UN agency loan to Laos will help thousands of poor women to increase farm incomes

A new $17 million loan from the United Nations Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will help nearly 27,000 Laotians, mainly rural women and food insecure families, increase their incomes through better use of social services and natural resources as the Government improves the roads to local produce markets.

More than 26,200 people, including many who recently moved from the remote uplands and resettled in more accessible areas, will benefit from the new development programme in the poor districts of Attapeu and Sayabouri provinces, IFAD said. The programme will provide access to essential social services and strengthen the capacity of local community organizations to plan and manage development activities in their villages.

Costing a total of $25.9 million, the initiative will be financed in part by the $17.3 million loan and a $693,000 IFAD grant.

An additional $1.3 million grant will come from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and $2 million from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation and the German Development Service. The Laotian Government itself will contribute $3.4 million.

With this loan IFAD said it will have financed nine Lao projects for a total of $70.3 million.