Australia supports poverty reduction in Laos

(KPL) The government has approved of two projects on UXOs and poverty and disaster risk reduction under the Laos-Australia NGO Cooperation Agreement (LANGOCA) in Khammouane province.

A memorandum of understanding on the projects was signed last Thursday in Vientiane Capital between Deputy Cabinet Head, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Phetsavang Sounnalath, and Director of the World Vision Laos, Mr Stephen Rozario.

Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Bounkhong Lasoukanh and other officials from various organisations witnessed the signing.

The projects will be implemented by the World Vision Laos (WVL) in two districts of this central province with a financial assistance from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

The UXOs project will focus on 24 UXOs-impacted villages in Mahasy district with a target population of 6,200 people in 1,120 households.

The project, costing US$1.8 million, will work closely with villagers.

The poverty and disaster risk reduction project will be implemented in 23 villages in four development village clusters in Gnommalath district, to help 10,000 people of 1,766 households.

The main objective of the project is to reduce the impact of slow-onset natural and man-made disasters by increasing the resilience of households, communities and local government. This project costs over US$1.5 million.

These two projects will potentially help realise the objective of LANGOCA to reduce the vulnerability of the poor by coordinating poverty reduction, disasters management and UXOs in Laos.

KPL Lao News Agency
October 19, 2009