The 3-year (2014 – 2017) Women Organised for Rural development (WORD) project aimed to ensure benefits to remote ethnic women (REW) and their communities through strengthening community-led farmers and women’s groups (community based organisations - CBOs) in order to strengthen REW livelihoods and foster demand driven service delivery that would sustain beyond the project duration. The project also intended to promote the role of Non- Profit Associations (NPAs) in Lao PDR’s rural development and influence Government of Lao PDR (GoL) policy by documenting and sharing learning about this way of working with NPAs and ethnic minority communities. The project’s overall goal was that: Women’s livelihoods are improved and their interests voiced through strengthened community-based civil society organisations. The project’s specific objectives were:
1. To promote remote ethnic women’s collective actions through Income Generating Activities
2. To strengthen CBOs and NPAs to enable them to support and represent remote ethnic women
3. To enhance linkages between learning, programming and policy influencing. [99 pages]