Category: Technology

(KPL) On March 10, the Embassy of Japan in the Lao PDR held a send-off ceremony for the participants of a training programme on leadership before their departure to Japan.

Fifteen Vice-Ministers, Vice-Governors from several provinces, Director-Generals and equivalent level officials will visit Japan from March 13-17 to participate in a training programme on leadership enhancement. During this training programme, the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) will organize a series of lectures.

Also, discussions on various topics necessary for better governance, based on the Japan’s experience learnt through its social and economic development, will be conducted.

Ambassador of Japan to the Lao PDR Mr. Kobayashi Kenichi appreciated the efforts of the related authorities of Lao and Japanese sides, especially those of the Party Central Committee Organization Board and JICA Laos Office, for resuming the programme after the postponement due to COVID19. He also expressed expectation that the training will greatly help Lao leaders to tackle issues which the Government of the Lao PDR is currently facing, and will also further strengthen the ties between Japan and the Lao PDR.

Following the message of encouragement by Head of the Committee for External Relations of the Party Central Committee Mr. Thongsavanh Phomvihane, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee Organization Board Ms. Boutsady Thanameuang, acting as a representative of the participants, expressed her strong resolution to make full use of this training opportunity and obtain knowledge for a better future for the country.

The training programme was launched in 2017 and continued in 2019, and then this will be the third time since the programme has been held. It provides the opportunity for future Lao leaders to deepen their knowledge on Japan’s economic and social development and administration. It is expected that sharing Japan’s experience through this training will contribute to the economic and social development of the Lao PDR, and lead to the further deepening of the Japan-Laos friendship.

Source: Lao News Agency

By the road towards the country’s largest gold mine in Sepon, Savannakhet Province, lie peaceful villages where five girls began their journey to realize their dreams, coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoEs) and UNFPA, in partnership with Crowne Plaza Vientiane, Pakpasak Technical College and partners.

Today, the second batch of Five Nang Noi mentors officially completed a three-month training programme to acquire culinary skills, strengthen their financial literacy and life skills with Crowne Plaza Vientiane Hotel, Pakpasak Technical College, Banque Franco-Lao (BFL) Bank and the Vientiane Youth Centre.

Mr Sisana Boupha, Director-General of Non-Formal Education, Ministry of Education and Sports said, “As a part of the Nang Noi Girls Group Programme, this initiative helps minimise the knowledge gap in Comprehensive Sexuality Education and equality between urban and rural. The programme also efficiently improves the non-formal education in Laos and contributes to the 9th five-year Education and Sports Development Plan (2021-2025) so that everyone can improve their life skills and live their life with joy and stability.”

Keota, Thongmai, Khen, Honey, and Lampheng, five of the Nang Noi mentors, arrived in Vientiane in November 2022 to hone their skills and ignite their potential for entrepreneurship, which will contribute to Laos’ economic growth. This innovative endeavor comes from the “Noi ecosystem” which also promotes partnerships between the public and private sector to support Nang Noi Girls in their path towards empowerment.

Mariam A. Khan said, “These promising young girls represent the hopes and dreams of over 720,000 Lao adolescent girls. With this unique learning opportunity, the sky is the limit for them! UNFPA stands by every single one of them to realise their dreams. ”

Mr Nattawut Wetprasit, Director of Operations and HR, said, “Crowne Plaza Vientiane is very proud of all the five girls, and we are glad to be a part of the second batch of this meaningful programme. Crowne Plaza will continue our support on their income generation and help set up their businesses back in their hometown.”

Mr Saysamone Ngamsy, Director of Pakpasak Technical College, said, “Our college is pleased to contribute to the Nang Noi mentors programme as we are fully equipped with facilities and human resources to provide the necessary training. We are delighted to work with all partners and hope to continue this effort in empowering our young women from the rural area.”

Ms Honey Vixaykoumman, one of the mentors from Alai Yai village, shared her reflection on the three-month programme “I am just an ordinary girl from an outskirt part of the town where my house sits right next to the forest. Back in Sepon, I learned so much from my four years under the Nang Noi mentor programme. And now, with this opportunity in the big city, I am even more confident, I have many new skills, know how to plan my future and am more knowledgeable on my sexual and reproductive health.”

Source: Lao News Agency

The theme for the International Women’s Day this year (IWD 2023) is the impact of virtual and technological progress in all spheres of life: “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.

We are delighted to be united in our collective efforts to accelerate the achievement of gender equality!

Coming out of a few years of COVID-19 impact, when too many of us spent too much time in the virtual world, it is essential to consider how digitalisation and innovation can be a source for gender equality and equity, for promoting rights and choices! The washing machine, the microwave oven, the contraceptive pill were all revolutionary in their time. They improved the lives of generations of women before us, leaving them more time for themselves and givingthem control over their own bodies. What new technological breakthroughs will be game changers for a more gender equal world for the next generation of women and girls?

We can share some of the results and impacts we would like to see from an increasingly digitalised world with innovative technology. So here are some of our thoughts to innovators and disruptors of conventions. We would like to see access to online information and opportunities equalised; we would like to see safety for women, girls and vulnerable groups in online spaces; we would like to see accountability of those in power to make these spaces equal and safe for women and girls, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation and gender identity are integral aspects of ourselves and should never lead to discrimination or abuse.

The Lao PDR consistently supports progressive international conversations and consensus around women’s rights, many of which are reflected in national laws and policies. Innovations such as the ‘Noi Framework’ in Laos highlight the demographic case for investments in the adolescent girl, receiving widespread Government support. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth for maternal health was initiated and will now be mainstreamed, and remote counselling for mental health and psychosocial well-being of individuals was increased. Education curricula were improved, including Comprehensive Sexuality Education access through online videos, and the Noi Yakhoo Application was launched. These are all relevant and important initiatives, aimed also at reducing the digital divide in Laos, as a pre-condition to make technology accessible to all.

Aligned with this year’s IWD theme, here are four areas we think require urgent attention in Laos:

Literacy and education: COVID-19 increased school dropout rates. Today, proactive enrolment and retention in schools of girls and boys need to be ensured. Providing teachers and students with better digital skills and access to technologies can help keep girls in school, especially amongst the poorest, while diverse learning opportunities in person and online, such as Khang Panya, should be accessible to those who have dropped out.

Health and Mental health: To protect maternal health, increase, in particular national budgets for contraceptives and maternal health. Women who can choose if, when and how many children to have, will access more opportunities for themselves and their children. Family planning gives the highest return on investment within the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) and Nutrition, and can also reduce stunting in children under 5 by over 5.4%. Expanding services such as telehealth can ensure uninterrupted access to reproductive health information, services and care for women and girls. While remote counselling and de-stigmatising access to mental health for all, women and girls as well as men and boys can improve women’s safety and security.

Finance and economic empowerment: Less than one-third of women have bank accounts with a financial institution. Only 2.2% of women-led businesses use information communication technology to sell their products compared to 3.3% of men-led businesses. In a survey on access to trade finance, 70% of businesswomen reported that their credit applications were totally or partially rejected. E-business and e-banking have great potential for expanding women’s access to finance and business, but technology must be combined with effective financial, digital, and entrepreneurship literacy and accessibility.

Safety in person and online: Data shows that just like in real life, women and girls are targeted far more online. This is known as technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). This has severe impacts on their mental well-being as well as safety and security. Raise awareness of protection laws that exist and increase online protection mechanisms, for example, by promoting public campaigns such as #bodyright, which rolled out in 2022 in Laos.

So please, as you celebrate yourself or the women and girls in your lives, take a moment to consider their rights and their choices. It’s a day to consider whether technology and innovation around you are inclusive of the rights of women and girls, [of vulnerable groups, of LGBTIQ+], if it keeps them safe and ideally expands their opportunities!

Happy International Women’s Day from us to you! We are convinced that if we work together, build on each other’s efforts, next year we can celebrate accelerated progress in Laos for use of technology and innovation to protect the rights and choices of women and girls!

Source: Lao News Agency

SUSTOUR Laos Project in partnership with the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Provincial Chambers of Commerce and Industry, organised three business engagement events from Feb 27 to Mar 2 in Luang Prabang, Vientiane Province and Vientiane.

These events introduced local tourism businesses to the Lasting Laos certification, providing businesses with information and resources to begin the certification process.

“The supplier businesses will get to know Lasting Laos standards and benefits that they will gain after being awarded the Lasting Laos Certification.

The benefits will include reputation, being competitive suppliers and increasing income,” said Ms Veomany Douangdala, Vice President of the Luang Provincial Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Lasting Laos certification is a local sustainability programme for supplier businesses in the tourism industry that have demonstrated sustainable environmental, social and economic practices.

Training, coaching and assessments of businesses will be administered locally by the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with support from the SUSTOUR Laos Project: Supporting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in the Lao Tourism Industry Supply Chain to Access Markets for Sustainable Practices Project.

The goal of this certification is to improve the overall sustainability of the tourism supply chain by providing benchmarks and guidance for local businesses to measure and improve their sustainability. The certification is provided free of charge.

Mr. Khounphithak Ratrisavath, Founder of Sansin Association – Lao traditional textile and handicraft, joined the Lasting Laos Engagement event and found out this certification allows him to explore sustainable business management and markets. “Lasting Laos certification is exciting and critical for my business. I believe my business can be part of a sustainable supply chain of the tourism industry,” said the owner.

Lasting Laos is adapted from the Travelife sustainability certification, which is recognised internationally as the leading certification in the tourism industry, and is based on a set of sustainability criteria that have been developed for four key tourism industry sectors. Waste management is also a priority cross-cutting issue across all sectors. These criteria have been developed in consultation with over 200 stakeholders from the private and public sectors.

“Over the last year, we at Plan International Laos have worked closely with our project partners to develop Lasting Laos, the first local sustainability certification for tourism businesses in Laos. It has been developed with input from over 200 Lao tourism stakeholders from the private and public sectors, as well as international experts from Travelife. We expect this programme to encourage and support local tourism businesses to improve their sustainability,” stated Connor Bedard, SUSTOUR Laos Project Manager.

Businesses must demonstrate compliance with the sustainability criteria in order to become a Lasting Laos certified business. They can report their compliance with the checklists online via the Travelife online platform or through hardcopy checklists. All businesses will be supported by the SUSTOUR project with free training and follow-up coaching.

The Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry will conduct assessments to verify compliance with the criteria, with technical support provided by the SUSTOUR Project. Businesses that comply with the checklists will be awarded and recognised as leading sustainable suppliers in the tourism industry supply chain.

“We provided training to our local trainers, and these trainers closely coach interested supplier businesses to ensure their operations and services are aligned with the Lasting Laos Criteria before we give them certification. Within this year, we expect to certify around 80 supplier businesses across four key tourism industry sectors in three provinces,” said Ms Souphaphone Khamsennam, Vice Secretary of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Source: Lao News Agency

The Government of Japan is providing grant assistance worth approximately USD 190,000 for the benefit of students in Luang Prabang through its Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Project.

The project supports the construction of toilets and hand washing stations in a total of 2 primary schools in both of Luang Prabang and Phonxay District as well as educational activities to improve knowledge and awareness of how to maintain and manage facilities and school sanitation to improve the educational and sanitary environment.

The grant contract was signed on March 2 between Mr. Kobayashi Kenichi, Ambassador of Japan to the Lao PDR and Ms. Phoutthanaly Thammamixay, Country Manager of Shanti Volunteer Association in Laos.

The contract signing was witnessed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Silinthone Sacklokham, Director General, Department of External Relations, Ministry of Education and Sports.

“The project is to improve hygiene and sanitary situations at target schools in Luang Prabang and Phonxay District, Luang Prabang Province with the involvement of people in both districts that particularly need supports for protecting children’s lives from diseases and ensuring suitable education environment.”

“Under this project, we will improve sanitation facilities and include educational activities to improve knowledge and awareness of school sanitation and how to maintain and manage these facilities safely in the target schools. We will do our best and use all our knowledge, skills, and experience in order to make the project successful and achieve the project goals,” said Ms. Phoutthanaly, Country Manager of Shanti Volunteer Association in Laos.

“Many villages in mountainous areas in the Luang Prabang Province lack sufficient infrastructure. In terms of households having sanitation facilities with access to water and soap, Luang Prabang Province has the third lowest percentage in the country”, said Ambassador Kobayashi.

“We hope these efforts made by Shanti Volunteer Association contribute to improving the sanitary environment in schools while helping children stay safe from infectious diseases and other threats. As such, Japan is proud to support better sanitation at school. This in turn is set to lead to an improvement in children’s school attendance and academic achievements,” he added.

Japan’s Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Project is provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for economic and social development projects that are voluntarily planned and implemented by Japanese international cooperation NGOs in developing countries and regions including the Lao PDR.

The Government of Japan has provided more than USD 14 million over the past five years to the Lao PDR to support education, health, UXO and other areas. In shared effort to address regional disparities in socioeconomic development, Japan will continue to actively cooperate with NGOs to support initiatives to improve the basic standard of living at grassroots level in the Lao PDR to ensure “No-one is left behind”.

Source: Lao News Agency

Vice Minister for Education and Sports Sisouk Vongvichit and Ambassador of Australian to Laos Paul Kelly opened a new training session on Mar 3, 2023 to explore how to promote gender equity and women’s empowerment in the digital and video productions of the Ministry’s E-learning, and Information and Media Centre teams.

The theme for this year International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.

Dr Sisouk said, “The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and the Government of Australia have a strong partnership supporting the education sector, including the production of a wide range of digital, video and media materials. The materials have been developed by the E-Learning, and the Information and Media Centre (IMC) teams within the Research Institute of Educational Sciences (RIES). It is important to ensure that the producers of digital and media resources also have the knowledge and skills to promote gender equality and avoid gender stereotypes in the content and imagery they create.”

The Australian Government through the Basic Education and Quality and Access in the Lao PDR (BEQUAL) programme, provides technical and financial support to produce teacher development videos for the E-Learning team of RIES.

The videos aim to support teachers and trainers implement the new curriculum’s pedagogy, provide ways to solve teaching challenges and encourage student participation.

The videos are disseminated on ESTV, tablets for target districts, USB to teachers, the Khang Panya Lao platform and the “???????????????????????? Teacher Development Videos” You tube Channel.

The videos have achievednearly 2.6 million views on YouTube alone since the channel was launched in 2019. 22 teacher development videos are already available covering a range of topics.

Some videos are on specific teaching techniques from the new curriculum such as Lao Language Grade 1 and 2 techniques.

Other videos develop more overarching teaching skills such as classroom management and inclusive teaching and learning practices.

The Australian Government also supports IMC with the “Role Models” docuseries which aim to motivate and inspire teachers and educational staff to replicate good teaching and inclusive education practices in the classroom. The docuseries episodes are disseminated via interviews on ESTV, radio, newspaper and social media.

Ambassador Paul Kelly said, “Videos and digital resources can play a vital role in ensuring equitable access to information for students and teachers. Digital resources can also promote the concept of ‘no one left behind’. Therefore, one aspect of Australia’s support to teacher professional development in the Lao PDR is equipment and training to create and produce digital learning resources for teachers.

In BEQUAL Phase 2, Australia will focus on ensuring gender and disability inclusive education approaches. I heard there are already many discussions on how to avoid gender, disability and ethnicity stereotypes and promote inclusion within the teams at each stage of the production, especially script writing and casting. I am pleased to see that all the videos are dubbed in sign language.I want to congratulate the E-Learning and the IMC teams for their efforts. I hope that with the training today, the teams will deepen their understanding of the role of the media and digital production in building a more progressive and inclusive society.”

Following the opening Mr. Paul Kelly handed over filming and sound equipment (camera, Pro stabilizer, projector and microphones) as well as editing equipment (5 computers, extra-large monitor, editing software, printer) with a total value of LAK 476 million (AUD 40,400).

RIES Director General Onekeo Nuannavong said, “On behalf of the Ministry of Education, I would like to thank Australia for their ongoing support to the education sector in Laos. The equipment will be used by RIES E-learning teams to produce more teacher development videos to support the changes in the new primary teaching and learning practices, and advocate for gender equality. With video and digital production, we can promote progressive gender and inclusive education and make a difference for the most disadvantaged children.”

The training was very interactive with many hands-on activities. The participants enjoyed the drawing session to understand gender biases and stereotypes. They also used Kahoot, a game-based learning platform that became very popular during COVID-19, to test their understanding of the difference between gender and sex. During the final session, the trainees reviewed and reflected on their practice and discussed how they could avoid stereotypes and apply the new knowledge into their future productions.

The programmes produced by RIES, with support from the Australian Government, can be watched every day on Education and Sports TV on Lao Sat Channel 8 and are also accessible on the “???????????????????????? Teacher Development Videos” You tube Channel.

Source: Lao News Agency