The Challenge of Engaging Communities in Lao PDR: Lessons from the Poverty Reduction Fund Project

This is a Project Performance Assessment Report (PPAR) of the Poverty Reduction Fund (PRF) Project that was approved on June 25, 2002, and ended on the extended closing date of September 30, 2011. Total estimated project costs, including one additional financing (AF), were US$34.34 million. Actual project costs were US$43.51 million, including US$2.37 million in counterpart funding from the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and US$7.27 co-financing from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The objectives of the project (based on the development credit agreement, reiterated at AF) was to assist the borrower in its ongoing efforts to alleviate poverty throughout its territory by: (a) financing community infrastructure activities and other community public capital investment endeavors at the village level; (b) building local capacity at the village level in poor districts to manage public investment planning and implementation; and (c) strengthening the capacity of local institutions to support participatory decision making at the village, kum ban, and district levels.

IEG. 2015. Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Poverty Reduction Fund. Project Performance Assessment Report. Washington, DC: World Bank Group, Independent Evaluation Group. [#4413]