UXO clearance and the livelihood improvement of ex-opium farmers in northern Laos were flagged as important issues at a public consultation between the European Union and its stakeholders in Vientiane on Friday.
The EU says it will consider the two sectors in its future development policy for Laos to enable the landlocked country to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and graduate from the UN’s least developed country status by 2020.
Charge d’Affaires of the EU Delegation to Laos Mr Henry Prankerd said “UXO clearance and opium growing villages are the two sectors we need to consider in our future cooperation.”
This included how to manage UXO clearance in any future cooperation and how to help those villagers that depended on opium production to change to an alternative livelihood.
The consultation aimed to collect views and comments from stakeholders including the government, development partners and civil society for the future EU development policy.
Mr Prankerd said feedback included “how our partners will cooperate with the EU and where they see we should focus our priority in the future and how we should work with them.”
“This consultation is taking place worldwide, not only today, but on different dates both this month and the next. And what we hope to achieve here is to ensure that what the government thinks in Laos and what civil society thinks in Laos will be heard and have an influence on the future cooperation policy of the EU.”
Only last year the EU announced that it would have new funding available to support the Lao UXO clearance sector, amounting to 3 to 4 million euros.
On January 14, the EU signed a project document with the Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to help farmers in Huaphan province develop alternative livelihoods.
The EU has agreed to provide a grant of 1.9 million euros towards the 2.2 million euro cost of the project, which will run from 2011 to 2013.
Mr Prankerd said another area of interest for Laos is that the government wants to develop ‘green’ energy so the country has a high level of hydropower resources “but the question is how donors can help get the best results because we all agree that green energy is something needed for the future.”
He added that food security is a basic need and that people should never have to worry about not having enough food.
“And not only food security in terms of quantity but also the quality of food which gives us proper nutrition, and is particularly important for young children when they are still growing.”
On January 14, the EU agreed to provide 1.2 million euros through Unicef to support a nutrition project for young children and mothers across Laos. The project will run from 2011 to 2014.
A t the consultation meeting, participants highlighted nutrition and food security as important issues, not only for next year but a lso for the longer term, in order to meet the MDGs.
Source: Vientiane Times
By Somsack Pongkhao
January 24, 2011
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