Gender and Development

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Lao People's Democratic Republic

Study of Gender Inequality in Women's Access to Land, Forests, and Water

TA 4339

The TA is the outcome of ongoing efforts in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) to promote gender equity in access to resources and participation in economic development.

Women in the Lao PDR are active in the economy and primarily responsible for meeting their households' food requirements, health and well-being. Gender gaps exist in several areas and are wider among northern ethnic minorities. All ethnic minority cultures assign women heavier workloads than men for food production, income generation, domestic work, and maintenance of cultural traditions. While customary laws prohibit them from inheriting land (depending upon the culture and circumstances), ethnic minority women living in traditional communities, do have customary use rights to land for food and livestock production, and collection of forest produce.

National laws, policies, and programs are increasingly impacting upon the capacity of ethnic minority women to meet their households' need for food security, minimum nonfood requirements, and requirement of cultural traditions. Researchers from the Land-Titling Project and the Lao Swedish Upland Agriculture and Forestry Research Program emphasize the need for greater attention to gender issues in nonethnic Lao areas.

The Project's goal is to identify ways to reduce poverty and improve gender equity among ethnic minorities living in the Nam Ngum Basin. The purposes are to:

1. increase awareness within government agencies and communities, of the extent and impacts on poverty, of prevalent gender inequality in access to land, forest and water resources, among ethnic minority communities in the Nam Bhum Basin;
2. to design solutions to address the issues of gender inequality and poverty among these communities; and
3. to institutionalize gender responsive programs within government agencies, that can help to address the issues of gender inequality and poverty.

The outputs will include:

1. improved policy environment on gender equity in access to resources,
2. increased awareness among government agencies and ethnic minority communities regarding the links between gender inequality and poverty, and increased support for gender equity in access to and control over such resources,
3. implementation of gender responsive policies and measures designed to improve access to ethnic minority women and girls to land, forest and water resources, and
4. a strategy to institutionalize such policies and measures through the Nam Ngum Basin Development Sector Project, which is the counterpart project for the TA.

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