Advocacy Efforts: HomeNet Laos    Khanthone Phamuang Chairman, CDEA/ Homenet Laos (For ‘Regional Workshop on Homebased Workers in Asia: Building a Regional Presence’, Mumbai, April 7th and 8th, 2008)

Introduction

Homenet Laos is a growing national network of homebased (and related informal) workers – predominantly women workers – in Lao PDR. It began in the form of the Community Development and Environment Association (CDEA) as a focal group organization. CDEA remains the primary organization that does advocacy for homebased workers.

CDEA has worked over the years in areas of community development, environment and environmental education, village banks, and product development in poor urban and rural areas in Lao PDR.  CDEA’s network of village banks (savings groups) approaches community development from the financial and welfare side, and as an outgrowth of these activities, Homenet Laos focuses now as well on product development for poor communities in a number of networks organized by occupations.

Homenet Laos is expanding through its affiliation with the Lao Women’s Union, which is associated with over 500 village banks in different parts of the country. Potential new affiliates in the network are also developing as part of the Women and Community’s Empowering Project (WCEP), co-sponsored by the Lao Women’s Union Center (LWUC) and the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI, of Thailand), which focuses on (1) the development of savings groups and social welfare within the community; (2) vocational training and income generation; and (3) environmental protection and utilization of natural resources in a sustainable way under community protection.

Homenet Laos’ contribution is not simply to help with microfinance and the development of village and neighbourhood-level savings groups, but also to facilitate community development through organizing on the community level, service provision, and in particular, product development and over time, joint marketing. It hopes to build over time a large network of producer groups organized along product lines – e.g., handicraft networks that are part of larger joint marketing networks. Our organizations will most likely have much in common with the producer and credit union cooperatives in some countries, but within the Lao context this will take forms appropriate to local communities and the overall political system.

Advocacy in the context of Lao PDR

Alliance-building and advocacy are central to these efforts. Homenet Lao’s recent advocacy efforts (through CDEA) have focused primarily on health, product development under fair trade principles, and legal issues that affect homebased and other informal workers. Advocacy is carried out through the organization’s close ties with the government-affiliated Lao Women’s Union (LWU), and through its work under the Lao Union of Science and Engineering Association (LUSEA), which in turn operates under the Prime Minister’s Office. Through these ties, other ministries and organizations (e.g., the national trade union, the Ministry of Labour, and other agencies) can also be informed about community-based projects.

In addition to working in cooperation with these government organizations as well as with other national and international organizations that can provide technical advice and other forms of support (e.g., CODI, and other international agencies), Homenet Laos’ advocacy work as part of larger efforts involving the regional Homenets and affiliated organizations can also help the networks expand within the country and across the region. The sharing of information across the region will be very beneficial to all of our efforts, and will help in the strengthening of homebased and other affiliated women’s and community organizations.

It is important to understand that advocacy, to Homenet Laos, does not involve simply advocating “up” to policymakers, or “out” to similar organizations or to the general public, as it might in a country like Thailand, for example (with NGO forums, and perhaps public demonstrations and the like). The political economy of Lao PDR is different from that of market-oriented capitalist countries with civil society institutions that often form part of the private sector in those countries, and for this reason it would not be effective to try to do advocacy as it is done in countries such as India or Thailand. Moreover, Lao society is relatively traditional in many ways, with predominantly rural and often self-sufficient forms of production. The attempt is to develop as equitably as possible, again in ways appropriate to the local context, and advocacy in Laos works towards these goals in ways that are most effective given local conditions.

As noted above, Homenet Laos does reach “up” to policymakers through personal ties and by presenting project results. However, in addition to this, Homenet Laos sees its efforts to advocate “down” to the community as being equally important. For example, Homenet Laos’ efforts to do advocacy regarding women’s empowerment on the community level (in poor urban neighbourhoods and villages) are designed to offer information to and help motivate women – e.g., through their participation in the village bank system. By running the village banks and having control over funds, women in local communities are able to gain self-confidence and political standing, and they are now able to even win political seats at much higher levels. If they are successful, the women become party members or know members of the party on the local level, who can take the ideas of the community to the district level. This is all due to advocacy and alliance-building that is intended to reach “down” to local communities and community groups, which in turn then moves “up” to policymakers as community members gain experience and a way to advocate for themselves, both through representatives and through others (e.g., CDEA and WCEP staff members) they know and work with.

For some efforts, Homenet Laos advocates both “up” and “down” simultaneously – “up” to government organizations and “down” to community groups. This is true, for example, in areas such as health, law, and the environment.