Work Planning

UXO Lao Work Planning

The development of the UXO Lao annual work plan begins at the village level. Villagers discuss among themselves and identify priority families (factors include family size, income, capacity to farm the land, amount of land available, among others.) District planning authorities receive the final villages’ requests and evaluate them in accordance with the ability of the district to support such activities as well as if they fall within the district’s development plans and priorities. District authorities submit their final list to provincial planning authorities. The authorities then evaluate the requests according to the provincial development plans and priorities, taking into consideration the capacity of UXO Lao.

With a final list, UXO Lao classifies requests as either a roving, non-technical survey, technical survey or area clearance task. UXO Lao then schedules the tasks according to village, district, and wet or dry season. Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare approves all the provincial work plans with the endorsement by UNDP and UXO Lao’s donors.

Support to Development Agencies

Development agencies receive support and priority if they submit requests for clearance to the provincial authorities before the annual work planning takes place.  This takes place around July of every year. The activities of UXO Lao contribute not only to saving lives but also to increasing the social-economic opportunities for some of the poorest districts. Regression analysis in the Lao PDR Poverty Assessment Report in 2003 confirms that both the initial level of UXO contamination as well as the progress in UXO clearance accounts for changes in poverty from 1997/8 to 2002/3. Extending the district-level regressions, per capita consumption tended to increase slower in areas with high UXO contamination, and faster in areas with UXO clearance programs.

UXO Lao enables UXO impacted villagers improved and equitable access to land, markets and social and economic services, environmentally sustainable utilization of natural resources. UXO clearance ultimately leads to enhancing the livelihoods of poor, vulnerable, and food insecure populations through sustainable development within the Millennium Development Goals Framework by 2011.