As part of the IFAD – supported initiative on building capacity for women’s leadership, two workshops were conducted in Atapeu Province of the Lao PDR. The first workshop was conducted in Chalern Xay District between 4-8 March which is located about 68 KM from the Provincial Headquarters. This was followed by a second workshop conducted in the Provincial Headquarters, Attapeu between 10-14 March. The trainings were conducted in the IFAD-supported Rural Livelihoods Project area.
Based on the initial assessment of capacity needs, the trainings focused primarily on developing local organizational capacity of producer groups. The producer groups have been formed by the IFAD projects to support local livelihoods through group activities that generate income for local communities. In the first workshop, there were a total of 26 participants (21 women and 5 men). There were 4 members of the Alak ethnic group, and 22 members of the Tarieng ethnic group. The participants were from vegetable and fish production groups.
The second workshop was attended by 27 participants, 19 women and 8 men, from weaving and vegetable production groups. Participants were from 3 villages: Vangyang, Chikhai and Tadseng in the Samakhi District, which is located about 15 KM from the Provincial Headquarters of Attapeu. The participants represented three ethnic groups: the Brao, Tarieng and Lao communities.
The total number of people trained in the two workshops is as follows:
• 40 women
• 13 men
• 2 project staff
• 3 district extension staff
The workshop focused on problem analysis, developing activities to tackle the problems, monitoring and evaluation, developing action plan, networking and communication skills.
A meeting was also conducted between the training team members and the Team Leader of the IFAD-supported Rural Livelihoods Project in Attapeu. He was briefed on the workshop proceedings and the following major lessons were also discussed:
• Production groups need systematic and sustained capacity development support from project for group management
• Selected Project staff need to be trained in group management so they can provide capacity services for district extension staff who implement the project activities
WOCAN trainers also proposed the following recommendations for next steps
• One additional training can be provided by WOCAN
• Selected project staff (4: 2 men and 2 women) will be provided a training of trainers workshop so they can roll out trainings in project areas.