The EFA 2000 Assessment, Executive Report of Lao PDR

Country Context
http://www.unlao.org/Country%20Background/page.htm

The Lao PDR was established in 1975 succeeding the Kingdom of Laos, following decades of civil war and heavy involvement in the larger Indochina war in the eastern and northeastern provinces. The Constitution of Lao PDR, which was promulgated in 1991, recognizes the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) as the leading nucleus of the political system. Lao PDR is a unitary state comprising 18 Provinces, 141 Districts and 1 special zone under Bokeo province, and 10,552 Villages. The Government is run by the Council of Ministers, whose decrees provide the main legislative basis for government operations. Political power rests with the LPRP whose Politburo and Central Committee are the organs for making the policy-guidelines. Their decisions are ratified by party congresses held at 5 year intervals, with the next congress due in the first quarter of 2006. Over the last decade the Government has been undertaking public administration reform, targeting improvements to the structures, functioning and management of government organizations. The current governance system conforms to a centralized pattern with additional administration at the Provincial and District level. Efforts are currently underway to assert greater central authority and accountability (fiscal and administrative) over provincial finances and programme operations.

The Lao PDR is a 'Landlocked and Least Developed Country' (LLDC) and as such is considered by the international community to be one of the poorest countries in the world. Geographic conditions restrict both the quantity and quality of agricultural land and pose difficulties in the development of trade, social infrastructure, and transport and communications links. A highly dispersed and thinly spread population further compounds this. Nevertheless, the Lao PDR is located in the centre of a dynamic and prospering region and as such has the potential to provide a strategic resource base and land-link to its bordering neighbours.

The Lao Government's national development priorities are focused around lifting the country from the ranks of least developed nations by 2020. The country faces many unique human development challenges, not the least of which is that the majority of the population (82.9 percent) live in rural and remote areas without access to basic infrastructure and services. Additional challenges include ethnic diversity (there are 49 officially recognized ethnic groups); opium production (total area under poppy cultivation is estimated between 900 and 2,900 ha); and Unexploded Ordnance (50 percent of the land and surface area and 15 out of 18 provinces are contaminated). An estimated 32 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line.  Although the Lao PDR has experienced significant advances in social development in recent years and progress has been made towards the MDGs, the country is categorized as having a 'medium-low level of human development' and faces many associated challenges. The UNDP Global Human Development Index (HDI) has shown consistent improvement since 1993 when the Lao PDR ranked 141 out of 173 countries. Lao PDR is currently ranked 131 out of 177 countries.

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