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LuxDev, Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency

• 2015
• • 30 October
  • By Pietro Lombardini , Ruud Corsel
  • 
  • LAO/024
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  Laos – Young, poor and remote are no longer barriers to secondary school enrolment

  LAO/024 Khammouane Local Development Project (KHALODEP) successfully awarded scholarships to 26 selected students of the three project target districts: Boualapha, Mahaxay and Nakai in Khamouane province.

  These scholarships are intended to strengthen human potentials and career alternatives through secondary school enrolment support and technical and vocational training. They are specifically aimed at supporting marginalized households whilst ensuring equal access for boys and girls (gender mainstreaming). Indeed the scholarships focus on increasing and ensuring access, enrolment and retention to secondary schools in the target villages.

  ^{Pupil signs her enrolment for the scholarship}

  Although primary schools are operating in each village, or located at a distance affordable for parents to send their children to, this is not the case for secondary schools. Those are less widespread, often offering fewer classes, too far away or simply overcrowded. The attendance by girls and, in some cases, also boys is limited by the family needs in labour and lack of income to make ends meet.

  

  KHALODEP scholarships outreach was made possible through the dynamic collaboration between the project team and the provincial and district Departments of Education and Sports as well as the representative from Thakhek Vocational Training School. All the target districts lower and upper secondary schools were visited with a total of 581 applications received. After screening, which included visits to 114 households, 26 scholarships were granted to students (14 of whom were girls) who best matched the criteria related to poverty and ethnicity.

  In the process, two lessons were learned: i) to attract scholarships for vocational training and not only for secondary school education, a different promotion strategy has to be followed next year, and ii) to receive applications from households who currently can’t afford to send their children to secondary school at all, the promotion should not be channelled through the villages’ schools and the village authorities but through direct contact with these households.

  From 20 to 22 October 2015, in an official ceremony, the Vice-Governors of Mahaxay, Nakai and Boualapha have handed over the scholarship awards to the students and their parents.

  

  This activity will be replicated next year and hopefully more applications will be processed to offer disadvantaged youngsters a better outlook on receiving education and even a vocational oriented training.

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• • 28 October
  • By Raja Chowdry
  • 
  • Asia Office VIE/027
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  Vietnam – Hospital waste disposal goes green in remote areas of Cao Bang and Bac Kan

  Health facilities in the North replace smoke-spewing incinerators with eco-friendly autoclaves

  For the first time green methods of medical waste disposal are introduced at the district and commune levels in Vietnam. In June 2015, Luxembourg’s Project VIE/027 (Supporting Healthcare Policy for the Poor in Cao Bang and Bac Kan) installed autoclave technology in 6 district hospitals and 17 commune health centres in the impoverished, mountainous provinces of Cao Bang and Bac Kan. These health facilities are the primary care option for residents in the region, of which many are part of ethnic minority groups.

  

  In addition, the project set up a very cost efficient network, allowing these newly equipped health facilities to share their equipment with 91 other commune health centres in the region. Autoclave machines, which sanitize medical waste and enable health workers to safely transport the materials to a landfill or to recycle, replaced the older, out-dated method of using kilns and incinerators to burn waste. Some communities also buried waste materials - even hazardous ones - in surrounding caves and forests.

  

  For these reasons, project VIE/027 teamed up with the Viet Nam Health Environment Management Agency (VIHEMA) to train health staff on the importance of using eco-friendly practices to treat and dispose of medical waste. Cleanliness levels and hygiene awareness were found to be low or absent in the health facilities, and none of the six districts had a medical waste management program in place. Health staff attended pre-training workshops, where they were provided with educational materials including training books, lectures, posters and appropriate tests and governmental documents.   Next, staff attended training sessions that gave them the tools and knowledge to properly classify and sort medical waste by type (hazardous, sharps, etc.); to package, store and transport waste; and to utilize the technologies used to treat medical waste.

  

  Soon after these training sessions, the medical waste management program was implemented in all health facilities and supervised by the project from April to May 2015. Project managers met with a total of 575 health supervisors and employees during this phase, ensuring that they retained knowledge from the training sessions and had all the necessary materials to educate further staff members who could not attend the classes.

  

  Two types of autoclaves with 19-liter and 51-liter steam chambers were installed in the selected health facilities in June 2015. On-site training and commissioning was conducted in the facilities and a national dissemination meeting was held in August 2015 in Hanoi to discuss program extension opportunities throughout other provinces in Vietnam.

  

  Residents living near health facilities with incinerators noticed a drastic difference when the autoclaves were installed. Ha Quang District in Cao Bang Province in particular experienced some of the heaviest pollution caused by a malfunctioning incinerator. Dr. Nguyen Huy Nga, a professor and senior consultant for the Ministry of Health, said it was a common problem in the two provinces that “some incinerators were already old, obsolete or they created smoke with a bad smell.” Be Thi Bach, coordinator of the Cao Bang Project Management Unit within the district’s health department, said the use of autoclaves has made a tangible difference in the environment. She said, “In the past, for medical waste disposal, the district hospital would treat medical waste by incinerator directly, and this technology created a bad smell and pollution to the surrounding areas. With this new technology, we can avoid air and water pollution.”

  

   

  Going forward, project VIE/027 has identified other areas in which the health facilities could benefit, including the need for safety tools like aprons and protective glasses, as well as shredder machines to reduce the volume of waste that is being treated. Health facility managers also said they would like to take the green project one step further by recycling waste that has already been sanitized, including plastic and glass products.

   

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• • 19 October
  • By Rik Delnoije, CTA
  • 
  • Asia Office LAO/026
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  Laos - Turning capital into pro-poor results: building a convincing case for direct financing of village level entities

  Luxembourg Development Cooperation project LAO/026 Technical Assistance to the Soum Son Seun Jai (SSSJ) Programme in Sayabouly province commenced in early January 2013. This three-year Luxembourg co-financing project of 1.7 million EUR supports the provision of technical assistance (TA) to the 15 M USD SSSJ programme funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The project has entered its final year of implementation. During this last year some deliberate changes have been realized with regards to the project’s operational mode.

  The major change has been the reallocation of the project budget to support the introduction of innovative financing and implementation modalities into the Programme. This is achieved through the signing of Delegation Agreements for Funds and Implementation with community level entities. In this regard, a total of 25 Delegation Agreements were signed, financing nearly100 prioritized activities worth 300 000 EUR in total, wherein 200 000 EUR are being earmarked to support 15 Community Development Funds and another 100 000 EUR support activity plans of ten selected Agricultural Producer Groups. While the budget contracted to Community Development Funds merely finance village level infrastructure such as sanitation or school facilities, the Agricultural Producer Groups have allocated their investment partly towards productive activities like the purchase of agro-processing equipment.

  The signing of Delegation Agreements for Funds and Implementation with community level entities within project LAO/026 has triggered a tremendous burst of activities. Partnering communities enthusiastically started implementing community plans and collective investments ranging from building schools and sanitation facilities to processing of wild tea or collective pig-raising. The usually rather quiet villages are buzzing with activities; village meetings are held to discuss designs and budgets, labour is mobilized and local materials collected while construction of village infrastructure is on-going at a pace unknown and unseen before.

  Most agreements became effective in June 2015, and per end of October, four months on the road, half of the planned activities are under implementation and/or being finalized already. Consequently, of the 300 000 EUR worth of planned investments, the depletion rate accounts for 50%.

  Four months into implementation, the bare physical sight of villages has changed dramatically. with the appearance of sanitation facilities, running water, storage houses, flood protection works, which were all very much needed but never realized due to the lack of funds. Even more important, the spirit of villagers have taken a turn; villagers express confidence and satisfaction about their activities and the positive changes happening in their village; everybody is extremely proud to be the leading force behind all this action. In fact communities grabbed the offered opportunity with both hands and changed from passive receivers of development support to active shapers and owners of their village’s development. So far this has been a successful example of putting funds into action directly at village level whilst benefitting the most disadvantaged.

   

  

  _{Being in charge means that villagers are fully responsible for planning, calculating and administrating collective investments. Enabling this required substantial training input and on-the-job coaching by the project advisors.}

  

  _{The Village Development Committee of the ethnic Khamu village Hoyka in Pak Beng District received 13 350 EUR for the construction of sanitation, erosion control works and a village meeting hall. 8 weeks after having received the money the village has for the first time in its history complete coverage of sanitation facilities, while the erosion control works have last month prevented the otherwise yearly flooding of the village. The community-meeting hall is under construction. While the project has made available the financing for the external materials for the construction like cement, ceramic sanitation and roofing, villagers have contributed through their labour input and provision of local materials.}

  _{The Pig Producer Group in the ethnic Lanten village Paknamthong received 8 989 EUR for the purchase of a fodder mill and construction of housing for the mill and the construction of collective pigpens. The high labour input has been the main obstacle for scaling their pig fattening business. Through collective fattening, meaning the physical construction of collective pigpens and more importantly the development of a collective system of rotating labour input, group members are now able to expand their business substantially. While the project financed the materials for the construction of the pigpens and the purchase of the fodder mill, villagers have contributed equally through their labour input, provision of local materials and stocking the pens with piglets.}  

  

  _{Investment by the project: 3 000 EUR, additional investment by the village (material and labour) 2 600 EUR. Household level sanitation facilities were costed at 70 EUR per household.}

  “For the first time in the history of our village we now have access to running water and the best thing: we did it ourselves”: statement by the Head of Village Poutouy, Saysathan District – Sayabouly Province.

   

  ↑ To the top
• • 19 October
  • By Sisavanh Vongkatangnou, Community Development
  • 
  • LAO/024
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  Laos – Khammouane : Village Development Plans finalized in Mahaxay, Nakai and Boualapha

  In August, three meetings were held in the Administration Offices of Mahaxay District, Nakai and Boualapha Districts in order to finalize the Village Development Plans in close consultation with representatives of the target villages. The two-day meetings were chaired by the vice-governors of each district and representatives of the target villages presented 12 - 13 priority activities that were identified as the data collection and discussions among 50 – 80 villagers during the period of March – May 2015. Estimation of occurring financial inputs of each of these activities as estimated by the district technical offices were also presented in these meetings.

  Each village gave a short presentation, on which the district technical offices, KHALODEP staff and the districts’ vice-governors made their comments. Ensuing discussion focused on the proposed activities and their priority ranking with regard to feasibility of the works, KHALODEP’s policies, villagers’ perception and the districts’ need to coordinate the investment among villages, such as to consider providing a school to a group of two or three villages that are close to each other.

  

  After discussion, the village representatives have revised their priority ranking and keeping in mind that KHALODEP has an average of approximately 350 million LAK (39 000 EUR) available for infrastructure work for each village. And for the next five years, the project will also provide an average amount of 180 million LAK (20 000 EUR) under the Village Development Fund activity of the project that will be managed by the villagers themselves. Although the final proposed activities under the Village Development Fund will only be decided after intensive training to the villagers on funding procedures, the intended investment is also relevant for the prioritisation as it may be used for small community infrastructure, which subsequently will serve to increase income-generating activities.

  As the result of the meetings, KHALODEP now has a better understanding of the current conditions of the infrastructure in the target districts as well as their priorities to use the funds from the Government of Luxembourg. The final decision on the infrastructure works to be funded will be further subjected to feasibility studies and consultation with the villagers. The plan is to start with one construction per district in 2015. Training on Village Development Fund will be held in October and the project expects to sign the delegation agreements with the villagers in November – December this year.

  Those works that have not been given the highest priority for KHALODEP funding will be retained for consideration for funding under the 5-year Village Development Plan for inclusion into the updated districts’ socio-economic development plan 2016–2020. The completed Village Development Plans, co-signed by the head of the village and district’s governor, will soon be distributed by the District Planning Office to all relevant stakeholders, including other development partners.

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• • 1 October
  • By Alain Jaquemin
  • 
  • VIE/033
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  Vietnam - Dyke upgrade in Phu Loc District brings peace of mind to 1700 households

  Bau Duoc dyke has a direct impact on the agricultural production as well as transportation efficiency and safety for nearly 2 000 people in Loc An commune. Whereas the dyke functions as a protective levee against flooding of around 250 hectares of paddy field it also serves as a key means for farmers to transport their produce during the harvest season. The dyke will also take local populations from Chau Thanh village to the centre of the commune.

  

  Prior to the renovation, being a low-lying and vulnerable earthen embankment with small crest, the dyke would get severely damaged by floods every year. As such, it did not do much to protect people’s livelihoods, and making use of the dyke for transportation purposes would at times be cumbersome, and dangerous as well.

  

  With financial support of the Luxembourg Development Cooperation, Bau Duoc dyke was upgraded and put into operation in May 2015. The dyke base of 921m was enlarged and reinforced, the slopes of the embankment protected with concrete slabs, the surface macadamized and three drainage culverts were added to regulate water levels. Further, an access road of 450m was built to connect the dyke with other in-field roads as well as residential areas.

  “The new dyke is very effective and helpful for farmers as it now protects 250 hectares of two-crop rice fields cultivated by around 1 700 households from being inundated during the summer and early-year floods”, says Mr Hoang Thi, Vice-Director of Dai Thanh Agricultural Cooperative. “In addition, it helps local farmers save a lot of money, to the tune of 210 million Vietnam dong (over 8 000 EUR) every year, which they would otherwise have to spend on repairing the annual damage to the embankment. Farmers of the four Agricultural Cooperatives of Dai Thanh, Tien Loc, Hai Ha and Chau Thanh are currently using the dyke to visit their rice fields and transport their agricultural produce, as well as for other daily activities”. Mr Thi further stressed the important role the upgraded dyke plays for people’s safety, as “the dyke reduces the risk for 116 households in Chau Thanh village, who are no longer isolated and can be easily evacuated to a safety shelter in the commune centre during heavy floods or typhoons”.

  

  Many of the interviewed local farmers said that the newly upgraded dyke of Bau Duoc would have a positive impact on their production. Mr Nguyen Xuan Hoa, who owns 2 500m2 of paddy field and is a member of Dai Thanh Agricultural Cooperative says: “Since the dyke was put into service nearly three months ago, and due to the time we save on going back and forth to our fields, my family and I have been able to increase the time and frequency of visiting and tending to our fields. We strongly believe this will increase our rice production”.

  Mrs Nguyen Thi A’s son nearly died from drowning during last year’s floods. Herself a rice farmer, she stated “It is now very convenient and safe for us to go to the local market and for my children to go to school by themselves on the newly upgraded dyke road. It gives me more time to work on knitting fishing nets which earns us additional income for the family”. Besides safety and peace of mind for her family, she mentions a social benefit that came with the new dyke: “Previously, I was unable to attend the evening events organised in the commune centre because of the dangerous road after sunset. Things have changed now and I can safely attend community and Women’s Union meetings”.

  The upgraded Bau Duoc dyke has significant direct economic and social benefits for farmers and residents alike. It not only contributes to higher yields, but also protects families and their livelihoods from the increasing frequency and severity of climate change impacts.

  Construction or upgrading of dyke roads is one of many types of infrastructure interventions under project VIE/033. Six such dyke roads were built in the project’s three target districts over the last 18 months, to the benefit of more than 2 800 households (ca. 14 000 people) and for the protection of 549 hectares of agricultural land.

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• • 11 May
  • By Alice Risch
  • 
  • LAO/020
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  Laos : LANITH Passport to Success

  “Passport to Success” is an innovative training product developed by Lanith, the Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, to upscale the existing workforce in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Laos.

  So far there are 1500 Passport holders and more than 3000 statements of attainment have been awarded, i.e. over 3000 modules have been passed with success.

  Peter Semone, Chief Technical Advisor at Lanith, explains how Passport to Success works.

  

  Video

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• • 10 February
  • By Peter Kurt Hansen
  • 
  • LAO/021
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  Laos - Donor coordination and mobilization meeting held in Bolikhamxay

  Strengthening aid effectiveness at local level

  A donor coordination and mobilization meeting was held on 13 December 2014 in Bolikhamxay Province, which is one of the target provinces of the Lao-Luxembourg Cooperation Programme in Central Laos. The purpose was to help strengthen the use of international development assistance in the Province and to help attract more support to focus work areas. The Provincial Planning and Investment Department, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), as well as the Provincial Administration Office jointly organized this meeting. The 80 participants comprised the governors of all seven Districts, directors of the provincial line agencies, representatives of four ministries as well as Lao and international staff of 12 donor agencies and international non-governmental organisations (INGO). The Bolikhamxay Livelihood Improvement and Governance Programme (LAO/021) supported the event financially and technically.  

  

  The meeting was held in the context of the Round Table Meeting format and was thus facilitated by the MPI. The Vice-minister of MPI, Dr. Kikeo Chanthaboury, co-chaired the meeting, during which he expressed his strong support to the intentions of the event, including the need for the best possible use of donor assistance. 

  Brief presentations were made on the progress of the Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP), the scope of the next five-year plan, the international development cooperation in the province, the decentralization policy, and on the operationalization of the Vientiane Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The ensuing discussions identified practical ways on how the province and districts may improve the coordination of external assistance, the facilitation of development partners, and the mobilization of more assistance to the Province. Central to these efforts would be greater compliance with existing information systems, increased communication across sectors, and greater accountability towards agreed results and principles. On the donor side, further alignment and harmonization would be possible. The discussion also showed the need for improved coordination between national and local level, for instance regarding fund allocation to the provinces from national programmes, which is not always possible to predict and coordinate with other support, owing largely to communication issues. The attendees agreed to the need for improvements in these areas, for which purpose the Vice-governor, Dr. Souvannny Xaysana, encouraged the line agencies, district governors and other decision makers to work towards a concerted effort for a successful end to the 2011-15 five-year SEDP and a strong start to the next plan period. 

  

  The event was one of the first provincial donor and project coordination meetings held in Laos. Lao and international participants expressed their appreciation of the value of the meeting, but also of the need for practical follow-up. The LAO/021 programme will continue to support this, including further back-up to information systems, sector-specific meetings, and capacity development in official donor aid and INGO facilitation. The project director, Mr Bounthan Vongsana, will coordinate this work locally on behalf of the provincial authorities, and mobilize technical and strategic backstopping from the MPI. In this manner, development cooperation in the province and districts stand a better chance for qualitative and quantitative improvements by the time the next five-year SEDP starts in October 2015.

   

   

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• 2014
• • 20 November
  • By Ronny Thill, International Training Expert
  • 
  • Asia Office VIE/031
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  Vietnam - Da Nang Hospitality College receives state-of-the-art equipment

  On 8 October 2014, the Da Nang Vocational Tourism College (DVTC) received a new practice kitchen through the support of the Luxembourg government and the technical assistance of project VIE/031 (Strengthening of human resources in the hospitality and tourism sector in Vietnam). The newly installed kitchen will enable the tourism college, as one of nine national tourism schools, to offer a variety of Pastry -, Bakery - and Asian and Western Cuisine Banqueting courses to the delight of it's students and the whole tourism industry of Da Nang.

  

  Being the third largest city in Vietnam, Da Nang has a growing tourism industry with many five-star hotels and resorts located at one of the most beautiful beaches of the country. Five years ago, the college started in Pasteur Street in the centre of Da Nang with a very small building and meagrely equipped practice rooms. However, over time the local authorities recognised the importance of upgrading the training facilities to provide a better tourism and catering training venue for young students in the city. The college has now moved to a brand new campus next to the marble mountains on the main touristic road from Da Nang to Hoi An.

  With the support from Luxembourg, the college is now on its way to become a national reference point, especially for culinary and cookery capacity development for professional staff such as Kitchen and Pastry Chefs, but also for ancillary skills and services such as Waiter, Housekeeping and Front & Back Office. 

  

  Complementing the installation of the kitchens, Project VIE/031 organised also a series of hygiene courses for the teachers to use the new equipment correctly and to develop an hygiene plan in line with the international rules for food safety in hospitality to be followed by all Food & Beverage staff. 

  In the next few months, the project will provide even more support to the college with the establishment of a practical training room for bartending as well as a practice restaurant for students.

  

  ↑ To the top
• • 7 November
  • By Sharan Doowa / Teacher Trainer
  • 
  • Asia Office LAO/023
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  Laos - Law students ready to compete in Moot court competitions

  The Faculty of Law and Political Science of the National University of Laos in Vientiane is holding the National Court Competition in International Humanitarian Law in November 2014.

  A Moot court is an educational activity wherein students take part in simulated court proceedings. Students write briefs and make oral arguments. For the second time now such an event was staged at the Faculty, which recently started a Moot Court Group. It is also one out of thirteen student educational activity groups created to provide venues for more practical skills training for law students.

  Promoting the creation of Student Educational Activities Groups (SEAG) is a brainchild of project LAO/023: Strengthening the Rule of Law Through Legal University Education, at the National University of Laos. SEAG has the full support of the Faculty, which has received praise from the University and recognition from various communities based on the activities of these student groups. 

  

  Two students from the Faculty, Mr. Yee Chang Chongseng and Mr. Khemphet Phonphakdy, make up one of the four teams from the Faculty taking part in this year’s competition. Yee Chang is 22 years old, from Xieng Khouang Province in the north. He is a member of the H’mong minority population of Laos and is also the head of the Moot Court Group. He is in his third year at the International Relations Department and is supported by an Australian scholarship, which provides him with a 50 USD monthly stipend. He observed: “Most of the Moot Court Group members are H’mong and all of us want to become lawyers. Already we feel we have become better students. We ask more questions and we read a lot more. International Humanitarian Law is useful for all.”

  Khamphet, also 22 years old, is from Salavanh Province in Southern Laos and a member of the majority Lao Loum population. He is a third-year student in the Criminal Law Department, has studied French, and works evenings as a hotel receptionist. He had this to say about the Moot Court Group: “Many people from my province end up working in neighbouring Thailand. Human trafficking is an issue and so is the lack of legal awareness. I joined the Moot Court Group because I want to be a lawyer. I want to work with people who get into trouble with the law and have no access to the justice system.”

  

  Only a few years ago the idea of Lao law students participating in a Moot court competition, in English, would have been far-fetched. However, in March 2014, three students selected from the Faculty participated in the 12th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot in Hong Kong. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) supported the event and also organizes annual seminars in International Humanitarian Law for students and faculty members in conjunction with the Faculty. This year’s winners of the National Moot Court Competition will compete in an international Moot in 2015 (sponsored by ICRC).

   

   

  ↑ To the top
• • 4 June
  • By Hans Bissdorf, Hang Nguyen, Estelle Lyon Chaudron
  • 
  • Asia Office VIE/028
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  Vietnam: Dealing with violence against women in Nghe An province

  Violence against women is a persistent and prevalent problem in Vietnam and the rates of domestic violence and abuse have reached epidemic proportions as stated by the Vietnam National Study on Domestic Violence in 2010. Indeed this study revealed that almost two thirds of married women experienced at least one type of domestic violence at some point in their lives.

  Project VIE/028 – “Western Nghe An Rural Development Project”, which targets the poorest communities in three districts of Nghe An (Con Cuong, Tuong Duong and Ky Son), has been raising awareness among the staff of the project, governmental partners, stakeholders and especially villagers on issues related to gender equity.

  

  Since 2011, trainings on gender, workshops and study tours have been organised in several communes of the project area. A wide range of educational tools such as games, scripts, stories, pictures and short-films on gender intend to improve people’s awareness. The gender training not only concentrated on issues related to domestic violence but also focused on women’s participation in decision making, leadership, their participation in project activities, etc.

  The trainings highlighted that women in most cases were not even aware of their own rights and so it’s not surprising that also their husbands were not aware of the fact that women had any. Only after a gender analysis regarding the distribution of labour in the family, husbands and wives realised that women carry a greater workload than men, and that changes should be made. Moreover the local authorities have often no idea what kind of activities and support they could offer to address inequality.

  In 2013, the project widened the scope of gender awareness by including new communes and adding more local departments and units to the trainings. Training of trainer’s sessions were held among the Police Force, Women’s Union, Farmer’s Union, Youth Union, culture centres, schoolteachers and key persons of the communes. Training topics looked at concepts related to gender, gender equity, gender equality law and gender integration in the project activities. These included agriculture, income generation, environment and climate change, infrastructure and laws on domestic violence. Those who were trained in turn provided trainings on gender issues to their colleagues to ensure wide dissemination of the subject at hand. Hence, the activity was able to reach more than a thousand persons.

  Furthermore, to create more impact on gender awareness, the project supported the organisation of a campaign on gender equality and domestic violence across several communes in the three targeted districts. The motorcade included busses, cars and hundreds of motorcycles and during the trip other cars and motorcycles joined the parade. People’s Committees of the participating districts and communes, police and different departments and units supported the motorcade. In addition, messages were transmitted on mass media such as radio and television stations. During the parade, messages through loudspeakers were disseminated by the district radios. About 4 000 leaflets on gender equality and prevention of domestic violence were distributed to the people along the road. A multitude of people spontaneously joined the parade in their respective communes and some villagers explained that they had never seen such a campaign.

  

  As an immediate result of the campaign, the district police requested support from the project to help their local officers to be trained on gender issues, so that they would be able to address domestic disputes more adequately. Also, the project was asked to repeat the campaign in 2014.

  Through these various awareness-raising activities, women gathered more self-esteem and became more confident about their roles and rights. It has been noticed that women now increasingly use their mobile phones to complain to local authorities, especially if they feel, that they were not properly consulted or heard in a decision making process.

   

  Estelle Lyon Chaudron

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