Fund helps Xieng Khuang communities out of poverty 
 
Vientiane Times, December 23, 2009
 
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is working to provide better basic infrastructure for poor rural communities in Xieng Khuang province, according to a representative of the fund.
 
IFAD's Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Department Director, Mr Bouasone Dalavong, said the project would benefit the target group by improving community capability to make efficient use of natural resources.
 
Mr Bouasone said the target group was approximately 83 percent of the population in the province. Around 165,000 people in some 24,000 households now benefit from a project being implemented by this organisation.
 
He said the project has mobilised the communities to make services available for their own social and economic development.
 
“This will also ensure communities' ownership of the project and its sustainability by increasing household food and income security, improving nutrition and reducing poverty,” said Mr Bouasone.
 
“Providing access to safe drinking water and better road communications will improve health, productivity and access to markets for poor families. Providing a school dormitory programme to selected schools will also assist ethnic groups in remote villages.”
 
Mr Bouasone said the project transferred simple and proven production technologies to increase household incomes and farm productivity.
 
Villagers reduced their reliance on shifting cultivation and opium production through a community-based extension and natural resource management programme.
 
This has involved rehabilitating and constructing small-scale irrigation and water control schemes to improve farm productivity for both wet-season and dry-season crops.
 
Mr Bouasone said the project has also provided financial services to support investment in income-generating activities on farms and in villages and will provide institutional support to improve the delivery of services to the target group in a demand-driven and participatory manner.
 
The villagers have participated in community development, participatory planning and field demonstrations. Farmers have been trained as veterinary workers and would be able to extend their new skills to other villages, he said.
 
They worked on the construction of irrigation and water supply facilities and village access roads and have full responsibility for their operation and maintenance.
 
He said this was the first project financed by an external loan to support the implementation of the National Poverty Reduction Programme, emphasising cultivation and harvesting.
 
Mr Bouasone added that women are an important part of the target group, because of the major role they play in the community, both on the farm and in the home.