Organisational Baseline Study: Overview report for Ekxang CSV, La PDR (LA01)

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic ten-year partnership between the CGIAR and Future Earth to help thedeveloping world overcome the threats posed by a changing climate, to achieve food security, improve agriculture and livelihoods. In 2014, CCAFS South East Asia began indentifying and implementing Climate Smart Villages (CSVs). Six CSVs were selected in three countries: Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR. The objectives of the CSV is to increase the adaptive capacity of small-holder famers in light of climate change effects, improve livelihoods by sustainably increasing productivity and resilience, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), and enhance national food security and development goals. This report highlights the results obtained from the organizational baseline study (OBS) which was conducted in the Ekxang CSV located in Phonhong District, Vientiane Province, Lao PDR, in accordance with CCAFS guidelines. The OBS will supplement the quantitative household baseline surveys and the qualitative village baseline studies also being carried out by the Lao CSV Team in Ekxang. The household and village baselines provide information on the recipient-side of services and information. Without considering the external organisations that provide services/information to communities, the picture of current conditions remains incomplete. The main objectives of the OBS are: Understand the current status of provision of information and services at the local level that informs farmers’ decision making and livelihood strategies in response to climate change. Gain an in depth knowledge of the current projects, long term goals and strengths of the organizations highly valued and respected by the community members. Identify organizations for CCAFS to engage and partner with in future interventions. Provide indicators to allow CCAFS to monitor changes in behaviours and practices of relevant local organizations over time. To gather necessary information, we interviewed organizations working in the community whose activities included: natural resources management, environment and climate change, community development, empowering civil society, agricultural production and agricultural product processing

To till or not to till ? The diffusion of conservation agriculture in Xieng Khouang province, Lao PDR Opportunities and constraints

Over the past decade, efforts have been made to promote conservation agriculture as an ecologically sound alternative to tillage-based agriculture in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR). This paper assesses some of the outcomes of a five-year research project aimed at developing sustainable no-till cropping and pasture systems and promoting their adoption by smallholders in Xieng Khouang province. Based on extensive household surveys in 20 villages, it highlights key environmental and socioeconomic factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of conservation agriculture. Finally, it provides policy recommendations to facilitate agricultural innovation and provide greater incentives for farmers to shift towards more sustainable farming practices

Género y toma de decisiones en el hogar en pueblos rurales de Laos : implicancias para los medios de vida en desarrollo hidroeléctrico

Hydropower development with concomitant changes in water and land regimes often results in livelihood transformation of affected people, entailing changes in intra-household decision-making upon which livelihood strategies are based. Economic factors underlying gender dimensions of household decision-making have been studied rigorously since the 1970s. However, empirical data on gender and decision-making within households, needed for evidence-based action, remain scarce. This is more so in hydropower contexts. This article explores gender and livelihood-related decision-making within rural households in the context of hydropower development in Lao PDR. Based on a social well-being conceptual approach with data from a household survey and qualitative interviews, it focuses on household decisions in an ethnic minority resettlement site soon after displacement, from an interpretive perspective. The article, first, aims to assess the extent to which household decision-making is gendered and secondly, to understand the complex reasoning behind household decisions, especially the relevance of material, relational, and subjective factors. It argues that while most household decisions are ostensibly considered as ‘joint’ in the study site, the nuanced nature of gendered values, norms, practices, relations, attitudes, and feelings underlying these decisions are important to assessing why households might or might not adopt livelihood interventions proposed by hydropower developers.</p