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The Road to Ending Poverty in Laos

Poverty in Laos
Laos is a poor communist country — the result of a complicated history. Since declaring sovereignty in 1954 American contributions poignantly shape Laos’s physical landscape, albeit initially with bombs. More recent U.S. administrations, alongside international investors, have bequeathed the type of strategic investments in Laos that encourage economic development and social prosperity. Poverty in Laos is shifting.

The Lao people experienced a prolonged period of civil war and armed conflict immediately following independence. After years of abounding poverty, the economy writhed amid growing American anti-communist actions in neighboring Vietnam and Cambodia. The fighting soon leached across Laotian borders as part of a wider U.S. bombing campaign. While Laotians initially measured U.S. contributions only in terms of explosive tonnage, current administrations have retooled U.S. foreign policy in Laos to encourage growth. These efforts require a detailed understanding of Laos and its people.

Agrarianism dominates Laotian society. Rural farmers require an adequate road system to bring the agricultural goods market. In 2015, only 14 percent of all roadways in Laos were paved. Poverty in Laos exists predominantly in rural areas, the same locations growing crops with inadequate transportation infrastructure.

Transportation network improvements implemented in the late 1990s provided proof of a strong correlation between targeted infrastructure investment and rural poverty reduction. The Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (PDR) government conducts household surveys every fifth year, the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey, which enables the study of poverty rates. Peter Warr, a professor of agricultural economics at the Australian National University, compared the two surveys that bracket the late 90s improvements to imply, “about 13 percent (one-sixth) of the reduction in rural poverty incidence… can be attributed to wet season road access.”

Poverty in Laos and War

The combined impacts of civil war and a U.S. bombing campaign in Laos staunched civil progress and economic prosperity. In an effort to help improve impoverish conditions in the country, a U.S. State Department’s principal foreign policy objective regarding assistance to Laos is to help the country meet its development goals.

President Obama visited Laos in September 2016, marking the first trip by any U.S. president to the country. Likely his last Asian tour as president, Obama’s trip highlighted the U.S. strategy to rebalance Asia and the Pacific. In a speech to the people of Laos, the president alluded to the U.S.’s assumed role to end extreme poverty through “transformative investments.” Obama also discussed diplomatic efforts that resonated strongly with two U.S. national security interests: prosperity and international order.

The president pledged $90 million over the next three years to help Laotians clear American unexploded ordinance. “Over nine years—from 1964 to 1973—the U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs here in Laos—more than we dropped on Germany and Japan combined during all of World War II,” President Obama stated. The pledge enables Laotian health and prosperity within its borders and supports international order by strengthening Asia-Pacific alliances.

According to sources for Radio Free Asia, “Road construction and renovation in Laos are usually plagued by corruption with exorbitant costs.” Assistance simply does not end after the deposit. The U.S. must follow through, providing the appropriate accountability and oversight.

The takeaway reveals how detailed research, analysis and understanding allow the investor to achieve broader returns as well as dividends. Road investments and UXO removal, while altruistic to end poverty in Laos, stimulate Laotian autonomy and economic progress. An economically independent and prosperous Laos promotes the success of broader U.S. National Security Strategic goals.

– Tim Devine

Photo: Flickr

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Clearing the Way for Better Lives in Lao PDR

Lao PDRThe Vietnam War: a distant and heartbreaking memory for some, a reoccurring nightmare for others and still, an everyday existence for the people of Laos, now the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Weapons of a war long past stay buried like forgotten ghosts, haunting the innocent and poisoning the ground they walk on.

With the help of organizations like Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Laotians could farm the soil instead of fear it.

Between 1964 and 1973, 260 million cluster bombs—the equivalent of one bombing mission executed every night, every eight minutes for nine years—were dropped on Laos by the United States. Today, 30 percent of these bombs remain as unexploded ordinance, also referred to as UXO.

The bombing campaign was meant to deny access to the Ho Chi Minh trail, an important logistics route located mostly within the Lao borders and used by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army for supply and movement. Long after the fighting ended, Lao men, women and children are still paying the price with an estimated 20,000 people killed and many more injured since the war’s end.

Lao PDR is the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world with 30 percent of the ordinance still volatile and contaminating ground that could be used for agriculture, 33 percent of the country’s GDP. “Bombies,” as the locals have nicknamed them, are therefore a direct factor causing the persistent poverty plaguing the country.

Over 40 percent of children under the age of 5, and 63 percent of children under the age of 2 suffer from anemia in Lao PDR. Almost 45 percent of children under 5 years old and 23 percent of women between 12 to 49 years of age are affected by sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency. Forty-four percent of children under 5 years old are stunted due to poor diets.

Lao PDR is predominantly mountainous and many of the villages are inaccessible by road, cutting off much of the populace from essential services and further compounding an already bleak situation.

Mines Advisory Group, a nonprofit organization operating in Xieng Khouang province bordering Vietnam, raises funds from the American community, including individuals, corporations, foundations and government donors promoting awareness for their life-saving work.

According to their website, from April 2007 to May 2011, MAG cleared 23,778,512 square meters of suspect land in Lao PDR, destroying 145,000 items of UXO. As a result, 330,000 beneficiaries gained more safe land for agriculture, clean drinking water, sanitation, safe school compounds and safer roads.

Additionally, MAG gives jobs to those who need them most, investing in, training and employing staff from the local population in order to build a robust and sustainable national workforce.

Women are not shying away from battling the hidden perils beneath their feet either. In fact, about 40 percent of the ground clearing crews in MAG is made up of women filling the front lines and risking their lives every day to build a better future.

Years after the end of the Vietnam War, its legacy still lives on, hidden in the ground and destroying lives an ocean away. With peace activists urging the U.S. to do more, funding for mine clearing efforts and victim assistance has increased, but according to Laotians, the scope of the situation is still undervalued and the task of clearing the land is immense.

– Jason Zimmerman

Sources: FT Magazine, United Nations Development Programme, ABC News, Legacies of War, World Food Programme
Photo: Wikimedia Commons