Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
35
result(s) for
"Economic development projects Laos."
Sort by:
Doing a dam better : the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the story of Nam Theun 2
In the wake of an acrimonious debate on big dams, the World Bank brokered a global agreement on financing as well as on the sharing of the rewards and risks of the controversial Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project in Lao PDR. Through this process, it prepared the project for the country and the country for the project. This book describes how careful management, effective communications, and technical expertise helped to reach consensus and nurtured private-public partnerships, engaged stakeholders, strengthened the country's development framework and poverty reduction efforts, and addressed the project's environmental and social impacts.
eBook
Doing a Dam Better
In the wake of an acrimonious debate on big dams, the World Bank brokered a global agreement on financing as well as on the sharing of the rewards and risks of the controversial Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project in Lao PDR. Through this process, it prepared the project for the country and the country for the project. This book describes how careful management, effective communications, and technical expertise helped to reach consensus and nurtured private-public partnerships, engaged stakeholders, strengthened the country's development framework and poverty reduction efforts, and addressed the project's environmental and social impacts.
Publication
Treatment-seeking behaviour for febrile illnesses and its implications for malaria control and elimination in Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR (Laos): a mixed method study
Background
How people respond to febrile illness is critical to malaria prevention, control, and ultimately elimination. This article explores factors affecting treatment-seeking behaviour for febrile illnesses in a remote area of Lao PDR.
Methods
Household heads or their representatives (
n
= 281) were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. A total of twelve focus group discussions (FGDs) each with eight to ten participants were conducted in four villages. In addition, observations were recorded as field notes (
n
= 130) and were used to collect information on the local context, including the treatment seeking behaviour and the health services.
Results
Almost three-quarters (201/281) of respondents reported fever in past two months. Most (92%, 185/201) sought treatment of which 80% (149/185) sought treatment at a health centre. Geographic proximity to a health centre (AOR = 6.5; CI = 1.74–24.25; for those < 3.5 km versus those > 3.6 km) and previous experience of attending a health centre (AOR = 4.7; CI = 1.2–19.1) were strong predictors of visiting a health centre for febrile symptoms. During FGDs, respondents described seeking treatment from traditional healers and at health centre for mild to moderate illnesses. Respondents also explained how if symptoms, including fever, were severe or persisted after receiving treatment elsewhere, they sought assistance at health centres. Access to local health centres/hospitals was often constrained by a lack of transportation and an ability to meet the direct and indirect costs of a visit.
Conclusion
In Nong District, a rural area bordering Vietnam, people seek care from health centres offering allopathic medicine and from spiritual healers. Decisions about where and when to attend health care depended on their economic status, mobility (distance to the health centre, road conditions, availability of transport), symptoms severity and illness recognition. Current and future malaria control/elimination programmes could benefit from greater collaboration with the locally accessible sources of treatments, such as health volunteers and traditional healers.
Journal Article
Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in least developed countries in South and Southeast Asia
This paper undertakes an in-depth analysis of six least developed countries (LDCs) in South and Southeast Asia to assess the extent of mainstreaming climate change adaptation into national development plans by reviewing their National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), national development plans, and Strategic Programs for Climate Resilience (SPCRs) (where available). The paper proposes two perspectives to analyze the level of mainstreaming and five factors that may affect such a level. The results show that there is a significant difference in the success of their mainstreaming efforts: mainstreaming is relatively advanced in Bangladesh, limited in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Maldives, and Nepal, and still minimal in Bhutan and Cambodia. Among the factors, the study finds that the inter-ministerial coordination supported by the highest levels of government is most relevant to the success of mainstreaming, which is measured by the integration of climate adaptation consideration into development priorities and a country’s own initiatives, particularly those involving budget allocation. Recognition of the need for mainstreaming and monitoring and evaluation also affect the success of mainstreaming efforts in LDCs. Another important factor is to make adaptation plans compatible with national development plans in terms of their time horizon, and SPCRs effectively facilitate this process. As all countries still require external support for advancing mainstreaming, the role of development partners is instrumental. The paper points to issues that need to be incorporated in the relevant NAPAs including updating to facilitate mainstreaming.
Journal Article
Credit crunch: Chinese infrastructure lending and Lao sovereign debt
Lao PDR's push for large infrastructure-led economic growth has been delivered through a significant amount of financial leverage and a build-up of sovereign debt obligations. The government now finds itself in danger of a sovereign default. This article traces the roots of this debt crisis over the past decade, focusing particularly on the role of hydropower. A significant share of infrastructure lending to Laos has been through Chinese policy banks. We argue that overlending to dam projects focused on the domestic energy market has been at the core of Laos' debt situation. Through 2020 the Lao Government has undertaken a series of restructuring measures, including privatisation of state assets, engaging in debt renegotiations with China, and attempts to secure new short-term credit. We outline a range of other options Laos has to reschedule or restructure their sovereign debt, and offer policy targeted recommendations focusing on reforms in the energy sector.
Journal Article
Analysis of the Spatial Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Large-Scale Land Acquisition Projects in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is an essential region for companies carrying out large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs). Exploring the distribution patterns and influencing factors of LSLA projects in this region is of great practical significance for summarizing the characteristics of LSLA projects in Southeast Asia, for gaining a thorough understanding of LSLA project development rules, and for formulating reasonable policies to guide local LSLA projects. This study explores the spatial distribution and influencing factors of LSLA projects in Southeast Asia using the mean center method, the kernel density estimation method, and the grey correlation method. The findings indicate the following: Firstly, the majority of LSLA projects in Southeast Asia are located in the Indo-China Peninsula, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and other countries, which represent significant regions of interest for LSLA projects in this region. Secondly, the spatial distribution of LSLA intention projects and LSLA contract projects in Southeast Asia is similar, whereas LSLA production projects differ from the former two. Thirdly, the scale of LSLA projects in Southeast Asia is closely related to the host country’s natural resources, socio-economic conditions, governance, and market environment. The total GDP, per capita arable land area, net foreign direct investment inflow, and political stability have been identified as exerting a significant influence on investment corporations’ selection of LSLA host countries.
Journal Article
When the Complexity of the Large-Scale Development Project Becomes a Roadblock to Access to Justice
On 23 July 2018, when the villagers gathered around the porch to wrap up the day with a good chat, one of the five auxiliary dams of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower dam in Attapeu province, the southeastern state of Laos, collapsed. Four days before the collapse, reports of cracks and subsidence started to come through. It should have been enough to prompt evacuation warning issuance by the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Co. Ltd (PNPC), a consortium of South Korean companies SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C) and Korea Western Power Company (KOWEPO), Thailand-based RATCH Group, and Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE). PNPC has a Concession Agreement with the Laos government ‘to plan, design, finance, construct, own, operate and maintain’ the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower dam. The warning was issued, but it came too late.
Journal Article
Governance of the water-energy-food nexus: insights from four infrastructure projects in the Lower Mekong Basin
The social relations and biophysical flows that link water, food, and energy systems are said to form a ‘nexus’. Efforts to steer or otherwise exert influence on decisions that impact upon these nexus links, including to ignore them, take place at multiple levels, vary in complexity, and have implications for who benefits and who is burdened by those relations and flows. This paper examines how nexus links have been governed, using four medium- to large-scale water infrastructure projects in Laos and Thailand as probes into problematic issues of coordination, anticipation, inclusion, and attribution. Project documents, media reports, and published analyses were coded to extract information about nexus links, narratives, and decisions. Nexus interactions were summarized using a novel symbolic notation and then classified along a scale of increasing structural complexity as pairs, chains, and loops. The key finding from the analysis of the four projects was that nexus governance was fragmented, reactive, exclusive, and opaque. Coordination among ministries was limited with inter-ministerial bodies, and integrated development plans ineffective at guiding project design or operation decisions in the presence of bureaucratic competition. Anticipation of cross-sectoral concerns was rare, despite scope to identify them early in feasibility studies, and assessment activities; instead they were only acknowledged after public pressure. Inclusion of the needs of vulnerable and affected groups was limited, although poverty alleviation, and other social benefits were a significant element in project justification narratives. Attribution of responsibility was difficult as many key decisions took place behind closed doors, while project information was withheld, raising further governance issues of transparency and accountability. Structural complexity in the nexus links made addressing governance problems even more challenging.
Journal Article
Strategic State-Firm Relations for the Belt and Road Initiative: A Geoeconomics Reading
This study deploys a geoeconomics perspective to explore how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been implemented through economic means by states and firms in China and host countries to achieve strategic objectives. We first use three geoeconomic indicators to classify 74 Belt and Road countries' relations with China and unpack the key geographical features of BRI projects. Then, against this geoeconomics background, we select three BRI projects to explain the roles played by the Chinese state and firms with different ownerships in the BRI's execution. The cases are port development in Sri Lanka by China Merchants Port, a national state-owned enterprise; railway investment and construction in Laos and Thailand led by the Chinese government and state-owned firms; and industrial park development by China Fortune Development, a private developer. We argue that the BRI acts as a geoeconomics maneuver, propelled by a close state-business cooperation that is vital in enabling its success. In forging the BRI, the Chinese state shapes the overall strategic pathway. Nonetheless, it is the firms, both state-owned and private, that are increasingly implicated in co-constructing the project-based and context-specific ＂frameworks of action＂ with host countries' governments and business interests to manage overseas economic uncertainty.
Journal Article