National Rural Employment Strategy in Lao People's Democratic Republic towards increasing opportunities for decent and productive employment in rural areas

At the request of the Government of Lao People's Democratic Republic, and aligning with the United Nations Partnership Framework (UNPF) for Lao People's Democratic Republic (2017-21) and the ILO Decent Work Country Programme for Lao People's Democratic Republic (2017-21), the ILO has been working to develop an approach to reducing poverty through promoting employment in the rural areas.

Project objectives

The project aims to increase decent employment opportunities in rural areas of Lao PDR through the development and implementation of a national Rural Employment Strategy. This strategy will be designed through a highly participatory process at all levels and draw from the lessons learnt during the implementation of an integrated approach to rural skills development in two selected provinces of Lao PDR, namely Sekong and Savannakhet.

Project outcomes

At the village level

  • Supporting selected value chains involving products with both food security and economic potential including support to market links, community and farmers groups, providers of business development support and agricultural technical extension services.
  • Improving community access and productive assets in the selected villages through community contracting using local resource-based approaches and employment-intensive methods.
  • Organizing rural skills training and entrepreneurship development based on local economic opportunities mainstreaming gender, green jobs and occupational safety and health.

At the provincial/district level

  • Strengthening institutional capacities and governance of local authorities towards support to rural employment and poverty reduction by involving local authorities in all aspects of work through the establishment of local partnerships and joint work.

At the national level

  • Enhancing capacity of national partners on employment creation strategies in rural areas by involving them in economic and social interventions conducive to rural employment creation.
  • Supporting policy planning and programme development for rural employment at the national level through a review of implementation experience in the pilot provinces, with a view of identifying lessons learned as well as tools and approaches that contribute to a national rural employment strategy.

For further information please contact:

Mr Martin Gasser
Technical Advisor & Project Manager
ILO Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic
4th Floor, Room 401, Alounmai Tower, Ban Nongbone 23, Singha Road
Saysettha District, Vientiane
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Tel.: +856 21 454 415
Email