Presented by Dr. Bounpone Sirivong, National Project Director
1)Duration Four years ( March 1999-December 2002)
Executing Agency Provincial Administration of Xiengkhouang/Rural development Committee Cooperating Agency UNDCP/UNDP, NEX Support unit
Total UNDCP budget US$ 3,642,200
Donors Luxembourg, United States of America, Sweden
OUTPUT 2: The economic opportunities in the dis-trict available to the target communities diversified.
Activities to this output were divided into ten sub activities:
Activitiy 2.1 1,175 kg of paddy rice (Chinese dwarf variety) was introduced to ten families in two lowland villages and shown varying degrees of adaptation.
Activitiy 2.2 field trails are on going with the reintro-duction of both Hatdokkeo 4 and LVN 100 (Vietnam) varieties of maize. An additional 32 kilos of improved Hatdokkeo 4 were distributed to farmer cooperators.
● Demonstrated to 110 farmers from 19 villages on the advantages of organic farming.
● Trained 120 farmers from 4 villages on post harvest storage of maize.
Activity 2.3
● Distributed additional 36,226 asparagus seedlings to 108 households in 12 villages
● Additional 265 plum cuttings were distributed to 8 interested farmers in 4 villages.
● Distributed 67.48 kilos of assorted seeds e.g.
coffee, pigeon pea, mung bean, lettuce etc to 255 families in 42 villages.
● Encouraged family runs nurseries from 20 fa-milies last year to 46 fafa-milies at present.
Activity 2.5
● Organized farmers to farmer field exchange visit on mulberry farming leading to sericulture acti-vity. Twelve (12) farmers from 8 villages parti-cipated in this exchange.
● Organized farmers to farmers field exchange visits on asparagus farming. Fourteen (14) parti-cipants came from 9 vil lages to see actual asparagus cultivation in Kieopatou village.
● Trained village vaccinators on Animal Disease and treatment.
Activity 2.7
● Sent 3 farmers cooperators and one provincial staff for training in Vientiane on fish cage rearing and breeding.
● Distributed fish roe for hatching to 51 households in 12 selected villages for field trial.
● Supported 3 farmers in fish cage making from indigenous materials. T hree bamboo cages completed.
6. The process of capacity building begins from within and it is being carried out during weekly, monthly, quarterly meet ing and informal/
discussion among the staff members.
7. Formulated opium poppy agreement and facili-tated target villages to be participated in signing the contract with District drug control Commit-tees. The agreement is to reduce 50% of opium produc-tion by the end of year 2002 As the opium survey in beginning of the year 2001, 12 villages stop 100%, 40 villages reduced 50% and the rest 3 vil lage s( Phaven, Phaka and Loungkoung?
To reduced by 20 to 30%.
8. Replaced the former Participatory Development Advisor in support of XKADPII.
9. 45 addicts (13 women) have been admitted to the detoxification center since early 2000 and no one relapse so far (compared to 36 addicts admitted previous year and 3 relapsed.) 10. To achieve the special consideration on gender
and development activities to bring in 11 women staff to work with the project community level.
11. Supported the organization of International Women’s Day in Nonghet on the 8 March 2000. More than 70 women participated in compet ition on model mother, housew ife, child-care and income generation activities.
12. Supported organization of International Day against Drugs on the 26 June as part of social mobilization and awareness raising on drug abuse. About 124 key representatives from target vil lage s and hundreds of re sidents witnessed the burning of opium seized by the police and enjoyed sports, games and enter-tainment.
13. Coordinated with District Drug Control Com-mittees and supported the issue of orders on control measures to achieve commitments of the villagers as agreed upon in the opium re-duction agreement.
14. Villages vaccinators from 16 villages undergone training on Animal Diseases Prevention and Treatment.
15. Developed 14 different Drug Demand Reduc-tion posters and informaReduc-tion material.
Achievement- Area of opium production was reduced form 332 ha, to 149.5 ha.
Or 54.96% total reduction in the 55 target villages in Nonghet District.
● Provided 14,000 mulberry seedlings to 7 families in 5 villages as a start in Sericulture.
● Sent 2 staff to attend Apiculture training conducted by Lao Red Cross in Nonghet.
Activity 2.8
● Demonstrated sloping agriculture land technology through the use of A- frame to 55 farmers from 10 villages.
● Distributed 34 kilograms of timber seeds to 25 farmers in 2 villages.
Activity 2.9
● Oblige Agriculture Promotion Bank to open a service in Nonghet district to encourage link between w ith the Project’s beneficiaries and the bank.
● The loan disbursed by APB from UNDCP fund will continue until its maturity period then re-lease it again as demand arises.
Activity 2.10
● The loan disbursed by APB from UNDCP fund was released through group credit formed by the Lao Women’s Union in three villages. The APB technicians and the team responsible for the area constantly monitor the borrowers.
OUTPUT 3: The coverage and operation of the so-cial services in the district enhanced. Activities to this output were divided into twelve sub - activities; Con-struction of infrastructures in this output was carried out following the approved annual budget constraint.
New activities below were carried out from January-June 2001.
● Two village meeting halls were built in 2 villages
● Another two additional water supplies in 2 villages were constructed.
● Supported the construction gate in pre-school in Thamxay village.
● Conducted bidding for the materials in furniture making needed in 12 school buildings were held and winning bidder selected.
OUTPUT 4: Effective cooperation established with XKADP II to enhance and sustain the local tertiary road network in the district.
● Completed 58 Km of all weather road network in the target villages
3. MAJOR PROBLEMS AND STEPS TAKEN TO SOLVE THEM
Budget restriction.
Step taken Made work plan and budget according to the availability of fund
Several national staff has left and one of the reasons was the insecurity about the project’s ability to secure of staff for a longer period.
Step taken: Reassign the water supply engineer to support the understaffed team. Made an arrangement with the other teams to support the team that needed staff as need arises.
Finding, recommendations and lessons learned Government
● To support sufficient government staff, in order to have project support basic infrastructure to be functional.
● To prove how the management arrangement for the project supported electricity supply could be sustained and come up with the proposal for water supply which was another central issue during the first TPR meeting
Executing agency
● To review the existing human resources depend-ing on the project needs and to reassign or reduce staff as necessary.
● To attract more district sector departments’ par-ticipation in project activities at the field level.
● To review the project impact and to set new target (drug objective) to be achieved by the end of year 2002
● To conduct more in-depth study on marketing and income generation and to develop ad diver-sify alternative income opportunity
UNDCP
● To continue providing co-ordination support at national level regarding UN co- operation.
● To support timely release of fund for the project to avoid restricted funding situation.
● To provide direction to be pursued after the end of project year by 2002
LESSONS LEARNED
1. Active par ticipat ion of both Provincial and District authoritie s in al l aspects of Project activities made the project execution smoothly.
2. The sense of ownership of the project by the District authority made it a lot easier for the Project to accomplish its objectives.
3. Transparency concerning the budget and acti-vities to the District and beneficiaries increased the trust to all concern thus, yielded to a higher cooperation and produces more results.
4. Field exposure (farmers to farmers) and expe-rience exchange increases the chance that the doubtful farmers will engage on the alternative crops being introduced. Seeing is believing.
5. Socio-economic assistance and support to intro-duce alternative development to reintro-duce opium production and use can be achieved with some aid on law enforcement.
6. Culture sensitivity in the design of information materials (one ethnic group had a negative reac-tion from the Projects’ posters) design use of neutral information materials in the future.
7. Weekly strategic meetings of the Project staff
enable the Project to immediately respond to beneficiaries needs.
8. Strong commitment and cooperat ion from Project’s beneficiaries made the possibility in reaching the Project objectives.
9. Divided the target villages into four geographical areas and assigned a team to each area to have a regular presence of the Project which will enable the Project to act immediate to the request of the beneficiaries.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. To increase coordination and cooperation be-tween UN agencies. It has proven that the coo-peration between UN-NADP Project and FAO-Fishery Project had very productive results.
2. Timely release of fund to avoid disruption of the Projects’ activities as well not to create low morale to the Projects’ staffs.
3. For the government to provide more government staff to work in coordination with the Project activities in the field level.
1. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT:
The immediate objective of LADP is the elimination of the opium poppy production, the reduction of opium addicts and improved living conditions for the villagers in Long district, through a process of alter-native development, demand reduction and law en-forcement. Through a village-based approach LADP will ensure that:
● Implemented activities are linked to existing needs and based on the effective demand and natural resources of the community;
● Development activities and processes are in harmony with local costums and culture;
● Human resources - both male and female, and including poorer households - are mobi-lised and improved;
● The villagers - both male and female - have a feeling of ownership of the development initiatives and processes;
● The communities are able to analyse their own situation in terms of problems, constraints, potentials, priorities, and solutions;
● The development process initiated by LADP will be sustainable.
Luang Namtha province is the north-westernmost province of Lao PDR, bordering PR of China to the
North, Myanmar to the West, Oudomxai province to the East, and Bokeo province to the South. The prov-ince comprises 5 districts covering a total area of 9500 sq.kms. Long is the south-westernmost district. Nam Ma river flows through Long district in a south-west-ern direction, joining the Mekong at Chieng Kok, an important trading village.
Presently, the project works in 19 villages, but during phase III another 37 villages will be incorporated in the project. These 37 villages are responsible for ap-proximately 85 % of the total area of opium poppy cultivation in Long district.