Transcript Social Protection and Climate Resilience

Presentation to the 20th PEP Meeting, The
Hub, Edinburgh, Scotland. 26th -29th May 2015
Session 5. Poverty, Social Protection and
Resilience
Social Protection and Climate Resilience:
Laos Perspective and Experiences
27 May 2015
By Mr. Chanthaviphone INTHAVONG, Deputy DG of Department for
Management of Disaster and Climate Change,
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, LAOS.
Poverty Reduction and Climate
Resilience
• Introduction of key Characteristics of poverty
in Laos and existing Rural Social Protection
System;
• CC impacts on SP Policy responses
• Policy coherence between SP & CR investment
• Best-bet opportunities to achieving policy
coherence
• What is the challenges (gaps in knowledge &
capacity)
Key Characteristics of Lao Rural Society
• Laos is a rural country with relatively low population density;
• Villages are self-contained and range from around 20 to over 200
households,
• More than three quarters of the total population lives in rural areas
and depends on agriculture and natural resources for survival.
• There is no rigid class distinctions and most village society is based
on household and extended kin groups.
• Rice is the staple food for all Laotians, and most families and
villages are able to produce enough or nearly enough each year for
their own consumption.
• Thanks to limited infrastructure and effective transportation
networks , many villages are relative independence and
autonomous except lowland villages as roads have improved and
marketing networks expanded;
Poverty in Laos
• Despite statistics indicating that Laos is one of the poorest
counties in the world, famine and serious epidemics have
been absent, urban slums have not existed, and debt
bondage has been unknown.
• More than one quarter of the population (24%) lives under
the national poverty line. and they are particularly
concentrated in the rural marginal land areas.
• Poverty and extreme poverty are most common in remote
mountainous regions, where the majority of the country's
ethnic minority peoples live. In upland areas, the poverty
rate is as high as 43 per cent, compared with about 28 per
cent in the lowlands. And the poorest groups in the
lowlands are those who have been resettled from
mountain regions.
Poverty in Laos (cont.)
• Poor rural people‘s depend on agriculture and wild (forest and wetland)
lands gathering for food and income (NR contribute 20 to 60%), but
agricultural conditions are often unfavorable and productivity is low and
unregulated exploitation of important natural resources causes serious
environmental damage and ultimately exacerbates poverty.
• In general, the most disadvantaged households are located in areas (hills
and flood plain) that are vulnerable to natural disasters; have no livestock;
include a large number of dependents; and are headed by women.
• Chronic marginal food production and lack of access to or inability to
afford medical care and education remain pervasive problems,
• Despite steady economic growth over the last 15 years, Lao PDR continues
to have very high chronic malnutrition rates: nearly every second child
under the age of 5 in Lao PDR is chronically malnourished and every fifth
rural child is severely stunted.
Existing Rural Social Protection System
• Because the rural economy was not effectively
monetized, households usually countered
seasonal crop shortages by increasing their
gathering activities and relying on wild tubers and
other foods as insurance crops;
• Most villages have customs regarding the
provision of rice loans-- sometimes interest-free-to families experiencing a bad year.
• But this system has now constraint to response to
new demand due to scale and frequency of
occurred disasters and change of social context.
Climate Change and Poverty in Laos
• Climate change causes several disasters
occurred and impact to venerable communities
• Increasing frequency and tendency of
disasters: Flood Drought , Landslide, typhoons
(e.g. Ketsana, etc.)
• E.g. Annual flooding in 2013, about 224,200 ppl
(32,356 HHs) in five southern provinces
affected, 280 families evacuated, 1,466 house
damage/destroyed, schools, hospital, 23,772 ha
of rice damaged/destroyed
CC impacts on SP Policy responses
• CC& DRR has now been explicitly mentioned in the national
socioeconomic development ie., Climate Resilience Development
• Reemphasis the important of using River Basin and WS as unit of
NRM/Regional Development
• The entire continuum of DRM has been now included as national
and local strategy for DRM instead of focusing on DRR activities
only as in the past;
• Reemphasis the important of resources planning, allocation and
tenure registration of NRM.
• Application of EIA tool to not only to private sector project but also
to public investment projects including the consideration of
introducing Strategic Environment Impact Assessment (SEIA).
CC impacts on SP Policy responses
(cont.)
• Increase coordination efforts among development sectors
and actors and the introduction of PPP principle;
• Introduction/emphasis on green growth economy and
inclusive development;
• Need to revise/improve education programme to include
local and new knowledge for sustainable livelihood
development.
• Re-Emphasis on local community empowerment for NRM
• Exploring tax incentives and/or alternative financial support
mechanism (eg., insurance) to DRR.
• Exploring ways for revising and improving wealth
redistribution to the rural marginal upland communities (eg
consideration of the use of PES.
Policy coherence between SP & CR
investment
• Use of national LUMP as a tool for coordination
• Use of infrastructure and mining development projects
and Private investment in NRM & Ag projects as
vehicles for local/regional/rural development and
poverty alleviation
• CC & DRM has now become an important theme for
development coordination with the establishment of
SSWG among others in the RTM process.
• Introduction/Planned introduction of national reserve
fund (priority for DRM) and DRM financing mechanism
eg DR insurance;
• Planned introduction of DRM legislation system
Best-bet opportunities to achieving
policy coherence
• Reaffirm the need of decentralization of NRM
• Promote of the Use of improved Landscape Approach
for policy advocacy in local and regional/WSM
planning;
• Use of RTM process as a tool for coordination of
external/internal support resources/efforts;
• Mainstreaming of CC & DRM into
national/local/sectoral development programmes;
• Consideration of the introduction of PES based on pro
grassroots community’s benefits sharing system;
What is the challenges (gaps in
knowledge & capacity)
• Although most sector se the important of mainstreaming climate
change and disaster risk reduction, SEIA, into sector polices,
implementation and enforcement remain a challenge. (due to
limited financial and human resources ( thanks to celling of Public
staffs);
• Information and capacity to use of scientific tools such as improved
Landscape Approach for policy advocacy in local and regional/WSM
planning;
• Development of Community based Village Disaster Management
Plans and early warning system;
• Exploring ways for revising and improving wealth redistribution to
the rural marginal upland communities (eg consideration of the use
of PES and DR insurance.
• Increase the national capacity (particularly in private sector) to
access to Climate Fund;
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
FOR YOUR ATTENTION