaboration, coordination and building true partnerships.
What does RDSC do in terms of follow up for people who have completed training courses? Why do you emphasize management training?
Dang Ngoc Quang: In the early 90s, there were only two or three development actors: the government, INGOs, and UN agencies. RDSC got its start working with villagers and supporting community organizations in their work. Training is not capacity building, but it is part of the process of capacity building. RDSC's training courses grew out of their community work, to meet a need they saw to share what they had learned with other NGOs. RDSC training courses focus on those skills where they have developed particular expertise from their work.
The final question addressed the issue of funding that is set aside for capacity building, while funds for actual project implementation are not available.
The consensus among panelists was that while there are INGOs that have a budget line for capacity building distinct from projects themselves, and it is not clear that this is the best approach, where there is money, there is money for capacity development and for project implementation.
Panel J: Addressing the Emerging Youth Problem
Keo Samnang, Deputy Director of Youth Rehabilitation Development Ministry of Social Affairs Labor Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation
Sebastian Marot, Coordinator Mith Samlanh/FRIENDS
Phoxay Khamphoumy, Deputy Director of promotion and development division Lao Youth Union
Phetlamphanh Yadanegi, Baha'i Development Agency
Pham Thi Phuong Chi, Program Officer, International Youth Cooperation Development Center, Viet Nam Youth Federation
Tran Thi Van, UNFPA Deputy Representative
Keo Samnang, Deputy Director of Youth Rehabilitation Development Ministry of Social Affairs Labor Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation
Cambodia's population is unusually young, as fully half of the population is under the age of 18. The youth rehabilitation department is primarily responsible for the care of 7-18 year olds who are involved in drugs or prostitution. Children are offered schooling and skills to improve their chances of becoming good and lawful citizens. The youth rehabilitation department is also responsible for reintegrating child soldiers into civil society, and for working with children orphaned by war or disabled by mines. Estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 children living in the streets of Phnom Penh, begging, scavenging and shining shoes. [note: Mith Samlanh uses a much lower figure.] These children are desperately poor, often illiterate and have limited employment prospects.
Drug use, especially amphetamine use and glue sniffing are on the rise, and young people are increasingly involved in more serious crimes like armed robberies and vandalism and the country does not have a separate juvenile justice system. Though national law makes provisions for juvenile sentencing, anyone over 13 can be detained with adult prisoners. In April 2000, Cambodia opened its first facility for women and juveniles, and the Cambodia National Council for Children is reviewing legislation to ensure that the needs of children are met. The Department of Youth Rehabilitation and Development works with the Prisons Department to manage the care of juvenile prisoners and provide vocational training and education programs.
The Ministry operates one drop-in center which provides vocational training, counseling services, and basic educational programs aimed at providing basic literacy and numeracy skills, as well as referrals to other social services. In addition to managing the Youth Rehabilitation Center, the Ministry works with NGOs on a number of projects that address the continuing problem of children being trafficked for labor or prostitution, both by reintegrating those children with their own communities and by working to prevent trafficking in the first place.
Finally, Cambodia recognizes that young people need to be involved at all levels in decisions that affect them, that they must be involved in identifying and addressing emerging problems.
Sebastian Marot, Coordinator Mith Samlanh/FRIENDS
Street children are not an emerging problem, nor are they unique to Cambodia or to South East Asia. Every society and every culture has street children. Mith Samlanh/Friends operates a center for street children in Phnom Penh, where they offer a variety of services to help reintegrate street children into society. Street children are a broad group of youths, including children who live and work on the streets alone, children who work on the streets but have homes that they return to at night, and children who live with their families on the streets. From a distance they look the same, but any program that aims to reach out to street children must recognize the breadth of their circumstances. In Phnom Penh, Mith Samlanh estimates that there are 1000 street living children, 10,000 street working children, and 500 children with street families every day. [note: this figure is substantially lower than the Department of Youth Rehabilitation estimates]
Street children reflect a society's ills, like poverty, poor health care and poor access to education, and are often blamed for youth problems like drugs, gangs or promiscuity. In truth, street children are not so much more likely to be drug addled or promiscuous as they are more visible than other children. Gangs are usually blamed on street children when a closer inspection shows that the kids organizing and managing gangs often have homes and go to school, but street children are their most visible recruits. Because they are often recruited by organized crime, or are victims of drugs, HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, and because they will become adults without skills or education, unable to care for their own families, street children do weigh negatively on development. They are also, however, an asset to development. They are strong, resourceful and resilient, qualities that are very useful in society. Experience shows that reintegrated street children are very successful, and many of reintegrated former street children work hard as advocates and role-models for other vulnerable groups in society, and so promote development in Cambodia.
Work with street children can be a strategy for development if that work promotes sustainable reintegration of street children instead of offering welfare and care, if that work follows a strategy and is not cosmetic, and is not aimed at alienating the children. At Friends, work with street children takes a holistic approach that begins with meeting children’s basic survival needs of food, shelter, safety and health care, and offers education on HIV/AIDS, drugs, reproductive health, child rights. Children have the freedom to make decisions about their own lives, and get support reaching the goals they set. They are also given the opportunity to express their creativity, through dance, music, arts and crafts, and are offered education and vocational training, as well as being taught the traditions and rituals as their own culture. Finally, Mith Samlanh/Friends offers support for the reintegration of children into family, public schools, employment, society and culture.
Working with street children is an on-going investment in society and in sustainable development, but the work will never be donor free. This work is also a common effort and responsibility, that needs the support of government and municipalities, of business and communities, and long term support from donors.
Phetlamphanh Yaganegi, Baha'i Development Agency
Baha'i Development Agency sponsors a moral education curriculum called the Virtue Project, which is based on the principle that spiritual and moral education is an essential part of children's character and personality development. In Baha'i communities in Laos and around the world, values are taught in the family and in Baha'i run school systems. Values are also promoted in community life. BDA's vision is to develop a moral education framework in the Lao PDR, and, through the Virtue Project, to promote weekly, volunteer taught moral education classes in a network of Lao population centers. While parents bear the primary responsibility for the upbringing of their children and youth, teachers, leaders and civil servants are charged with molding the nation, and promoting and defending humanitarian law, rights and values. Their actions set the example that children will follow.
The primary values of trustworthiness and truthfulness form the basis of their curriculum. Trustworthy moral leadership and institutions must form the foundation of a just and equitable society where collective action and decision making is possible.
Phoxay Khamphoumy, Deputy Director of promotion and development division Lao Youth Union
The Lao People's Revolutionary Youth Union is a mass organization, whose activities are under the direct supervision of the party and of the government. The Youth Union is charged with empowering and protecting the new owners of the people's Democracy.
As the Lao economy opens its foreign economic relations, young people need the vocational skills and knowledge that will allow them to join in economic development as business leaders, managers and technicians. As young people travel to urban centers in search of work, more and more of them find that they lack the skills they need to find permanent employment, or that permanent employment simply is not available. Other issues that the Youth Union must work to address include increased amphetamine use, lack of self-confidence or trust in society, lack of access to education, health care or basic food and clothing needs among young people. To address these issues, to build a skilled society through sills training and cultural preservation projects and to enable youth to pursue education or vocational training, the Youth Union established a Vocational Promotion Training Center. The Center offers vocational training programs in sewing and agriculture, as well as computer training, home economics and small repairs, among other offerings. Other projects at the center aim to preserve Lao PDR's cultural heritage, from traditional culture and arts training to athletic and music programs and competitions. All of these projects give youth the skills they need to fully participate in Lao Society.
Pham Thi Phuong Chi, Program Officer, International Youth Cooperation Development Center, Viet Nam Youth Federation
Rapid economic growth presents new opportunities and challenges for Viet Nam 's youth. Some of the primary areas of concern to Vietnamese youth are education, health care and employment opportunities. While enrollment and completion rates have improved substantially in recent years, rates remain low among the rural poor, as children leave school in search of employment. In remote areas, schools facilities are often lacking, or teachers are in short supply, which has lowered the quality of education, especially outside urban centers.
Viet Nam lacks youth specific health policies to address the impact of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse in young people, and quality sexuality education is also scarce. Viet Nam 's abortion and STD rates underline the need for better sexuality education and adolescent reproductive health care. Also, though industrialization and economic diversification present new economic opportunities, youth account for 60% of underemployed people, and for rural youth, the problem is compounded by the fact that they often do not have access to land for cultivation, skills the labor market needs or capital for small enterprises.
The Vietnamese Youth Union is charged with involving youth in formulating and implementing the policies that affect them. Some projects of the Youth Union include a Program on Raising the People's Intellectual Level, fostering young talent and developing physical training and sports, which organizes summer literacy programs, sends literacy volunteers to remote areas and sponsors a wide array of learning and leisure activities to young people. Another program, the Program on Social Work and Environment Protection mobilizes young volunteers for disaster relief projects or blood drives among other efforts. This project also organized comprehensive HIV/AIDS and drug abuse prevention campaigns, sending mobile information teams to reach people in rural and remote areas who have little access to the mass media, using plays, comics, poems and folk verses. Condom cafes and youth counseling centers as well as national radio call in shows allow young people in cities to access sexual reproductive health information.
The Program on Self-Assertion, Self-Establishment and contribution to building a prosperous country has launched two campaigns, "Economize and Accumulate" and "Building New Countryside," which help young adults find capital for production and business endeavors, especially self-employment, income generation and participation in economic development. Science, technology and agricultural extension clubs and courses also help youth become capable entrepreneurs, managers and specialists.
Thi Tuey Ahn, UNFPA Viet Nam
While not as overwhelmingly young as Cambodia, Viet Nam also has a large population of school aged children. Today they place a real burden on the school system which must meet the demand for teachers. Those youth are also beginning to join the labor force, and in numbers not matched by retirees leaving the labor force, which means that over the coming decade, Viet Nam must come up with just over 12 million new jobs.
Within this context, UNFPA must design and offer reproductive health care services. While statistics show that infant and maternal mortality is declining with the birth rate, and more Vietnamese are using contraception, the overall quality of reproductive health care remains low. HIV and AIDS are on the rise, and school and community based programs are not equipped to meet adolescent needs for reproductive health care.
UNFPA works with the school system in Viet Nam to develop secondary school curricula that incorporate reproductive health information into Geography, Civics and Biology course work, and to support teacher training and continuing education that can prepare teachers to meet the reproductive health information needs of Vietnamese adolescents. UNFPA also works with the Viet Nam Youth Union to provide counseling, information and services out side the school system, through existing youth centers, in addition to projects aimed at sensitizing policy and decision makers to the particular health information needs of young people. Other projects aim to address the relatively high abortion rate in Viet Nam. Finally, UNFPA works to develop relationships with other International Agencies working in this sector to encourage groups to share experiences and build on each other's work.
Discussion
Questions focussed on approaches to moral education in the three countries, after Baha'i presented their strategy for moral education. Within Viet Nam, moral education is part of the civics curriculum.
Panel K: Roles of community in environment protection
Moderator: Mr. Peter Riggs
HE To Gary, Secretary of State, Ministry of Environment
Toeur Veasna, Mlup Baitang
Thongsoune Bounphaxaysonh, Director of Planning and Investment Division, Cabinet, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Michael Hedemark, Co-Director, Wildlife Conservation Society - Laos
Vo Dinh Thanh, SIDA Fund for the Environment in Hue
Vu Thi Quyen, Education for Nature - Viet Nam
HE To Gary, Secretary of State, Ministry of Environment
With a population that is 80% rural, only 15% engaged in formal wage employment, the rural poor in Cambodia survive through a seasonal rotation of farming, fishing and foraging in forested lands. Restricting public access to any of these domains could end this diversified, range-dependent survival strategy with devastating consequences for rural people. Where traditional use of natural resources is threatened by competition for those resources through poaching and exploitative uses, local residents often abandon traditional use guidelines in an effort to benefit from the resource before it is taken by outsiders.
The goal of community based natural resource management is to give local communities a central role in identifying resources, defining development priorities and implementing management practices. Community based resource management can ensure local livelihood and security, and assure continued self-sufficiency.
Cambodians get 75% of their protein from fish, and some one million people depend on the Tonle Sap's fisheries for their livelihood. Though almost all of the lake's fisheries had been sold as lots to commercial fishers, the government sub-decree on community fisheries opened up a significant portion of those lots to community management. Community fisheries projects on the Tonle Sap and other freshwater fisheries have shown preliminary success in reducing illegal fishing and improving local livelihoods.
In addition to fisheries, Cambodians rely heavily on access to forested areas to supplement their diets and incomes, for wood and non-wood forest products, firewood and charcoal, and flooded or mangrove forest fisheries. A sub-decree on the establishment of community forestry is being drafted, to introduce community forestry as an approach to forest resource management.
In 1993, King Sihanouk designated 23 protected areas which feature critical and fragile habitats and species -- planning and development of a Natural Protected Area System is the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment. Management plans are still being prepared, but make provisions for the role of communities living in and near the protected areas, including those communities whose own traditional resource base has been depleted by logging concessions and other development.
Thongsoune Bounphaxaysonh, Director of Planning and Investment Division, Cabinet, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
The primary environmental concerns of the Lao PDR include deforestation, soil erosion and sedimentation, loss of watershed function, loss of biodiversity, industrial and infrastructure related pollution. Given the present development level of Lao PDR, the country is potentially very vulnerable to economic degradation. Lao PDR has more than 30 important water streams, and depends heavily on watershed sources. Many of Lao PDR's species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction.
Upland farmers are the poorest segment of the population, and they rely on shifting cultivation, or slash and burn cultivation for their subsistence. This is neither productive nor environmentally sound, and so long as upland dwellers rely on shifting cultivation, poverty and environmental degradation cannot be solved. The agricultural sector must solve this problem, to find higher productivity and sustainable livelihoods for people living in upland areas, and these problems have no precedent. Stabilization of shifting cultivation is one of the national government's policy priorities: with more than 150,000 families practicing shifting cultivation today, the goal the government has set is to stop shifting cultivation altogether by 2010.
Where does environmental degradation occur? What are the forms that it takes, what are the impacts? Who is involved and why? Are their solutions? Who is responsible for finding and implementing them? These are the questions that all have to be answered, and their is no one answer. An integrated, area based approach allows the Ministry to select priority areas and involving a range of stakeholders, people, governments, NGOs in solving problems of environmental degradation.
Policy guidelines that say that social and economic development must go hand in hand with environmental protection are inspiring. The challenge is how to incorporate them into practical implementation. In practice, the Ministry of the Environment recognizes that the people are the custodians of environmental resources. Transforming uplands subsistence livelihoods into sustainable, commodity based livelihoods is the ultimate goal. The first step of government policy is to decentralize environmental management, placing final implementation of policy in the hands of local communities.
The whole of society must participate in this process, government, mass organizations and individual people, it cannot be a collaboration only between the ministry and the upland communities. Agricultural innovation and study are required to provide livelihoods to the upland areas. Well coordinated, integrated planning takes the input of many sectors.
Vo Dinh Than, Sida Environmental Fund
In the last ten years, the Vietnamese government has paid particular attention to the importance of environmental protection, has developed laws on environmental protection and sustainable development strategies. If the community is not involved, however, environmental issues cannot be controlled.
75% of the population lives in rural areas, and urban and industrial pollution are issues in the large cities. Most provinces have pollution problems and environmental degradation problems caused primarily by day to day living. At the local level, there is not a history of attention to environmental preservation. Also, local communities do not have the knowledge or information that they need to use resources sustainably, and they lack the power to promote policies or implement national strategies.
SEF works to identify local environmental issues and work with communities to find workable solutions. Through the development of an initiative on local environmental protection, Sida has established a fund to promote public awareness and contribution of local people to environmental protection, and to strengthen the capacity of NGOs and local institutions to deal with environmental issues. SEF gives priority to local initiatives in remote and difficult areas. SEF supports 80 projects in 300 communes, 112 districts and 38 provinces, almost all in remote communities.
SEF tries to emphasize appropriate approaches, raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and transfer environmentally sound technologies to communities they are working with through providing basic equipment and bringing in necessary experts. Through forums and workshops, green volunteers spread information and technologies, while SEF uses mass media and minority journalists to establish minority language radio programs and raise awareness of environmental issues. Communities are always encouraged to consider the practical feasibility of the technologies that are available, looking at whether they will be able to continue to use those technologies over time. It is important that experts not force technologies on local communities, but should work with communities to help them make a decision that makes sense to their circumstances.
Environmental projects, especially small scale ones, do not outlast the NGO presence, because there is not enough skills transfer to the community to keep it going. SEF organizes a forum for local communities that are participating in environmental protection every two years, to allow communities to continue their work. By beginning with small scale programs and facilitating regular communication between small scale programs, Viet Nam can build a large scale environmental movement that will last.
Vu Thi Quyen,
Cuc Phuong National Park was Viet Nam's first national park in 1962. 50,000 people live on the border of the park, another 2000 in the park's borders. Most of them depend on forest resources for their livelihood. The Cuc Phuong environmental education program works raise awareness of both local people and park visitors about nature, environmental conservation, and the need to be involved in protecting the park. A school based conservation club works in primary and middle schools along the border of the park, meeting after school. Meetings look at endangered species or animal homes, using drawings, stories, games and discussions, in addition to events like puppet shows, tree plantings, park visits and teacher training programs.
An adult focused village program rotates between villages and works with local authorities to reach residents, and the visitor education program within the park focuses mainly on the development of a visitor interpretation center within the park, where visitors can learn about conservation and environmental issues and the importance of Cuc Phuong National Park.
This education program is the longest running community based environmental education program in the country and is widely recognized as a model for community based environmental education. A local Vietnamese NGO, "Education for Nature - Viet Nam" has formed to sustain the efforts at Cuc Phuong National Park and share their experiences and successes with other parks that are trying to establish their own education and training programs, and with environmental education practitioners throughout the country.
Toeur Veasna, Mlup Baitang
Mlup Baitong began working on community -based natural resource management in early 2000, working with different target groups within the communities surrounding Kirirom National Park. Their goal is to improve community management of natural resources through capacity building in the local community that can establish resource management strategies and decrease pressure on the resources in the Park.
Working with seven villages around the park, Mlup Baitong organizes environmental awareness events and leads participatory rural appraisal. A women and the environment program trained on environmental issues and taught income generating skills in an effort to develop the capacity of female community leaders to work as trainers and organizers on environmental projects, and to encourage women to play an active role in environmental advocacy. A Buddhism and Environment program worked with local pagodas to conduct trainings on environmental education through Buddhism. The following year, monks from those pagodas have started to work on outreach activities, establishing tree nurseries, compost programs, and environmental education programs for school children and villagers. An environmental education program in the schools works in 21 primary schools to integrate environmental education into the national curriculum, train teachers in environmental leadership and develop an active network of children’s eco-clubs. Finally, a military and environment project worked with three military camps to actively involve the military in the protection of Kirirom National Park and control timber cutting and sales along, as well as animal poaching but building environmental awareness among soldiers. The project was limited by lack of transportation to the training facility and participants being called out to other exercises, so it was important to work closely with commanders on this project.
Environmental protection and natural resource management, through the participation and empowerment of communities is an effective approach, but the will of the community must be taken into account, and teaching materials should be suitable to the community’s education level. Projects need sufficient resources to implement work and must cooperate with other NGOs, similar projects and government offices to protect the environment without compromising the priorities of local communities. In the face of a growing world population and increasing pressure on natural resources communities must be involved in environmental protection.
Michael Hedemark, Co-Director, Wildlife Conservation Society - Laos
In Lao PDR, up to 80% of protein comes from the forest, 10-20% of food consumed by weight. Natural resources are also insurance against natural disasters, and provide up to half of rural incomes, often in quantities double the value of the forest as logs. Some of the lessons that the Wildlife Conservation Society has learned from community natural resource management work.
Forest communities are able to allocate land for local use, but they are not able to develop policy to enable land allocation. While communities are able to establish sustainable harvesting and consumption rules, but they cannot enforce those rules when it comes to people from outside of the village or people of higher status. While they can monitor harvest rates and the trade of natural resources, they cannot establish rules for harvests or for the trade of natural resources or enforce those rules. Communities are able to make plans for local resources, and have had some notable successes in this regard, but communities are not capable of making plans for non-local resources like migratory animals or respond to threats to resources that come from outside the boundaries of their communities. While forest communities can stay actively engaged in income generating projects, they don't always substitute the income they gain from those projects for income they were gaining from natural resources. Given the opportunity, communities will take advantage of both.
Finally, communities can provide indigenous knowledge on natural resource use, but it is very difficult for forest communities to provide rigorous scientific studies on ecological and sociological processes with respect to natural resources. This is a particular issue when it comes to bio prospecting, and commercializing the use of natural resources.
Discussion
What is the status of ecotourism in Laos?
Do minority people play a role in management of parks, and are national parks open so people can still use the natural resources in the park?
Clarify the situation in Laos, how much forest is cut down by highland people? Are there concessions to people?
What are the implications of administrative decentralization in environmental policy and practice in Laos, Viet Nam or Cambodia?
Are there efforts being made to raise environmental awareness among the ministries? What is the role of the military in environmental protection?
Panel L: Strengthening higher education and vocational training to address social and economic development
Moderator: Everett Kleinjans, Former President of East-West Center of Hawaii/USA Emeritus President of Center for Advanced Study, Professor in Higher Education of Royal Academy of Cambodia
H.E. Pok Than, Secretary of State, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Royal Government of Cambodia
David Ford, Australian Volunteers International
Phonephet Boupha, Deputy Director of Higher Education and Vocational Training Department, Ministry of Education
Hans Luther, Advisor to Lao PDR National Organization for Study of Policy and Administration
Nguyen Tien Hung, National Institute for Educational Development, Viet Nam
Jack Bailey, Institute of International Education
H.E. Pok Than, Secretary of State, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Royal Government of Cambodia
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) in Cambodia recognizes that poverty is a significant factor in access to all levels of education. This point particularly applies to post-secondary education. Therefore, a top priority for Cambodia is to increase access to higher education and technical vocational education and training (TVET) for the poorest as part of the Government'’ overall poverty reduction strategic plan. The Ministry’s vision also includes an understanding of the critical need for education and training systems to enable economic growth, improved employment prospects and income-generating opportunities.
The Government is conscious of the need to address significant urban/rural and gender disparities in current enrollment patterns. For example, 45% of students in public institutions come from Phnom Penh and around 40% come from the more urban provinces. There are few students from poorer, more rural and remote provinces. The Ministry is determined to adopt new strategies, through expanded provision in rural areas and scholarships for the poor, in order to increase access to higher education and TVET.
An urgent need exists for institutional reforms in higher education. The Government’s/MoEYS overarching long term policy goal for upper secondary, TVET and higher education provision is based on putting in place a complementary public/private partnership arrangement. The role of the MoEYS will be to formulate policies that enable both public and private institutions to respond to education/market needs, taking account of their respective comparative advantages.
In summary, MoEYS is confident that over the next 5-10 years, given the necessary resources, post-secondary provision can be repositioned to improve quality and market relevance. These measures, alongside more market-driven financing will enable institutions to respond more effectively and quickly to economic and labor market requirements.
David Ford, Australian Volunteers International
In terms of key indicators like student enrollments and public expenditure, Cambodian higher education falls behind nearly all ASEAN countries. But then Cambodia has had a unique history that included a regime that specifically targeted and systematically destroyed this sector of society. As much as 75% of tertiary teachers and 96% of students were killed during the reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge. It is now 22 years since the Khmer Rouge were defeated, but higher education has yet to recover.
The significance of this devastation for the present institutions of higher education cannot be overstated. An enormous reservoir of knowledge and experience was destroyed. The majority of teaching staff passed through the shattered and dysfunctional remains of the education system after the Khmer Rouge era. They can in no way be considered as merely a group of ordinary teachers. Most of the staff have lost family members. Some have experienced torture that included being buried alive, witnessed violent killings and committed crimes themselves in order to survive. They now have an understandable reluctance to share or collaborate and their attitude to political leadership is not surprisingly a mixture of distrust and fear.
Poverty is another consequence of thirty years of civil disorder. Teachers, like civil servants, receive a token salary of about US$20 per month, which is only a quarter of the World Bank assessed poverty line for a family of five. Most teachers depend on other jobs for their main income. Consequently, work related values are distorted by basic survival needs and management practices are best viewed as directed towards individual survival rather than institutional success.
At present, Cambodian higher education is undergoing a paradigm shift, from a centrally controlled socialist system to increasingly market oriented autonomous institutions. Higher education is changing from ‘public service’ to ‘private good’. Those institutions that receive funding, either bilateral or through student fees, are able to attract qualified staff and provide basic resources and deliver a higher quality of education than those solely dependent on government funds. Students unable to afford funded institutions have had little choice; there are 10 students applying for every place even now, and the number of 18-23 year olds is projected to double in the next 25 years. There will be an increasing pressure on the system to expand. The challenge will be to ensure that growth is planned strategically, and adequate standards are established and maintained.
Even in its present weakened state, Cambodian higher education continues to serve a vital function. Political stability and economic growth are creating an expectation and momentum for change. When institutional strategic planning is the directing mechanism instead of political expediency or competition between individuals and personal gain, then higher education may be free to develop its full potential. When regulatory framework and sector wide plan are in place, Cambodian higher education may be in a position to face the enormous challenges of improving the relevance and quality of the education it provides while at the same time expanding and meeting the needs of national development. But finally, these reforms and strengthening strategies will have little effect unless the government shows its commitment to education by paying teachers a livable wage based on competence and performance. The people who deliver the education must be adequately paid for their work.
Phonephet Boupha, Deputy Director of Higher Education and Vocational Training Department, Ministry of Education
The general goals of future development in the year 2020 are to elevate the Lao PDR from one of the least developed countries by keeping the rate of its economic growth at a moderate and stable level and to develop human resources which will be equipped with suitable knowledge and ability. Educational development will focus mainly on access and quality improvement of human resource development to meet the needs of the country’s socioeconomic objectives. In particular, education represents a major form of intervention in poverty alleviation. The educational policies in the Lao PDR encompasses a broad range of objectives, from primary to higher education.
From 1975 to 1986, many higher education institutions have been established under different ministries, in response to the growing demands of society. Unfortunately, during this period 37 small public institutions functioned at the post-secondary level and a only 10 offered higher education of any form. Through the years, higher education faced many serious problems, such as poor coordination of the management of these small institutions (under varying ministerial guidance), inadequate and low relevance of programs, poor quality of education at the upper-secondary level, dilapidated facilities, under-qualified teaching staff, and low external efficiency of the institutions.
Currently, higher educational institutions in the Lao PDR consist of the National University of Laos, five Teachers’ Training Colleges, and four private higher institutions. The number of enrolled students in higher education has steadily increased over the years. During the period 1991-2000, the overall enrollment in bachelor degree programs increased by 166% (from 3469 to 9218), at a rate of 13% per annum. Many issues and challenges confront higher education in the Lao PDR: equitable access; quality; relevance and appropriateness of training; and planning and management. Recent reforms in higher education and technical/vocational education highlight the importance which the Government attributes to education in its socioeconomic objectives.
Hans Luther, Advisor to Lao PDR National Organization for Study of Policy and Administration
In this age of rapid advances in science and technology, the three ex-Indochina countries remain at a crossroads- from "fishing net to Internet", from "stone age to phone age." In the education sector, many challenges lie ahead. Strengthening higher education will require developing the links, methods and content of higher education.
The Link
There is no comprehensive economic development without social development, e.g. rule of law, landownership rights, property rights. We have supplied the "hardware" (e.g. roads and buildings) but not the "software" (e.g. education and participation) which, together, make development sustainable. Without a network of reliable government institutions on the district level, foreign aid-programs create a modern version of the "cargo cult." They are bound to fail.
The Method
We have to teach people on all educational levels how to "Learn to Learn." Learning is the key to development and economic growth. Thus, teachers should not just teach but show the students how to learn, i.e. No "spoon feeding" but to teach thinking. Yet, what are the incentives to learn? What are the benefits? Some suggestions include: training of teachers, study visits to schools in neighboring countries, and revival of the corporate identity and dignity of teachers.
The Content
The curricula are too abstract and too far away from real life situations. They do not fit for economic development purposes and do not encourage social changes. Reforms of the educational system have to start with an overhaul of the outdated and outmoded curricula. What counts is not what you learn, but whether it is really worth learning. Reforms are often misunderstood as a goal in and of themselves. In fact, reforms are a mechanism to improve the people’s lives. Hence, curricula should be "curricula for life" and much more simple and user-oriented. Of course, if primary education fails already in its task, not much can be expected from "higher education" and learning at the university level.
Nguyen Tien Hung, National Institute for Educational Development, Viet Nam
The VII Congress of the Viet Nam Communist Party has asserted that from now to 2020, Viet Nam has to make efforts in order to basically transform into an industrialized and modernized country. In addition, Viet Nam has highly appreciated the role of education as a determining factor for its success in this period. However, to meet the above-stated goals, the educational system in Viet Nam faces many challenges and difficulties.
Many problems confront higher education and vocational training. The quality of education is low in many respects. A critical gap exists in the quantity and quality of lecturers and technical teachers, especially at the university level. Investment in education on a per capita basis remains relatively low. In educational management, developing strategic directions and macro policies have been slow in developing.
To overcome these difficulties, the educational system in Viet Nam must:
The above stated solutions will strongly reform the curriculum, teaching methodology and educational organization. They will renovate the educational management and help to implement educational socialization in order to mobilize all resources for education.
Jack Bailey, Institute of International Education
IIE is a New York based NGO which aims to promote peace and understanding through educational exchange. Work in Viet Nam includes fostering educational exchange on many different grounds, primarily at higher education levels, both by bringing students to Viet Nam to study and by facilitating study abroad, both within Asia and in the United States and elsewhere, for Vietnamese students and scholars. Other work helps mid-level career professionals have experiences abroad. IIE sees higher education as crucial to economic development -- the goal in higher education should be to build those skills that can take Viet Nam into the next stage of development, skills that facilitate infrastructure, like developing a banking system or providing the skills that create an intellectual technology base for business and economic development.
The 1990s saw the first massive national universities in Viet Nam: before that there were small, mono-disciplinary universities that did not communicate with one another. The hope is that at larger universities, some of which were formed by joining several existing institutions, scholars and students can begin to make linkages across fields and find synergy of information. New autonomy for these national universities allows them to set their own curriculum, and some recent exchange programs have focused on curriculum development between US and Vietnamese institutions.
A frequent concern in Viet Nam is that graduating students should have skills that are actually needed by the economy and match the available jobs. In vocational schools, teacher sand facilities are often not suited to the actual job market, while university students graduate with academic knowledge but often without the skills to implement that knowledge in the job market. As Viet Nam's young population prepares to reach an age where they must think about higher education, these issues are especially relevant.
International educational partnerships are emerging in new forms to meet some of these challenges. There are several fully foreign universities establishing themselves in Viet Nam, as well as partnerships between foreign schools and Vietnamese universities, either where students begin a curriculum in Viet Nam and complete their work at a host institution which then confers a degree or, as is especially common in MBA programs, a foreign institution may bring in faculty to teach a program completed entirely in Viet Nam or with only a semester abroad. Such arrangements make educational options available to Vietnamese who might not be able go abroad.
In addition to such programs, Vietnamese students continue to pursue education abroad, and those numbers will grow, which presents yet another challenge, as the country should try to get the most out of the skills those students bring home.
Discussion
How does higher education impact poverty alleviation?
Several panelists observed that, while higher education does not bear directly on poverty alleviation, it is the educated who take responsibility for designing and managing national poverty alleviation strategies. The quality of their education bears directly on the quality of their work. Higher education is a long term investment in human capital, which allows a country to create the institutions and social framework to be able to move forward with programs that can alleviate poverty.
HE Pok Than added that it is also possible to make higher education pro-poor. Right now, higher education is simply not available to the poor. This doesn't mean it shouldn't be made available.
How can you assist students who intend to pursue education abroad with their own funding?
Within Viet Nam, one of the things that IIE offers is free educational advising, particularly to help students who want to study in the US. There are also private agents who facilitate study abroad, many of whom are very good, but others are quite unscrupulous, to the point where the government is beginning to draft regulations on these agents to address the unscrupulous ones.
With respect to getting visas, it often helps to have a very clear idea of what you hope to get out of studying abroad. Consular officials are often wary of students who they suspect are trying to immigrate.
In Cambodia, there are scholarships available to students who want to study abroad, and an office within the Ministry of Education administers competitive tests for students to qualify for those scholarships. Otherwise, the Ministry will also help facilitate connections for students who wish to study abroad using their own funding.
What kinds of incentives can be created to sustain the intellectual capital of developing countries and prevent brain drain?
As an NGO, AVI doesn't have a specific policy on brain drain, but NGOs can help facilitate efforts to address the problems. Salary supplements can compensate for low salaries that make it difficult to keep teachers at Universities. The long term solution is policy level, to create career tracts.
Vietnamese students who want to study abroad must sign a pledge to return to Viet Nam, and Viet Nam has arrangements with host countries, so that students are often also required by their host to return home after their studies. There are other things that you can do to encourage students who are not studying abroad on government scholarships to return. Students who receive support through IIE are also obligated to return to Viet Nam, and students who leave school or try to disappear are returned to Viet Nam and not allowed to stay in their host country. Often, depending on the type of visa that is issued, students are obligated to leave the country when their studies are complete. The US issues two kinds of visas, one is more open, but scholarship students J2 visa which obligates them to leave the US when they finish their studies and not return for several years.
Brain drain often takes another salary driven form, as government ministries that cannot match the salaries of the private sector often have trouble recruiting and retaining qualified officials.
How can you make higher education accessible to the poor, especially in remote areas?
Pok Than: A pro-poor education system must make higher education available to everyone. In many cases, students or prospective students have to travel far from home to attend schools, which can be hard on students, so part of the challenge is to bring schools to remote areas. Also, the next five year plan includes scholarships to help minority students and students in remote areas continue their education, with special attention paid to helping girls attend school. Dormitories can allow students study away from home, and in remote areas, dormitories for teachers can ease the burden of living away from home and encourage teachers to stay in remote schools.
Viet Nam has similar problems, and takes a similar two fold approach, building schools to remote areas and offering scholarships to students from remote areas to allow them to attend school.
Closing Ceremony
Vu Xuan Hong, President, Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations
The Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam began as an information sharing platform where the countries of Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam could talk openly with US NGOs, institutions and the public. During the years of the embargo, the conference was one of the few channels of communication, one of the few outlets for promoting normalization and US – NGO involvement in the three countries. In this respect, the Forum’s mandate has been accomplished. The situation in the three countries is entirely different than it was a decade ago, Thanks are due to the Fund for Reconciliation and Development for their ten years of work, to the Cambodian Delegation, INGOs and NGOs participating, and to our Lao hosts.
HE Pok Than, Secretary of State, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Cambodia
The Lao PDR has extended a warm welcome to this conference, for which they are due particular thanks, as is the organizing committee for providing this platform to share ideas, accomplishments and needs. Holding this conference in a beautiful city like Vientiane is evidence alone of the success of achievement so far.
Closing speech by HE Phonsavath, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Honorable guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The 10th Conference of the Forum on Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia has unfolded during 3 days in Vientiane in an atmosphere filled with friendship, enthusiasm and responsibility. Throughout these 3 days, the participants have concentrated on frank and in-depth consultations and exchanges. The Conference has now reached its final stage with success, such success being due to the excellent preparation by the organizing committee, namely by the Fund for Reconciliation and Development and the Lao preparatory committee, and more importantly due to all the participants' contribution.
On behalf of the Government of Lao PDR, I would like to present my sincere acknowledgment for the important contributions made by all to the success of the 10th Conference of the Forum on this occasion.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Conference provided a forum for exchange of views and increased mutual understanding between Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia with non-governmental organizations from the United States, Europe and other countries.
Through the process of the 9th Conference, this Conference brought both direct and indirect benefits to all three countries in the Indochina Peninsula by extensively and intensively developing the relations of cooperation with the United States, other countries and non-governmental organizations. The Conference brought an important contribution in promoting understanding between the peoples of Europe with the people of the 3 Indochina countries, the exchange of visits, the mobilization of funds and support in assistance to our peoples, and satisfactorily and fruitfully developing the relations at governmental level.
Based on this spirit, we are firmly convinced that the 10th Conference will bring new firm achievements and promises, as well as deep and tangible contributions in development assistance, and more specifically in eradicating poverty in our countries. For the Lao PDR, it is my sincere hope that the American non-governmental organizations, as well other international NGOs will continue to contribute in promoting cooperation between the Lao Government and their respective governments. The non-governmental organizations present in the Lao PDR and having a firm knowledge of the conditions in Laos will also help to objectively convey the current situation of our country to their own government has specifically focused on developing relations in view of increasing international assistance. The 7th Round Table Meeting held in Vientiane last year reflects the Lao Government's sincerity and focus on cooperation with donors and the international community. Development partnership was strengthened, views from partners in development were gathered and applied within the conditions and specific features of Lao PDR to maximize the efficient use of assistance funds.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the Lao Government has always attached importance to cooperation with international non-governmental organizations, and considers that their assistance has contributed to socio-economic development and has efficiently reached the population at the grassroots level in isolated areas.
The Conference has ended, but an important point demanding attention is the realization of the subject of discussions, exchange of views, assessments and mutual understanding as targeted, that is improving partnership in poverty alleviation and development. Most importantly, this Conference should become an integral part of the process of building efficient partnership in development between the Government and international non-governmental organizations.
To achieve this goal, I would like to further emphasize that cooperation based on mutual understanding and regulations, understanding of the actual situation of the country, true partnership for the benefit of the poor, without the interference of other goals alone will be a decisive factor to ensure genuine and efficient partnership in development. This aims at bringing all the three countries, which have had the same destiny due to sufferings sustained from a destructive war, into a region with rapid development, and improving the people's living conditions, thereby transforming the Indochina peninsula into a sub-region of development, cooperation, stability and peace. This in turn would bring an important contribution to the common cause of permanent peace, security and stability in Southeast Asia, as well as in the world.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Once again, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, and the Lao organization committee for their contribution to the success of the 10th Conference. I also wish to extend my warm acknowledgment to the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia for sending their delegations to the Conference and giving us the opportunity to consult on issues of mutual interest. Furthermore, I would like to extend my special acknowledgment to the heads of all international non-governmental organizations participating to the Conference for their active contribution to the success of the Conference.
I wish good health and safe return to all participants. On this solemn occasion, I declare the 10th Conference of the Forum on Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia officially closed.
Thank you.