Views from the Field: In Conversation with the Head of Mission in Laos

Communist Laos began opening up to the world in the 1990s, joining ASEAN and trading with the EU under the ‘Everything but Arms’ scheme. Yet the largely rural population remains poor and development challenges abound. Michel Goffin, Head of Mission in the EU Delegation to Laos, outlines issues from governance to geography, shares successful projects which could be replicated, and discusses working towards an exit strategy by building the government’s capacity.

Capacity4dev (C4D): What are the main development challenges in Laos, and where is the EU focusing its efforts?

Michel Goffin (MG): There are three big challenges in Laos. Firstly, a dysfunctional education system that does not bring Lao boys and girls to the level they should be at in competition with other Asian countries. When they say for example that the enrolment of kids has met the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target, the problem is that kids, and girls in particular, are not staying for the full school cycle; they drop out after a year or two. We need to dig deeper into what has been achieved, and in some areas work harder. We want to focus on basic education and in particular the quality of education.

The second challenge is nutrition and stunting of children. 44% of children under five are stunted, which means they won’t grow up the way they should - stunting has an enormous impact on their development. It’s not just about giving enough food or teaching communities to eat differently, and if we don’t focus on it now, Laos and other countries facing nutrition issues will suffer for 20-30 years.

The third is called, diplomatically, governance. We want to encourage citizens in Laos, civil society and also the national and new provincial assemblies to participate in society. We want to help these assemblies to genuinely serve citizens by for example setting up Ombudsman services, a telephone line, helping parliamentarians to be more aware of people in their constituencies. And we want to encourage young people to express their wishes and participate in the building blocks of society. There are a lot of very active young people in Laos and in Asia and we need to help the government to channel these voices.

C4D: How does the Commission cooperate with other donors? Could you share an example of a successful project?

MG: In Laos we have begun ‘Joint Programming’ with the EU Member States, so that we can work more effectively and with a good division of labour. Together the EU and member states deliver $500 million in Laos, so with Joint Programming all of a sudden they are seen as a very important partner. It gives the Lao government the message that the EU is there together to promote sustainable development and human development. To find out more about Joint Programming, look out for our forthcoming Voices and Views.

We also try to build up coalitions of not only European donors but others, and the 2030 Agenda is helping; on wildlife for example we are working with US AID. We also need to go beyond coalitions of the usual suspects of like-minded, western countries, and bring Asian countries on board and big players like China. We all signed the SDG agenda, so we should be able to build up coalitions.

In the education sector there’s a project I’d like to note designed by Australia AID to improve the quality and access to education. We are bringing technical assistance, encouraging the ministry of education to train their teachers. Laos has enough teachers, but they are not very well paid, and not enough of them want to go to work in remote areas. We have to find a way to better train them and motivate them to go where they are needed. The programme will work in 66 of the most disadvantaged districts and will train 360 ethnic minority women to become teachers.

C4D: What does the isolation of some Lao communities mean for other development projects?

MG: After four years in Laos I came to the conclusion that it’s all about one word: access. Firstly there are 49 ethnic communities in Laos and as many different languages. If you don’t give them access, all these services will never materialise for them.

Then there’s the geography. I’ve been in remote areas which are five to six hours’ drive in bad conditions. Sometimes in the rainy season a big part of the country is not reachable by car, only by motorbike. I can understand that the government, with limited means in terms of budget and operation, thinks twice about driving five hours to deliver vaccinations or nutrition. It’s a hard situation and one of the main reasons these communities are still in extreme poverty.

All the donors are working on this. That’s the beauty of joint programming, that countries take the lead where they have the advantage, for example Germany has worked very efficiently on rural roads.

C4D: Is there an end in sight for donors’ involvement? What is being done to develop the government’s capacity?

MG: At the end of the day there has to be an exit strategy for development cooperation. And the only way is to reinforce the capacity of government, central, local and provincial. The best way is to support the government directly on their budget, and the EU is active on that with budget aid, which does increase the capacity of the government to address social issues and deliver services.

This being said, we also work a lot to support civil society - international and national NGOs. They are the ones delivering services to remote communities. The government is not there. It’s a difficult choice – either you are supporting NGOs and civil society now directly, because people need services and it’s a matter of emergency sometimes, or you work much longer term and support the government. But then people right now are not being served. We try to do both.

C4D: Which of the Sustainable Development Goals are most urgent for Laos, and what are the challenges in achieving them?

MG: In Laos we still have to finish working on the Millennium Development Goals: poverty reduction is the main one. With the SDGs we are able to bring up new areas of focus with the Lao government. Wildlife is an important one. In terms of forest preservation and biodiversity, I’m concerned that this beautiful country is losing natural forest coverage at the speed of light. Then, there’s a lot of trafficking of wildlife to Laos, and also of Lao wildlife. We have created a working group called WG 15.7, which refers to wildlife trafficking, from the 15^th SDG target about wildlife, to coordinate efforts. To find out more about the EU’s approach to wildlife preservation, see our recent Voices & Views on biodiversity and development.

C4D: Is there a project which has worked well in Laos that could be replicated elsewhere?

There’s a project on cook stoves which we are proud of – it’s one of these not so complex projects that delivers very good results. You help local people making cook stoves to standardize the shape and improve the insulation inside, using a local product, rice husks. They claim it’s 30% or 40% more efficient than a regular cook stove, and lasts four years, compared to maybe one year for a normal cook stove if used intensively. It’s also a climate change related project, as being more efficient, they use less charcoal or wood to cook.

The new stove costs 35,000 Lao kip, which is about €4. But even that is something you need to think about when your salary – if you have a job – is about $100. And then on the stove you have to find food to cook. So in terms of commercial readiness for people to buy, even 5 or 50 cents more than a regular stove is hard. Poverty is real there, and people will not necessarily respond to a better cook stove for climate change - their focus is to survive the next day. So to invest in a cook stove that’s working better, lasts longer - it still needs to be promoted, but it’s working. 90% of the population in Laos cooks on a wood or charcoal stove, so just to improve the quality of that makes a tremendous change. Read more about cook stoves projects on Capacity4dev.