24 October 2011, VIENTIANE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Lao PDR today welcomed a generous contribution of US$10 million over the next three years from the United States of America. The contribution, provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), will ensure that more than 152,000 schoolchildren continue to receive a nutritious snack every day they attend school. The food will support children in six provinces of Lao PDR to pursue their education.

For 2011, the U.S. contribution is delivered in the form of 1,610 metric tons of rice, 560 metric tons of vitamin and mineral fortified Super Cereal, and 110 metric tons of vegetable oil, with all transport cost to Laos covered by the donation. The oil and Super Cereal will be used by village cooks to prepare the daily snack for the school children, keeping hunger at bay. The rice will be given as a take-home ration to students who live far from the schools, and will benefit the entire family while providing an incentive for them to keep sending the students to school.  

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Photo: A pre-primary student in Oudomxay province is enjoying her mid-morning snack. Photo credit: WFP/Cornelia Paetz

Heavy flooding during the northern summer, affecting 10 out of the country’s 17 provinces, has underlined the need to strengthen disaster management in Lao PDR. Tropical storm Haima struck central and northern provinces on 24 June with Nock-Ten hitting central and southern areas on 30 and 31 July.

According to the government’s National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) 26 lives were lost, more than 1,000 livestock and 60,000 poultry died, and over $100 million in damages recorded as a result of the flooding caused by the two storms. Many farmers also lost their food stocks and more than 37,000 hectares of rice fields were damaged by the flooding during the critical rice planting season.

Ghulam Sherani, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) specialist for disaster risk management believes the communities affected responded well in the circumstances, “When the emergency struck they quickly mobilized, arranged themselves and divided the roles and responsibilities to respond. However, this could have been much better had they been better prepared and planned beforehand.”

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Photo: Flood affected village in Bolikhamxay province - Eeva Nyyssonen/UN-HABITAT

VIENTIANE – For the first time in Lao PDR, close to 1,000 primary school children will receive a healthy and balanced school lunch prepared from foods bought at their local market.  Their village schools are the first to participate in a new Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) project implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Government of Lao PDR. The pilot is generously supported by the Australian Government, who made funding available to conduct a baseline survey, support programme design and produce training materials.

During the past week, officials from the Lao Ministry of Education (MOE) have been trained on the principles of HGSF and healthy nutrition.  Activities will be piloted in nine villages across Phongsaly and Oudomxay provinces from March to May 2011.

WFP Media Release_English Language

WFP Media Release_Lao Language

In Lao PDR, about 157,000 pre-primary and primary school students children living in remote villages benefit from the WFP-assisted school meals programme. Photo Credit: WFP/Cornelia Paetz

Efforts to improve the health of women and children living in remote areas of Lao PDR have been given an important boost with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of Lao PDR and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The MoU was signed at a ceremony in Vientiane by the Minister of Health, Dr Ponmek Dalaloy, and the Luxembourg Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Mrs. Marie-Josée Jacobs. Attending the ceremony were senior representatives of the four United Nations agencies – the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization - whose joint programme will utilize the funds totaling Euros 8.1 million over five years to support the Ministry of Health’s National Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Services Strategy.

Press release Eng-Lao.pdf (1.42 mb)

The United Nations in Lao PDR will be backing the ‘Rising Star’ competition at the second Vientianale International Film Festival to be held from the 21st to 24th April in Vientiane.

The Rising Star competition takes the theme of, ‘We are the Future’, and is open to anyone under 16-years of age. A unique aspect of the competition is that the 2-minute films must be shot on mobile phone cameras.

The inaugural Vientianale film festival was held in May 2009 and showcased a broad range of films from Lao PDR and across the region. The festival, which is supported by the Department of Cinema, Ministry of Information and Culture, is a free event that not only aims to entertain but also educate audiences about the potential richness and diversity of Lao film culture by presenting feature films, documentaries, films for children, music videos and short films.

Click here for the Vientianale website

During the 17th FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Coordinating Committee for Asia (CCASIA) the Lao delegation submitted a project document proposing to develop a regional Codex food standard for edible crickets and products made from crickets. This standard would contribute to protect consumer’s health and ensure fair practices in the international trade of these edible insect products from Lao PDR and other producer countries. The Committee considered the ‘Proposal for new work on development of regional standard for edible crickets and their products’ prepared by Lao PDR delegation with technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Laos. Read more

On Monday the 15th, Tuesday the 16th and Wednesday the 17th of November 2010, food baskets were distributed to quiz winners at the Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations (FAO) booth at the That Luang Festival. The quiz was about insect consumption and farming.

Three winners a day were chosen among the people that answered correctly to the questions. More than 300 questionnaires were filled on Wednesday the 17th, when the booth was really full of people with Sticky Fingers Chef Sisouphanh Ocampo showcasing his famous Insect Tacos. Read more