“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.
In Kosovo, a high priority is conferred to skills development. In that perspective, professional practice forms an integral as well as essential part of the curricula in Ferizaj. So far, formal agreements and informal arrangements between the Centre of Competence (CoC) and over a dozen partners, twelve companies and two public hospitals, were concluded in order to strengthen technical skills among students. Restraining from a disadvantageous balance that would put too much emphasis on theoretical knowledge, the CoC wishes to hone capabilities of coping with practical issues because this will ease the transition of students towards employment at a later stage.
All eight health care profiles are covered by practical training: assistant of audiometry, pharmacy technician, assistant of orthopaedics, orthotics & prosthetics technician, community health care assistant, ophthalmic laboratory technician / optician, food safety and nutrition assistant and dental technician. It is actually foreseen to annually increase the time spent by students on professional training. Thus, hours in professional environments will increase from 20 % in grade 10 to 40 % in grade 11, and 50 % in grade 12. It should also be noted that in the CoC workshops, state-of-the-art furniture and equipment are at the disposal of the enrolled students, further enhancing their practical learning conditions.
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.
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).
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La coopération luxembourgeoise appuie la création du Département d’Assainissement de l’Agence Nationale de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement (ANAS) pour la mise en œuvre d’une vaste campagne nationale pour garantir à chaque famille du Cap-Vert, et en particulier, les plus vulnérables, l’accès à un dispositif d’assainissement durable et de qualité.
Le 16 Juillet 2014, le premier Ministre du Cap-Vert, José Maria Neves, a officiellement lancé cette campagne intitulée « PromoSan – no campo e na cidade, saneamento e prioridade », tout en inaugurant les nouvelles installations de l’école de Cutelo Branco, dans la municipalité de Sao Domingos qui abrite actuellement l’expérience-pilote qui sera ensuite capitalisée et étendue aux îles de Fogo, Brava et Santiago.
Le premier Ministre a souligné lors de son discours, d’une part, l’importance des innovations technologiques – les « modules éco-sanitaires » - développée par l’ANAS avec l’appui de LuxDev, d’autre part, le rôle central de l’enfant et de l’école comme vecteurs de transformation sociale et de changement de comportements, et enfin a conclu en affirmant la nécessité de construire des partenariats entre le niveau central et les Municipalités, condition de réussite de cette campagne qui aura immanquablement pour résultat une augmentation du bien-être de la population du Cap-Vert.
L’innovation technologique du module éco-sanitaire (avec ou sans accès à l’eau), tout comme la stratégie d’éducation communautaire basée sur la dynamiques École – Milieu, ont été développées de façon participative et institutionnelle, au niveau national à travers des groupes thématiques de la coordination sectorielle du MAHOT (ANAS), lors de l’exercice de planification nationale, puis au fil de séminaires municipaux.
L’expérience pilote de Sao Domingos sera conclue fin 2014, et permettra de lancer un chantier majeur sur douze municipalités réparties sur trois îles, Brava, Fogo et Santiago où se trouve concentré l’essentiel des besoins du Pays.
↑ Haut de la pageLes gouvernements de la République du Sénégal et du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ont tenus la 10ème session de la Commission de Partenariat le lundi 02 juin 2014, à Dakar en présence des représentants des ministères sectoriels, des partenaires techniques et financiers, des agences du système des Nations-Unies, de la société civile et de la presse nationale.
Cette Commission de Partenariat constitue l’instance politique de la Coopération entre les deux pays. Elle a été coprésidée, pour la partie sénégalaise, par Monsieur Amadou BA, Ministre de l'Economie et des Finances, et pour la partie luxembourgeoise, par Monsieur Romain SCHNEIDER, Ministre de la Coopération et de l’Action humanitaire et a permis de faire le point sur les relations de coopération entre le Sénégal et le Luxembourg.
Réussir ensemble l’Exécution nationale
La réunion a débuté par les allocutions des deux ministres et qui ont tous deux salué et magnifié la qualité des relations de coopérations entre les deux pays partenaires.
Dans leurs propos, les ministres ont mis l’accent sur le caractère innovant du troisième Programme indicatif de Coopération (PIC III). Pour M. Schneider, « la véritable nouveauté est le choix de l’exécution nationale (…). Cette modalité, qui représente une innovation tant pour la Coopération luxembourgeoise que pour le Sénégal, facilitera la délégation graduelle de la gestion de l’aide vers la partie nationale afin d’en garantir une mise en œuvre plus fluide et plus durable ».
M. Bâ a, quant à lui, invité ses services « à déployer tous les efforts nécessaires à l’opérationnalisation du dispositif de l’exécution nationale » avant d’en appeler « à la mobilisation de tous les acteurs pour réussir cette innovation majeure dans l’utilisation des procédures nationales et qui pourrait être répliquée, en cas de succès, avec d’autres partenaires au développement s’intéressant à l’appui budgétaire sans fongibilité des ressources ».
Le Coordonnateur général du PIC III, M. Mamour Ousmane BA, ainsi que les coordonnateurs nationaux des programmes sectoriels ont, tour à tour, présentés l’état d’avancement ainsi que les perspectives de la Coopération Sénégal-Luxembourg.
Le Président de la République reçoit la délégation luxembourgeoise
La Commission de Partenariat a également permis de procéder à la signature des avenants aux protocoles d’accord du PIC III et à la remise officielle d’une trentaine de véhicules acquis au démarrage du Programme.
La réunion a été illustrée par une exposition de photos dont l’objectif était de valoriser les activités du Programme tout en incitant au changement de comportement par des messages de sensibilisation.
En marge de la Commission de Partenariat, Mme Martine SCHOMMER, en sa qualité d’Ambassadeur du Luxembourg au Sénégal, a présenté ses lettres de créances au Président de la République, M. Macky SALL qui a également reçu en audience M. Romain SCHNEIDER.
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
↑ Haut de la pagePour les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest, le changement climatique ne constitue pas seulement un problème d’environnement, mais doit être considéré en termes d’enjeux de développement durable.
C’est dans cette optique qu’une session de formation a été organisée par le Ministère de l’Environnement et du Développement durable, avec l’appui entre du Comité permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS) et du Programme Sénégal-Luxembourg. Elle s’est déroulée du 20 au 23 mai 2014 à Dakar sur le thème : « L’intégration de l’environnement et des changements climatiques dans les processus de planification, budgétisation et de suivi-évaluation au Sénégal ». La formation a été animée par les experts en changement climatique du CILSS venus du Burkina Faso et du Niger, l’expert en environnement venue du siège de LuxDev, le représentant de la Direction du budget au niveau du MEF, et par la conseillère en changement climatique du PNUD.
Ouverture officielle par le Ministre de l’Environnement
M. Mor NGOM, Ministre de l’environnement et du Développement durable (MEDD), en présence de M. Olivier HECQUET Représentant régional de LuxDev et de Mme Maty BA DIAO Représentante du Secrétariat exécutif du CILSS, a procédé à l’ouverture officielle des travaux en ayant, au préalable, salué le bel exemple de synergies entre partenaires techniques concrétisé par cette formation. Dans son allocution le Ministre a remercié la coopération Sénégal-Luxembourg et le CILSS et a abordé les conclusions du 5ème rapport du Groupe d'experts intergouvernemental sur l'évolution du climat (GIEC) relatifs aux réchauffements attendus et leurs conséquences néfastes sur les systèmes naturels et humains. Il a en outre exhorté les partenaires à renforcer leurs appuis techniques, financiers, institutionnels pour une meilleure appropriation de l’environnement et des changements climatiques par les politiques de développement national en Afrique.
M. Hecquet a, à son tour, souligné l’importance de cet événement pour la coopération luxembourgeoise dans sa volonté d’encourager les ministères partenaires à être davantage sensibles à la dimension « environnement ».
Pédagogie et participation
Destinée aux principaux cadres responsables de la planification, de la gestion et du suivi-évaluation des Ministères supports et des Ministères techniques, aux élus et à la société civile, cette session de formation a enregistré la présence de 60 participants. Sept modules de formation présentant les étapes successives de l’intégration du changement climatique dans la planification, la budgétisation et le suivi-évaluation ont été dispensés avec pédagogie par des formateurs rompus à la tâche.
Chaque module était composé de volets théoriques et pratiques. Les participants ont pu, à travers les différents exercices de groupe, partagés leur expertise et leurs expériences. Des échanges forts intéressants et riches ont caractérisé ces rencontres.
Des ambassadeurs de l’environnement diplômés !
Les participants ont reçus, au terme des quatre jours de formation, la documentation de l’atelier (sur une clé USB) et une attestation de participation signée par le Ministre de l’Environnement et du Développement durable.
Pour finir, une feuille de route ayant comme objectif la mise en œuvre des prochaines étapes a été élaborée puisque cet atelier de formation constitue la première étape d’une démarche plus générale, initiée par le Ministère de l’Environnement et du Développement durable de la République du Sénégal et qui aura pour objectif final l’élaboration d’un plan national d’adaptation aux changements climatiques.
Dans les secteurs de la santé, de l’hydraulique et de l’assainissement, de l’aménagement du territoire et de la décentralisation, un partenariat sera conduit avec le Programme Sénégal-Luxembourg.
Comme message de clôture, le Directeur de Cabinet du MEDD a invité les participants à être « les meilleurs ambassadeurs de l’environnement dans leurs différents ministères ».
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For 14 years now Luxembourg has been cooperating with Nghe An Province in Vietnam. The most western and mountainous districts of Con Cuong, Tuong Duong and Ky Son, the latter bordering with Laos, have been at the centre of this rural development programme.
Throughout the years, Luxembourg development cooperation supported local authorities in building small and medium infrastructure (wells, weirs, biogas digesters, water supply, electricity supply, community houses, rural roads, bridges and irrigation schemes) hereby focusing on building agricultural development services’ capacity in order to deliver appropriate services to rural households to fully benefit from the adoption of appropriate and diversified sustainable agricultural practices.
Due to the geological characteristics of these mountainous districts, soil erosion remains a big problem in the project area. The current project (VIE/028) re-introduced Sloping Agriculture Land Technology (SALT) to minimise erosion effects on the arable land. The SALT approach was invented in the Philippines where about 70% of the total land area is characterised by sloping. SALT mainly consists of using leguminous trees to improve the fertility and stability of agricultural soils. It’s a simple low-cost method for upland farming, which was especially developed for small farmers with few tools, little capital and little knowledge of modern agriculture.
Since the first SALT model was mainly developed for soil conservation and fertility improvement, new models were developed with the integration of livestock, fruit trees and the forest. These improved models allowed the farmers to significantly increase their household income by diversifying their crops. In 2013, the VIE/028 project in partnership with the Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute implemented a new SALT model called Sustainable Agricultural Land Technology. One-hectare demonstration plots were established in all three districts. The new SALT establishes contour lines by planting fodder grasses and legumes along the hedgerows for livestock. The contouring of slopes also addresses the erosion problem.
The beneficiaries were introduced to SALT techniques such as: seed selection, crop rotation, land preparation methods and intercropping techniques to improve soil fertility, among others. They were provided with seeds and plant protection inputs for different crop varieties (like maize and black beans). After 3-4 months of implementation, the yields increased: maize was about 6 tons/ha, groundnut 1,6 tons/ha, cassava 25-28 tons/ha and upland rice, banana and beans also produced significantly higher outcomes.
To conclude, SALT models have enabled local farmers not only to access adapted and sustainable farming systems, but also new intercropping techniques with short-term cash crops. These interventions will also help to reduce the rate of deforestation together with slash and burn practices but most importantly, it create a surplus to the household incomes of the vulnerable populations (mostly ethnic minorities) in Western Nghe An.
↑ Haut de la pageWith the technical expertise of Project LAO/023 ”Strengthening the Rule of Law through Legal University Education” and the Faculty and funding from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, four hundred students at the Faculty of Law and Political Science will now benefit from new dormitories. Two main buildings plus separate cooking and laundry facilities have been constructed in order to replace the old dilapidated dormitories. The dormitories are located about 150 meters from the Faculty campus in Ban Donnokhoum (Vientiane) and will cater mainly to poorer students coming from provinces outside Vientiane. The facilities have been designed to minimize running costs and maintenance needs whilst respecting the environment. The buildings are furnished to make the area functional and attractive both for studying and socialising.
This four-year project focuses on improving the quality of the education provided by the Faculty through capacity building among staff and students, while at the same time improving its facilities. Currently more than 20 Faculty members are studying for Masters and PhD’s with support from the project. These staff are also in charge of producing learning materials, improve teaching methodology, improving English language proficiency, promote research, and empower students to take on more responsibility for their own learning and their community through the formation of student clubs.
Besides the new dormitories most classrooms at the Faculty have been renovated and a new “Learning Building” to host the Faculty library and facilities for independent learning of English language and IT as well as meeting rooms will open soon. Ribbons to the new dormitories were cut by the President of National University of Laos Prof Soukkongseng Saignaleuth and Mr Claude Jentgen, Chargé d'affaires, Luxembourg Embassy with Faculty staff and students in attendance at a ceremony that was held in conjunction with a Steering Committee meeting to review project progress. Parties agreed that the project has been very successful in addressing many needs but that the Faculty is still in need of future support especially in order to strengthen operating systems and procedures.
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