Project Fact Sheet

Gender disparities and inequalities exist in Lao PDR in terms of access to resources, information and services. These inequalities affect access to reproductive health (RH) information and services for both women and men. This project was designed to address the critical need for information at community level in selected villages in northern and southern provinces where a diversity of ethnic groups reside. The project began implementation in Oudomxay and Luang Nam Tha and expanded to include Attapeu, Sekong and Saravan in 2004. The Lao Women’s Union (LWU), the Ministry of Public Health (MoH) and the Lao People's Revolutionary Youth Union (LYU) collaborate on implementation.
The project aims to enhance knowledge and awareness of RH, reproductive rights and gender equality among women, men and adolescents. The strategy especially takes into account the socio-cultural context in which various ethnic groups covered by the project live. The project also focuses on strengthening the capacity of the LWU in implementing community-based RH awareness interventions
Through the work of village volunteers, the project reaches hundreds of villages and disseminates information on basic RH issues through participatory methodologies. Behavior Change Communication (BCC) materials have been developed on subjects such as family planning, prevention of HIV/AIDS, reproductive rights and safe motherhood to aid the village volunteers in their task of raising awareness. In addition, radio programmes addressing key gender and RH messages are broadcast in ethnic languages in target provinces
Advocacy activities are conducted by the LWU management team in collaboration with the MoH and LYU to mobilize the support of central, provincial, district and village authorities to promote reproductive health and rights, and gender equality.