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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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