Lesson Learned That Government Should Not Ignore

To keep the right track, one of other ways is looking back what we have done, what lesson learned we got, etc. Similarly, to develop the country further, what the government should pay attention to is lesson learned from the past.

What do I mean Lesson learned from the past? Lesson learned from the past here is what mentioned in the MDG progress report 2008 and the 6th NSEDP. What does it say and what does it recommend? So I won't go through the whole documents. But I will bring some remarks to point out what it said and recommended.

First of all, looking at the MDG progress report 2008. In fact, poverty of Laos declined from 46% in 1992 to 26.8% in 2008 due to economic growth. But the decline of malnutrition rate is slow causing a major concern. Most importantly, there is still high prevalence of malnutrition, around 40% of children under 5 years old.

The MDG progress report 2008 also stated “Economic growth is necessary, but not sufficient for poverty reduction [...] Poverty reduction alone also is not sufficient to meet the targets on reducing malnutrition. In other words, poverty reduction will not automatically result in an improved nutrient dietary intake”.

On top of that, if we look at the table on the right hand side, we will see that MDG 1, target 2 is seriously off track. That means requiring the attention from relevant parties.

Now go to the 6th NSEDP, based on the mid-term review of the 6th NSEDP, it stated that reducing malnutrition is very slow. It also stated that it should increase allocation of resources and strengthened implementation for reducing Child Malnutrition and Implementing strategies for Child Protection and maternal health.

In addition, the report also said that it needs diversified economy, strengthen agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and it need inter-sectoral policies to address both malnutrition and poverty in a comprehensive way.

Conclusion, Lao PDR has high prevalent of malnutrition (40% of CU 5). MDG 1, target 2 is seriously off track. even though economic grows but not it is not sufficient to reduce malnutrition. It requires specific attention to it. It needs diversified economy, strengthen agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and as well as inter-sectoral policies to address both malnutrition and poverty in a comprehensive way.

Not Just Participatory Approach!

One good thing related to the 7th NSEDP is the process of drafting is different from other previous years. The goverment of Laos opened for comments, in other words, it is more participatory from other development partners.

As seen, the ministry of planning and investment (MPI) shared the table of content of the 7th NSEDP and called for comments from the development partners. On top of that, the ministry of planning and investment also shared the executive summary of the 7th NSEDP with development partners in order to get comments from each parties.

Based on that session, lots of relevant parties both provided comments verbal and written paper to the ministry of planning and investment. This is a great exercise and great way!

Meaning that the government of Laos more opened to others than in the past which means drafting the 7th NSEDP is based on the participatory approach. More importantly, this will really strengthen the 7th NSEDP and make it more completed.

However, event though the participatory approach is a great way to do it and the 7th NSEDP has been applied, but not just depends on that. It still has the questions- whether all comments will be considered, how the ministry of planning and investment will consolidate them and how the ministry of planning and investment will improve the draft! Those are still mystery issues or there are still the question in mind of lots of people.

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