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Hydropower, development, and poverty reduction in Laos: promises realized or broken?
Abstract
While hydropower projects have been seen as a sort of panacea for clean energy production in an increasingly environmentally-sensitive time, allowing for continued development, dam projects have nevertheless been a source of significant negative social and environmental impacts. The topic of hydropower projects, associated political-administrative processes, and the outcomes of these projects with regard to poverty reduction remain understudied. This paper reviews hydropower projects and impacts on poverty and environmental quality in the case of Laos, querying intent and realization of goals. The research questions asked in this paper are: How have hydropower projects in Laos affected the nation’s economic prospects? Has promised poverty reduction, particularly among the nation’s rural poor, been seen as a result of infrastructure projects? The paper begins with a view of Laos in terms of development and priorities. A section on infrastructure development, in light of poverty reduction, follows. Next, hydropower projects and implications for forest management are discussed. It is suggested that the connection between electricity provision and poverty reduction in rural areas is unclear; further, the benefit of mega-scale energy projects is limited to increases in energy export, with direct benefits being seen primarily by officials and elites.
... Hydropower development is rapidly becoming the main source of energy in the Lower Mekong Basing (LMB), supplying not only energy for the expanding urban population but also boosting the growing economies of the basin countries (Suhardiman et al., 2014). Hydropower is frequently seen as an avenue for poverty reduction where electricity generated is not only exported for revenue, but also to increase electricity coverage to villages and households without electricity (Chattranond, 2018;Tran and Suhardiman, 2020;Atkinson, 2021). For example, in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) where topography is largely mountainous with large drops in elevation and intensive rainfall dominated climate, considerable hydropower potential exists to not only meet the growing domestic electricity demand but also the demands of the neighbouring countries (Mekong River Commission, 2018). ...
... For example, commitments to combat global climate change and its impacts (SDG 13) With its diverse topography, hydropower has become the main renewable energy source of the basin. Other major reports of the region also cite hydropower infrastructure as the main development opportunity that can help the LMB Countries achieving their goal of ensuring affordable and clean electricity (Mekong River Commission, 2016;Intralawan et al., 2019;International Hydropower Association, 2020;Atkinson, 2021). While hydropower has been highlighted as a renewable and sustainable resource for countries to meet SDG7 and their energy needs, it has also been known to cause negative effects on the ecosystems (Section 1). ...
... While hydropower has been highlighted as a renewable and sustainable resource for countries to meet SDG7 and their energy needs, it has also been known to cause negative effects on the ecosystems (Section 1). As more and more rivers are dammed, uncertainties associated with costs and benefits of hydropower development and operation have become the focal point of debate and water politics in the LMB (Geheb and Suhardiman, 2019;Intralawan et al., 2019;Trung et al., 2020;Yoshida et al., 2020;Atkinson, 2021). ...
Transboundary river basins across developing countries, such as the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB), are challenging to manage given frequent divergences on development and conservation priorities. Driven by needs to sustain economic performance and reduce poverty, the LMB countries are embarking on significant land use changes in the form of more hydropower dams, to satisfy growing energy demands. This pathway could lead to irreversible changes to the ecosystem of the Mekong River, if not properly managed. Given the uncertain environmental externalities and trade-offs associated with further hydropower development and operation in the LMB, this research develops four plausible scenarios of future hydropower operation, and assesses their likely impact on streamflow and instream total suspended solids and nitrate loads of the Mekong River. The findings suggest that further hydropower operations on either tributary or mainstream could result in annual and wet season flow reduction between 11 and 25% while increase dry season flows by 1 to 15%, when compared to a business-as-usual scenario. Conversely, hydropower operation on both tributary and mainstream could result in dry season flow reduction between 10 and 15%. Both instream TSS and nitrate loads are forecasted to reduce under all three scenarios by as much as 78 and 20%, respectively, compared to the business-as-usual one. These effects are predicted to magnify under extreme climate conditions with dry season flow, TSS, and nitrate levels reduced by as much as 44, 81 and 35%, respectively, during a projected extreme dry climate condition, but less severe under improved operational alternatives. With further hydropower development in the LMB being highly unavoidable, these findings can inform effective transboundary management pathways for balancing electricity generation and protection of riverine ecology, water and food security, and people livelihoods.
... Thus, the impacts of shocks by the natural environment, economic environment, urbanization, climate change, and human intervention in water resources are forces. People in the Mekong Delta choose livelihood activities that help households sustain poverty reduction in economic growth, preventing the risk of falling back into poverty (Atkinson, 2021). In the process of finding sustainable poverty reduction solutions, the livelihood approach has been chosen and applied by many countries instead of the poverty reduction approach focusing on food concerns. ...
Sustainable poverty reduction livelihoods in rural areas is a comprehensive process to solve current problems and build sustainability for the future. Sustainable Poverty Reduction Livelihoods in Rural Areas aims at solutions to reduce poverty and ensure complete and sustainable development of rural communities. The research seeks to discover factors affecting sustainable poverty reduction livelihoods in rural areas. Research data was collected in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. In the survey with the questionnaire, 750 people responded directly to the questionnaire. SPSS 20 and AMOS 24 software are used to analyze data. The data collection process takes place from August to October 2023. Implementation methods include data descriptive statistics, testing scales, analyzing factors' suitability, and testing research structure. The research results show that six factors affect sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction in rural areas in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, including local government policies, infrastructure, education and training, labour market, community involvement, and finance and banking services. From the study's findings, several contents are discussed and suggested to help understand the relationship between factors affecting sustainable poverty reduction livelihoods in rural areas.
... Since the emergence of the environmental dimension in the last few decades [46,47], recently we are witnessing an increased awareness for issues of social responsibility [58]. This is "the reason why" we consider the better understanding of the interactions between megaproject and social impact assessment disciplines crucial [2,10,15]. ...
The understanding of the interactions between megaproject and social impact assessment disciplines is crucial and an effective implementation of a multi-dimensional perspective has been positively correlated with project success and failures avoidance. Current literature aims to encompass this role, extending the analysis of the impacts to the broader concept of stakeholders and local communities impacted by the project. The aim of the Authors is that these preliminary findings can inspire further and deeper research on these topics, looking for and integrated approach to include all of them into a cohesive framework for managing the social pillar in megaprojects management. The literature review leads to the identification of three different research areas related to the issue of the evaluation of the megaprojects from a social perspective: a first one related to the issue of power and equality that looks coherent with the critical management agenda both from a methodological and theoretical point of view; a second one related to the concept of social space as a construct to adopt in order to enlarge the alternatives in the evaluation process; the third one that depicts the role of technology and social media to manage stakeholders.KeywordsMegaprojectsSocial impactSustainabilityLiterature review
... Turning to the current issues of Ukrainian energy, it is first of all extremely inefficient and is characterized by a high level of specific pollution of Ukrainian thermal power plants [16][17][18] due to near-full depreciation of equipment and obsolete technologies. In recent years (2018-2020) there has been a steady decline in electricity generation by traditional industries (hydro, thermal, nuclear) [19][20][21]. Against this background, the level of domestic consumption and growing exports to Eastern Europe is supported by electricity imports and growth in electricity generation through renewable energy. This is primarily due to the introduction of the "green tariffs" vector for certain types of generation, which were among the largest in Europe. ...
The main task is to assess the current wholesale electricity tariffs in the energy market of Ukraine, taking into account the external effects created by certain sectors of electricity production for society and other sectors of the economy. The paper discusses optimization models to maximize the function of public utility of electricity generation, making allowances for externalities. The optimization problem of the ratio of different types of generation is set based on maximizing the function of the social utility of electricity generation, taking into account external effects. Based on the existing realities of tariffs at which electricity enters the domestic energy market, the limits of state regulation for each of the types of electricity production. The authors presented an optimization model of electricity generation, which corresponded to the state of the energy market for 2019, providing an opportunity to assess the contribution of the inverse external effects of each electricity sector and to estimate external tariffs for each electricity generation sector. It turned out that the external tariffs of each industry exceed the tariffs paid at that time by the state for each of the types of generation.KeywordsElectricity tariffEnergy sectorOptimization modelSystems structure
Purpose
Megaprojects stimulate and challenge public opinion across countries, generating extensive reactions from citizens. Given their ability to attract public attention, they may also influence public participation in collective choices and political decision-making. These issues are relevant for evaluating projects, but are unfortunately rarely discussed in the managerial literature. This study aims to open up a debate on social issues and how they could be taken into account within management studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study carried out a systematic review of the literature on the social impact of megaprojects to identify different research areas related to the evaluation of megaprojects from a social perspective.
Findings
This study identified three different research areas related to the evaluation of megaprojects from a social perspective: the role of power and social issues; infrastructure and social space; and stakeholder engagement and endorsement.
Originality/value
This paper underlines the need to go beyond current understanding of the social impacts of megaprojects and calls for a more interdisciplinary research agenda.
Construction projects’ complexity increases with their size, stakeholders’ environment and engineering specialties. This condition is accentuated in the context of megaprojects.On the one hand, BIM has helped to manage the complexity of construction projects, transforming all project components into a digital system. On the other hand, enterprise architecture (EA) allows managing the organization as a system and decomposing interrelated components into a model. BIM and EA aspire to interoperability and collaboration as their application maturity increases beyond project boundaries. The joint work between BIM and EA could manage the project’s complexity and accelerate BIM maturity in project-business management.This paper seeks to identify the connections between BIM and EA through a literature review showing the advantages and synergies of their combined application. Advances and challenges are discussed for future studies to achieve stronger exploitation of BIM and EA working together.KeywordsBuilding information modeling (BIM)enterprise architecture (EA)business process management (BPM)interoperabilitymaturity
The inability to effectively manage structural, social and emergent complexity is one of the main causes of megaprojects failure. The leader’s technical skills are beyond necessary but not sufficient to deal with situations of increasing complexity. High levels of complexity can only be addressed with radical new approaches. Specifically, this paper aims to shift the focus from a traditional concept of leadership acknowledged to a specifical individual within a project to an organization-wide, aware and sustainable (WAS) leadership exerted by key people. All key people involved in the implementation of the megaproject (designers, analysts, project managers, …) are invited to exercise a new leadership style that, in the model we propose, has three main characteristics. To give a practical imprinting to the research, a case study has been selected to describe the traits and skills of the WAS leader in megaprojects.Keywordscomplexityshared leadershipboundary spannersproject manager’ reconciliating roleManagement for stakeholderproject success factorsnew iron trianglenew competenciesvalue creationleader-megaproject fit
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for assessing the effects of global and regional externalities that create traditional power generation industries and to propose a transition to a tariff strategy taking into account these consequences. The main purpose of the research is to analyze the current wholesale electricity tariffs in the energy market of Ukraine and propose their assessment taking into account external effects for other sectors of the economy.
Design/methodology/approach
At the first stage, according to observations for 2004–2019 on the amount of pollution and the cost of agricultural products in some regions of Ukraine, which is provided in 2010 prices, the impact of hazardous emissions on the cost of agricultural products was analyzed in each region. The use of panel regression allowed to combine spatial and temporal studies (12 separate areas and time interval 2004–2019). To assess the external effects of heat generation, panel regression was used, which made it possible to combine spatial and temporal data on the impact of pollution on the efficiency of agricultural production and add regional losses of agricultural business to the cost of heat generation. This paper uses optimization models to maximize the function of public utility of electricity generation, making allowances for externalities.
Findings
This research assesses the negative externalities of Ukraine's energy and confirms the need for a global transition to a low-carbon economy primarily through climate finance. The analysis revealed the presence of various influences of the factor of regional air pollution and time. The hypothesis of the existence of a negative impact of local air pollution on agricultural production has been confirmed. An increase in emissions by 1,000 tons leads to an average decrease in regional agricultural production by UAH 84 million (at the prices of 2010).
Originality/value
The optimization problem of the ratio of different types of generation is set on the basis of maximizing the function of social utility of electricity generation, taking into account external effects. The authors presented an optimization model of electricity generation, which corresponded to the state of the energy market for 2019, provides an opportunity to assess the contribution of the inverse external effects of each electricity sector and to estimate external tariffs for each electricity generation sector.
Globally, Indigenous Peoples' dissent against unjust state and corporate incursions in their lands is being suppressed. States and corporations use penal laws, anti-terrorist legislation, and emergency powers to justify the detention of activists, who are subject to intimidation, human rights violations, or, at worst, extrajudicial killings. In 2019, the Philippines was named the most murderous country for environmental defenders; yet the literature about Indigenous Peoples' dissent in the country, where militarization of ancestral domains has been a continuing state project, remains scant-in contrast to extensive academic attention in other places particularly in the Americas. This paper asks how, when and where Philippine Indigenous Peoples' dissent started to expand what narratives of mobilizations did history produce, and how do these narratives travel across space-time. Using multi-methods research and focusing on the Philippine Cordillera, where mega-hydropower projects have been extensively proposed as a key mode for energy transition, yet are widely opposed by uncolonized peoples, this paper describes how Macli-ing Dulag's assassination, the Ifugao cultural performances, and net-worked mobilization during the second half of 1970s up to the early 1980s are becoming relevant in present-day dissent against large-hydro projects.
This study investigates the validity of the EKC (environmental Kuznets curve) hypothesis for the 50 US states and a Federal District (Washington, D.C.). To this aim, the common correlated effects (CCE) and the augmented mean group (AMG) estimation procedures are applied between 1980 and 2015. While the CCE estimation does not support EKC hypothesis, the AMG does. The empirical findings of the AMG estimation indicate that only 14 states verify the EKC hypothesis. Additionally, the expected negative impacts of fossil energy consumption on the environment (CO2 emissions) are strongly detected in all states except Texas. However, the expected positive impacts of renewable energy consumption on the CO2 emissions are detected only in 13 states. Furthermore, the expected negative impacts of the population are not detected in some mostly populated states like New York, Texas, and Ohio. The overall findings of this study may help the US state-level policy makers in two ways: first, to understand whether their economic growths are sustainable (eco-friendly); second, to see how their fossil and renewable energy consumptions affect their environments and to review their energy policies.
A novel ‘Sustainability Window’ (SuWi) approach is applied for simultaneous analysis of the pillars of sustainable development; social, environmental and economic, of Lao PDR. This new method employs a variety of indicators for a comprehensive and holistic analysis of sustainable development and green inclusive economy. The analysis is grounded in the assumption that economic development is required for social development, but that simultaneously development needs to be guarded or limited to protect the environment that underpins it. As all three dimensions of sustainable development are interlinked, a comprehensive analysis requires an analytical approach that is simultaneous. The analyses
provide information on minimum levels of economic development that are needed to fulfill social sustainability criteria, in tandem with the maximum economic development that avoids breaching environmental sustainability criteria. If actual economic growth lies between these minima and maxima, we can interpret that development is more sustainable with respect to the relationships embodied by the selected social and environmental indicators. The main source of data is the database of the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) developed by the Sustainable Society Foundation (SSF). The indicators used by SSI have been chosen for the Sustainability Window analysis as they can be used to assess both ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ interpretations of sustainability. Weak sustainability is defined operationally as no increase in the environmental or carbon emissions intensity of the economy, while strong sustainability is defined as no increase in absolute emissions. Further, a novel Environmental Efficiency Gap analysis has been included in the Sustainability Window. This provides information about the necessary improvement in GDP production efficiency with respect to environmental emissions. Sustainability Window combined with Environmental Efficiency
Gap analysis, provides critical knowledge for planners and decision makers. It provides strategic indications of how to aim for social and environmental sustainability through economic investment and growth targets. These new methods can be used in transdisciplinary research of sustainable development and can also assist in national and regional comparisons. In the case of Lao PDR, the analysis needs to be broadened for more fundamental understanding of the gaps and weaknesses. SuWi can be used to assess the sustainable development needed to address the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The SuWi does not provide direct policy recommendations as such, but helps to inform decision makers about the direction of development pathways towards these key goals.
Scholars are rarely able to examine anti-dam movements that result in project suspensions or cancellations since these cases are rare empirically. Yet, they are central to understanding how anti-dam movements can succeed. This paper analyzes the movements against Myanmar’s Myitsone Dam and Thailand’s Kaeng Suea Ten Dam. Likely the most successful anti-dam movements in Southeast Asia in recent years, they achieved suspension over 6 and 37 years, respectively. The research is based on 60 semistructured interviews carried out over a period of 8 months. Leveraging thinking from both the constructionist and structural schools within the field of social movement studies, it is found that the framing of the Myitsone Dam as a project threatening the national cultural heritage of Myanmar (in combination with political change in the country in 2010/2011) largely explains the movement’s success. Meanwhile, the set of sophisticated tactics (including inter alia demonstrations, Thai Baan research, 24/7 monitoring of the dam site, and spiritual activities) was decisive for the efficacy of the movement against Thailand’s Kaeng Suea Ten Dam.
Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy generation and their possible contribution to mitigating climate change. At the forefront of the renaissance of large hydropower dams are Chinese companies, as the builders of the world's largest dams at home and abroad, opening up opportunities for low- and middle-income countries. However, large hydropower dams, despite their possible developmental and carbon reduction contributions, are accompanied by huge economic costs, profound negative environmental changes and social impacts. Using fieldwork data from four hydropower projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Cambodia and Malaysia, this paper evaluates the behaviour of Chinese stakeholders engaged in large hydropower projects in Asia and Africa. We do this by first exploring the interests of the different Chinese stakeholders and then by investigating the wider implications of these Chinese dams on the local, national and international contexts. The paper concludes that hydropower dams will continue to play a prominent role in future efforts to increase energy security and reduce energy poverty worldwide, therefore the planning, building and mitigation strategies need to be implemented in a more sustainable way that takes into account national development priorities, the needs of local people and the impacts on natural habitats.
China is a major investor in hydropower in mainland Southeast Asia. These investments have triggered substantial public concern, with anti-Chinese attitudes intensifying across the region. Yet, Chinese involvement varies across the region. We examine the " practices and perceptions " of Chinese hydropower investment in Vietnam and Myanmar, attending to the framing of dominant explanations of these investments. We caution against reinforcing xenophobic narratives about China, and urge scholars to consider what these narratives obscure. Our concern is that exceptionalising the role of Chinese investors overlooks foundational issues regarding local participation and environmental governance. RÉSUMÉ La Chine est un investisseur majeur dans le secteur de l'hydroélectricité en Asie du Sud-Est continentale. Ces investissements ont suscité des inquiétudes importantes et des attitudes antichinoises se sont intensifiées à travers la région. Toutefois, la présence chinoise varie à travers la région. Nous examinons les « pratiques et perceptions » de l'investissement hydroélectrique chinois au Vietnam et au Myanmar en insistant sur les explications dominantes de ces investissements. Nous mettons en garde contre le renforcement de récits xénophobes sur la Chine et encourageons les universitaires à analyser ce qu'occultent ces récits. Notre préoccupation est que l'exceptionalisation du rôle des investisseurs chinois passe sous silence des enjeux fondamentaux concernant la participation locale et la gouvernance environnementale. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Yaw4GU88TthVDQXZwVz7/full
The Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project (NT2) in Laos has – despite being considered a model project by its main international supporter, the World Bank – had major social and environmental impacts on downstream areas in the Xe Bang Fai (XBF) River Basin. In this article we argue that NT2 has been especially damaging to ethnic Brou Indigenous Peoples, and particularly Brou women, who although they have not been passive victims and have demonstrated a certain level of agency, have nevertheless been proportionally more impacted, and have been generally less able to take advantage of project compensation. In its expedient approach to project development, the project developers, including the World Bank, have failed to even recognize that thousands of ethnic Brou people living in the XBF Basin qualify as Indigenous. This has led to a number of adverse consequences, including increasing the vulnerability of these communities to induced internal resettlement. Much more needs to be done to address the plight of those impacted by NT2 in the XBF
River Basin, including Indigenous Peoples and especially Indigenous women.
At the turn of the 21st century, protectionist policies in Latin America were largely abandoned for an agenda that promoted free trade and regional integration. Central America especially experienced an increase in international, interstate, and intraregional economic integration through trade liberalization. In 2004, such integration was on the agenda of every Central American administration, the U.S. Congress, and Mexico. The Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) and the Central America Integrated Electricity System (SIEPAC), in particular, aimed to facilitate the success of free trade by increasing energy production and transmission on a unifi ed regional power grid (Mesoamerica, 2011). Meanwhile, for the United States, a free trade agreement (FTA) with Central America would bring it a step closer to realizing a hemispheric trade bloc while securing market access for its products. Isthmus states considered the potential for a Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, their largest trading partner, as an opportunity to enter the global market on a united front. A decade and a half on, CAFTA, PPP, and SIEPAC are interwoven, complimentary initiatives that exemplify a shift towards increased free trade and development throughout the region. As such, to understand one, the other must be examined.
The world is fast becoming a global village due to the increasing daily requirement of energy by all population across the world while the earth in its form cannot change. The need for energy and its related services to satisfy human social and economic development, welfare and health is increasing. Returning to renewables to help mitigate climate change is an excellent approach which needs to be sustainable in order to meet energy demand of future generations. The study reviewed the opportunities associated with renewable energy sources which includes: Energy Security, Energy Access, Social and Economic development, Climate Change Mitigation, and reduction of environmental and health impacts. Despite these opportunities, there are challenges that hinder the sustainability of renewable energy sources towards climate change mitigation. These challenges include Market failures, lack of information, access to raw materials for future renewable resource deployment, and our daily carbon footprint. The study suggested some measures and policy recommendations which when considered would help achieve the goal of renewable energy thus to reduce emissions, mitigate climate change and provide a clean environment as well as clean energy for all and future generations.
Global warming is a well-known natural phenomenon that needs to be controlled for environmental conservation. Based on the ecological interrelationship between forest and climate, the concept of our review was formulated with the aim of providing current information about deforestation and its effects on climate change, the impacts of climate change on forests and the role of forests in climate change. Based on recent research findings, the annual rate of deforestation is 0.14% per year with 2.3 million square kilometers lost between 2000 and 2012. The net carbon emission from deforestation and forest degradation, which can cause climate change, was high and it has not changed significantly over the last two decades. On the other hand, temperature, drought, precipitation and fire can affect forest health (especially for young trees). But if we define these factors in detail, solar radiation alone may not affect tree growth, although together with temperature it can affect growth. Moreover, the frequency of fire affected the regeneration of tropical moist deciduous and Amazonian forest types more significantly than temperate and tropical dry deciduous forest types. Non-equilibrium species distribution has been occurring and frequency of species has been changed throughout the world. However, the amount of carbon storage by world forests is significant (650 billion tons) although carbon sequestration potential varies with forest types and water deficiency.
There are currently over 60 tributary and mainstream dams planned or under construction in Lao PDR with 95% of the electricity from these dams slated to be exported to neighbouring countries. In the Mekong basin, the structure of the Thai energy sector – the country’s lack of domestic hydropower development and the current and planned power purchase agreements between Thailand and Laos – differentiates Thailand from other regional investors.
Using a political ecology approach, this paper examines how powerful state and private actors from within Thailand and Lao PDR mobilise power to control the benefits from hydropower while the social and environmental impacts are largely ignored, thereby constituting a form of water grabbing.
The analysis shows that the structure and politics of the Thai electricity sector, private-sector profiteering and a strong domestic civil society are driving Thailand’s hydropower investment in neighbouring Laos. Thai investments are enabled by Laos’ weak enforcement of laws, a lack of capacity to regulate development, the existence of corruption and a tightly controlled state. These drivers and enabling factors combine with short-term economic focused regional development to create opportunities for water grabbing. The winners of this water grabbing are the powerful actors who control the benefits, while the losers, local livelihoods and the environment, are negatively impacted.
Government efforts to industrialise and modernise the Lao economy through intensive resource development are having adverse effects on rural livelihoods as resources are degraded and access to limited land and natural resources has intensified. In one of the country's key river basins, Nam Ngum, a series of resource developments including hydropower, mining and agricultural plantations have modified the landscape over the last four decades. Uncoordinated resource developments are putting intense pressure on increasingly scarce natural resources and affecting the lives of people who are dependent on them. Economic diversification of rural households in Feuang District in the Nam Ngum River Basin has created significant discrepancies between the rich and the poor, yet all households remain primarily dependent on agriculture. Land is of enduring importance to rural livelihoods. National development intervention has failed to secure basic livelihoods for rural households.
Vital water resources necessary for the production of food crops are coming under threat. Hydropower generation can have impacts on flood plains such that flooding even s are prolonged or more frequent and fish Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project (THXP), comprehensive measures have been introduced stocks decline. In this case of the ot only to restore lost production but also to secure food security and higher yields in areas downstream of the project. Relocation of villages, new or improved irrigation systems for dry-season rice production and other livelihood restoration measures are being monitored for their impact on social development and income.
Applying Charles Tilly's notion of ‘repertoires of contention’, this paper discusses strategies and modes of protest carried out by the movements against hydropower projects in India. It compares the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA; Save Narmada Movement) in Madhya Pradesh and the Shramik Mukthi Dal (SMD; Labour Liberation Party) led mobilisations against hydropower projects in Maharashtra. It explains the more dramatic repertoires deployed by NBA as opposed to moderate and pragmatic movement repertoires of SMD. The paper concludes that the differences in ideology, organisation and cultural–historical legacy of the two organisations, as well as their different modes of interaction with the state, are the causes behind different contentious repertoires deployed by them, which resulted in different trajectories and outcomes.
Political themes undergo specific political careers. They enter and leave political agendas. Themes in development policy are, for example, biodiversity, climate change, or deforestation. While political themes change, underlying principles of aid disbursement do not. Currently the discussion on Climate Aid, in particular the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, puts again the emphasis to deforestation. Deforestation is a prominent theme, often defined as a “forest problem,” by foreign aid policies on forestry. Foresters are once again dubbed as being able to “save the World” all on their own. In fact, it is not them who on decide the priorities of foreign (aid) policy. The decisions made about cooperating countries and thematic areas do not stem from problem pressure. Political factors dominate the program formulation and financing. Analyses of European donors' forest aid reveal that, contrary to what is defined in policies, disbursements to countries, relevant to deforestation, are not prioritized. Also the goal of poverty alleviation is not served. Most of the funds are spent in countries of already relatively high human development. Countries with “rampant” corruption are given handouts as well as small island developing countries. On the basis of these results we can draw conclusions on the ability and efficiency of (future) Climate Aid that is hoped to serve forests and the poor.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse social and environmental sustainability considerations developed in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and to identify problems and challenges related to sustainable hydropower planning and development.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is leaning on empirical analysis based on analysing primary and secondary data and information; official government documents and relevant literature, a series of workshops of the Future Resource and Economy Policies in Laos till 2020 Project (FREPLA2020), and interviews with government officials and experts.
Findings
To achieve its socio‐economic objectives, Lao PDR needs to manage its hydropower development to ensure environmental and social sustainability through developing of the legal, institutional and regulatory environment and strengthening of the institutional capacity of the sector, improving knowledge and data management, and developing institutional coordination across the government agencies.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that the Lao government assesses strategically the hydropower development options, prepares capacity building plans, develops risk assessment and management, and learns from past hydropower developments.
Social implications
The paper recommends using hydropower development generated revenues to poverty reduction activities and to strengthen participatory approaches.
Originality/value
The paper can act as a discussion awakener, to help and give some guidance to decision makers and actors in the hydropower sector to integrate sustainable development considerations into hydropower development and planning.
Hydropower is considered as one of the most convenient and popular renewable energy technologies and its capacity is growing rapidly throughout the world. Its rapid deployment also comes up with various environmental issues which cannot be neglected at a glance. Previous studies had imposed questions about its sustainable nature and now it becomes important to think about the sustainability of hydropower projects so that the technology would grow effectively in future. This paper reviews the status of research on environmental assessment of hydropower projects. The factors which affect the environmental impacts associated with hydropower generation are also explored. It is found that environmental impact assessment of hydropower projects must be performed considering all aspects and factors which affects the environmental impacts associated with hydropower projects. Most of the previous studies are focused on the estimation of GHG emissions so it is necessary to give emphasis on other environmental impacts like acidification, land use, energy consumption etc. and also consider biomass decomposition in submerged land. In fact it is not worthy to predict the sustainability of hydropower projects without considering almost all biophysical impacts associated with them. The paper also compares large and small hydro considering all sustainability assessment factors. Small hydropower projects are considered as a good alternative to control the problems associated with large hydropower projects but still many studies found that so many issues are associated with small hydro as well which cannot be neglected completely.
The 21st century has witnessed a resurgence of hydropower projects across the globe, with the energy source an integral part of contemporary sustainable energy transitions. Yet, the environmentalist credentials of hydropower remain contested by anti-dam movements. This paper details the cases of the Belo Monte and São Luiz do Tapajós dams in the Brazilian Amazon to explore how the development, submission and acceptance of an Environmental Impact Assessment provides a key site in the contestation of hydroelectric projects. Whilst the provision of this document – and the wider environmental licensing process – represents a key component in the asserted ‘green-ness’ of hydropower, opposition groups extend the scope of analysis to include indirect and cumulative impacts that remain understudied in official assessments. This paper analyses interviews and questionnaires with and documents provided by national and international civil society organisations to trace this process of challenge and critique. It details how civil society actors forward alternative assessments of the impacts of the projects studied, uncovering and illuminating overlooked and understudied externalities of hydropower in the Brazilian Amazon. An analysis of this process not only demonstrates that the ‘green’ credentials of hydropower remain far from assured but also highlights how anti-dam actors advance new ‘sustainabilities’ to discredit the terrain upon which such credentials are set.
Lao People's Democratic Republic (hereafter Lao PDR or Laos) has implemented policies to expand plantations on the basis of their contribution to economic development, improvement of local livelihoods, poverty alle-viation, developing linkages between the processing industry and smallholder growers, and improving environmental outcomes. Despite the significant inflow in foreign investment in forest plantations, few studies have attempted to analyse the contribution of foreign investment to income distribution and poverty. This paper uses a top-down macro-micro economic modelling framework to assess the impacts of plantation development policies on poverty and inequality in Laos. The results revealed that welfare and inequality would increase while poverty incidence would decrease. These results can be used to improve policies for economic development and poverty alleviation.
Protected areas (PA) cover an impressive 62% of Laos' land surface, however there are a lot of low biodiversity value residential and agricultural areas within the protected area network (PAN). The Government of Laos is aiming to re-delineate the PAN in order to exclude these areas. We support this aim by estimating how efficiently different protected area categories have reduced deforestation, by modeling priority areas for conservation and by evaluating the mismatch between these and the current PAN. Protection effectiveness was analyzed via combined matching and regression method, which indicates that only National Protected Areas have actually reduced deforestation, while the remaining PA categories have had negligible impacts. Spatial multi-criteria decision analysis supported by local and international expert knowledge on conservation, forestry and land management was used to model conservation priority areas, which were compared with the current PAN. The results indicate that vast overprotected low conservation priority areas exist inside the PAN, especially within Protection Forest Areas. Based on these findings, we argue that the current PAN is ineffective and inappropriately targeted. We recommend that Laos re-delineates and downsizes its PAN to ensure sufficient management of remaining high conservation priority areas both inside and outside the PAN. We further discuss potential methods and co-benefits of PA re-delineation in Laos' context. The findings are also globally linked to limitations of systematic conservation planning in data-scarce developing countries and the need to improve both quality and coverage of biodiversity data alongside protected area monitoring and management.
This paper examines measuring of interdependency among households through their transactions by using information of individual villagers in a disadvantaged area in a developing country. To obtain the information, we created a village input–output table (VIOT) from household survey data conducted in a rural village in Lao PDR in 2015 and 2016. Because each household in the village is not only a producer but also a consumer who is trading products and consuming them, the VIOT is a simple but useful tool to know the economic transactions among villagers. The main findings are that four higher-income families, which mainly trade rice very frequently, are playing key roles in the village economy, and the interdependency among higher-income households is stronger than among lower/middle-income households. Additionally, this method can be used to form an economic policy such as poverty reduction because of informing households playing a key role in the village.
Based on extensive original research, this book explores the technical, social, political, and economic dimensions of four Asian energy megaprojects: a regional natural gas pipeline network in Southeast Asia, a series of hydroelectric dams on the island of Borneo, an oil pipeline linking Europe with the Caspian Sea, and a very large solar energy array in the Gobi desert. © Benjamin K. Sovacool and Christopher J. Cooper 2013. All rights reserved.
This paper investigates the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in Laos by applying the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration and Granger causality tests. Our results confirm the existence of a long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth. In addition, we found unidirectional causality running from economic growth to electricity consumption in the long run supporting the ‘Conservation hypothesis’.
Laos has launched ambitious plans on poverty reduction greatly by developing hydropower in the mainstream of the Mekong River. However, upstream dam construction may result in salt water intrusion followed by ecology deterioration of downstream countries in a transboundary river context. These potential impacts could worsen economy and social growth, ecology security, and residents’ lives to downstream states. Furthermore, diplomatic crisis may be triggered if all stakeholders do not handle the conflicts properly. In this study, dilemmas of hydropower development in Laos are analyzed from policy perspective. Various factors constraining hydropower exploration are identified. Results indicate that the Lao government is confronted with numerous stressors from the mechanism of the Mekong River Commission and other organizations in hydropower development. Laos should adopt multiple approaches to shake off the current dilemmas rather than pursue a unilateral policy on dam construction in the Mekong River.
Purpose
India is a developing nation where the marginal benefit of Infrastructure Development is tremendous. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between infrastructure development and poverty reduction for India using the yearly data from 1991 to 2015.
Design/methodology/approach
We use the Principal Component analysis to construct indices for four major sub-sectors namely: Transport, Water and Sanitation, Telecommunications and Energy, falling under the broad Infrastructure sector and then using these sector wise indices, we construct an overall index which represents infrastructure development. We provide evidence on the link between infrastructure development and poverty reduction by using the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach.
Findings
The ARDL test results suggest that infrastructure development and economic growth reduce poverty in both long run and short run. The causality test confirms that there is a positive and unidirectional causality running from infrastructure development to poverty reduction.
Research limitations/implications
The study confirms that India’s Infrastructure development plays a vital role in reducing poverty and calls for the Indian government to adopt economic policies which are aimed at developing and strengthing the Infrastructure levels and bringing in more investment in the Infrastructure sector in order to help the poor population by making them exposed to better opportunities of employment and income growth, thereby achieving the goal of poverty reduction.
Originality/value
This paper is a fresh and unique attempt of its kind to empirically investigate the causal relationship between infrastructure development and poverty reduction in India using modern econometric techniques.
Contradicting policies and overlapping property arrangements are common in many countries, opening doors for diverse interpretations by different actors. This requires better knowledge on how competing interests and actors interact and what determines the practical competition outcomes as demand for land intensifies and international actors get increasingly involved in regulating natural resources. Land use planning in Laos provides a case in point as it aims at strengthening tenure security, intensifying agriculture and sparing forest areas while other policies simultaneously promote agricultural development and agri-business investment that reconfigure land use and land access. Through national, provincial, district, village and household interviews, we examine how different land- and forest-related policies interact, and whether ongoing land use planning processes and land rights formalization increase tenure security. We show how government policies supported by international donors, and introduced to strengthen tenure rights for the rural population actually reduce villagers’ legally permitted agricultural areas. Even if district-level land use regulations do not currently exclude local communities from their land, land use plans lay the groundwork for potentially excluding villagers from large land areas. We find that plural, contradictory regulations and policies, combined with existing power inequalities result in a “filter mechanism” that reduces the practical impact of legal instruments and safeguards aimed at strengthening the least powerful actors’ rights. Our results add to other authors’ arguments that political and legal changes are mediated by power relations, cultural norms and economic incentives, by highlighting that the duel-edged rights sword may actually end up paving the way for greater state control over future benefits derived from community areas classified as forest lands. This is especially relevant when preparing REDD+, which we show is likely to weaken rather than strengthen tenure security for rural populations.
This contribution examines how and with what effects the Movement of People Threatened by Dams (MOAB) in the Ribeira Valley, Brazil, works at various scales simultaneously. It is argued that MOAB was kicked off by mobilising Afro-descendants around livelihood issues, and that one of the first anti-dam strategies was to claim quilombola recognition and land rights at the state level. MOAB soon expanded its network and broadened its agenda to include procedural justice, targeting federal and international agencies for recourse. The paper concludes that MOAB has successfully used different scales for framing, mobilisation and action, which has contributed to the dam project being put on hold for almost three decades.
We examine the patterns and characteristics of private investment in Laos, and how these evolve in relation to the Lao government's investment incentive policies in particular, and the wider State policies in general. Our goals are to: 1) systematically describe and analyse the patterns and characteristics of private investment in the country; and 2) analyse investment outcomes in terms of economic growth, poverty reduction and livelihoods. We argue that while private investments in the resource sector have contributed to the economic growth, they have also negatively impacted local resources and communities. From a policy perspective, we highlight the need to examine the actual significance of policy incentives provided by the Lao government, especially with regard to its ability to direct investment decisions, geographically and sectorally.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of public expenditure on economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries like India. If poverty and inequality are high, the government may resort to distributive policies at the cost of long-term growth. The distributive policies and poverty alleviation measures fail to achieve success due to lack of good governance, lack of proper targeting and problems in the implementation of such schemes. On the other hand, if the nature of public expenditure is such that it enhances per capita income, it will help reduce poverty.
Design/methodology/approach
– After analytical digression and construction of hypotheses panel regression has been done using state-level data in the Indian context to empirically verify the above propositions. Both Fixed effects and Random effects models have been used for this purpose.
Findings
– The results show that in states where ratio of public expenditure on the development of infrastructure such as road, irrigation, power, transport and communication is higher, per capita income is also higher and incidence of poverty is lower indicating that economic growth is important for poverty alleviation and development of infrastructure is necessary for growth.
Originality/value
– This study demonstrates how public policy and public finance can be used as instruments for removal of poverty.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of financial development to poverty reduction in 11 South Asian developing countries using panel data set over the time period 1990-2012.
Design/methodology/approach
– The stationarity properties are checked by using Levin-Lin-Chu and Im-Pesaran-Shin panel unit root tests. The paper applied the Pedroni’s panel co-integration test to examine the existence of long-run relationship. The coefficients of co-integration are examined by fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and the causal link is checked by panel causality test.
Findings
– The empirical results of Pedroni co-integration test confirm a long-run relationship between financial development and poverty reduction in South Asian developing economies. The findings of FMOLS method confirm a strong and positive relationship between financial development, trade openness, inflation and poverty reduction. Results of panel causality test indicate that there is a unidirectional causality running from financial development to poverty reduction variable.
Research limitations/implications
– The present study recommends appropriate economic and financial reforms focussing on financial inclusion to reduce poverty in selected South Asian economies.
Originality/value
– This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine the causal relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in South Asian economies using modern econometric techniques.
The Mekong is a region whose geopolitics are shifting in complex ways. They are shifting with the post-Cold War reconfiguration of ideological as well as strategic power deployments. They are also shifting with rapid economic development and associated regional integration. This paper employs these various dimensions of shifting geopolitics to explore and partially explain the (re)emergence of hydropower development in the Mekong. It does so by outlining both the shifting geopolitics of river and region, and showing how the Mekong as metaphor extends to much more than the materiality of the river from which the multiply constructed region derives its name. It suggests that the regional geopolitics produced by these shifts is key to the re-emergence of mainstream hydropower.
'Water grabbing' in the Mekong River has been accelerating at a feverish pace. The stakes have never been greater. Talks between international socio-environment groups, public-private dam partners, and Mekong countries are increasingly fractious and dysfunctional. The departure of the multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, from large-scale infrastructure funding has allowed the private sector access to investment opportunities in hydropower, and as a result facilitated the promise of rapid hydropower growth in the Lao PDR. The antagonism of international social and environmental groups towards these dams is due primarily to the transboundary impacts of multiple constructions and modifications to the Mekong. We posit that the dilemma in the negotiations over the Mekong dams in Lao can be best understood from the perspective of misaligned incentives-objectives. We examine the major stakeholders involved in contractual negotiations and group parties according to their aligned incentives-objectives. We employ a criteria trade-off framework to show that if talks take place over two rounds under particular rules, compromises of objectives and trading of incentives are possible. We stipulate that a Pareto-optimal solution is indeed possible-if a non-partisan, authoritative agent with retributory powers to design and enforce corrective incentives for all stakeholders takes part in both negotiation rounds. © 2015 Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.
Because of the role that peripheral forest landscapes played in postwar nation-building, the Lao military has long played a significant, even if often hard-to-see, role in the administration of the country's protected areas. This role is becoming increasingly apparent as transnational market-based forest governance efforts begin to threaten military administration of protected areas. As a consequence, the multi-dimensional nature of security – both defensive in the classic military sense, but also increasingly economic and complex – is coming to light through uses of what we describe as the security exception: the invocation of national security, in this case by military actors, to manage the reach and efficacy of emerging forest governance efforts. Projects to reduce climate-related emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) have been especially prone to trigger the security exception due to their focus on forest measurement and change over time, and are examined here in two cases from protected areas in western and southern Laos. We suggest that even as conflicts over forest management may be interpreted through the lens of foreign domination and the loss of domestic sovereignty – indeed the security exception feeds on such interpretations – these conflicts are better understood as struggles within the Lao state and society over the how to manage and use forest resources in a context of economic uncertainty and persistent underdevelopment. In such a context, the role of conservation NGOs and Western donors as gatekeepers to ongoing transnational governance efforts is nonetheless highly significant.
This article develops the idea of “dirty money states” by defining and exploring the problem of illicit state financing in Southeast Asia. Most diagnoses of Southeast Asia's flourishing illicit economies focus on the prevalence of corruption and the “decay” of the state, but the authors of this essay develop a more nuanced explanation by exploring how states cultivate and sustain themselves through illicit extraction. Drawing from emerging literature on states and criminality, as well as fiscal sociology, they develop a novel theoretical framing for the six country case studies that comprise this thematic issue. Each study – on Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, East Timor, and the Philippines – examines empirically how illicit state financing works. Whether revenues derive from gold, timber, opium, aid agencies, or business interests, the authors identify consistent patterns in the nature and behavior of the state vis-à-vis illegally generated funds. These patterns encompass territorial dynamics and practices; the everyday social worlds of state actors and their entrepreneurial allies; and the paradoxical interplay between formal and informal realms. Ultimately the authors argue that illicit monies are fundamental to contemporary state building in the region, extending even to the delivery of public goods and services. These findings are potentially uncomfortable for scholars, governments and development practitioners, particularly because they challenge conventional ideas about how the strength and/or weakness of states might be understood in Southeast Asia. But they demand attention, since they are the product of an ambitious and unconventional research endeavor.
The Mekong Basin spanning large parts of continental Southeast Asia is endowed with rich natural resources that are increasingly under pressure as a result of rapid socio-economic development over the last decades. Particularly the forests in the region are threatened by large-scale infrastructure developments, the expansion of agriculture and trading of timber products. In view of these developments, this study provides an updated view of the current state of the forest resources in the region and the change they have undergone throughout the last decade. Annual maps of percent tree cover, herbaceous cover, and barren land for the years 2001–2011 were derived from 500 m MODIS data, and formed the basis for a tree cover specific identification of changes utilizing utilising long-term statistics on inter-annual prediction variability. Furthermore, the temporal patterns shown in the tree cover history of each pixel for the observation period, allowed a differentiation to be made between permanent forest cover conversions and temporary forest losses, as well as between areas of abrupt and more gradual forest dynamics. Average gross forest loss for the Lower Mekong Basin was estimated at a rate of 0.4% per year. When considering permanent forest losses only, the highest annual loss rates were evident for Vietnamese Basin area (1.1 %), followed by the respective national areas of Cambodia (0.7%), Laos (0.4%), and Thailand (0.2%). Extensive areas of forests and forest regrowth within Laos and Vietnam have been affected by temporal losses that have been mostly attributed to shifting -cultivation practices and the conversion of natural forests to forest plantations. Furthermore, it could be shown that temporal patterns of change may possibly reveal information about the underlying causes of forest cover reduction. Forest clearance related to large-scale mechanised clear cutting, e.g. by the agroindustry, generally showed very abrupt decreases in canopy cover, while forest losses related to small-scale agricultural clearings or more selective logging where characterised by more gradual decreases.
Gaining public acceptance is one of the main issues with large-scale low-carbon projects such as hydropower development. It has been recommended by the World Commission on Dams that to gain public acceptance, public involvement is necessary in the decision-making process (WCD, 2000). As financially-significant actors in the planning and implementation of large-scale hydropower projects in developing country contexts, the paper examines the ways in which public involvement may be influenced by international financial institutions. Using the case study of the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Laos, the paper analyses how public involvement facilitated by the Asian Development Bank had a bearing on procedural and distributional justice. The paper analyses the extent of public participation and the assessment of full social and environmental costs of the project in the Cost-Benefit Analysis conducted during the project appraisal stage. It is argued that while efforts were made to involve the public, there were several factors that influenced procedural and distributional justice: the late contribution of the Asian Development Bank in the project appraisal stage; and the issue of non-market values and discount rate to calculate the full social and environmental costs.
This article reviews a landmark policy on resource management in Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR). The Land and Forest Allocation Policy was introduced in the early 1990s as a means of legitimately recognizing the customary rights of local communities to use and manage land and forest resources. We examine the policy from the viewpoint of decentralized resource management and, through three case studies conducted by the National University of Laos, how it works in practice. The studies were conducted in Vientiane, central Lao PDR, and indicate gaps between the expected goals of land reform and actual practice. The study also shows the varying impacts of the allocation policy on local resource use and household livelihoods in different villages. Finally, the case studies suggest the importance of field-based research as a way of critically reviewing the impact of government policy on local resource management and people's livelihoods.
A companion paper in the previous issue of this journal (Briscoe, 1999) describes the changing face of infrastructure financing in developing countries. This paper deals with the financing of major infrastructure in the water-related sectors-hydropower, water supply and sanitation, irrigation, and overall water resources management (including the environment). The overall level of investment in water-related infrastructure in developing countries is estimated to be of the order of 15 billion for hydro, 25 billion for irrigation and drainage. About 90% of this investment comes from domestic sources, primarily from the public sector. Water-related infrastructure accounts for a large chunk-about 15%-of all government spending. This heavy dependence on the public sector means that the global 'winds of change' in the respective roles of government and the private sector have major implications for the financing and structure of the water economy. The paper describes how each of the 'sub-sectors' is adapting to these winds of change. First, in recent years competition and private sector provision have emerged as the characteristicsof the new electricity industry. This change poses a fundamental challenge to hydro which, to a much greater degree than thermal, has risks (hydrological, geological, social and environmental) which are better assumed by the public than the private sector. The future of private hydro, and thus of hydro itself, depends heavily on the ability of the public sector to both share risks with the private sector, and to provide predictable social and environmental rules of the game. Second, the urban water supply sector is in the early stages of equally profound change. In recent years there has been a dramatic shift towards the private sector, in developed and developing countries alike. An outline of the future shape of a competitive urban water sector is emerging: it is one in which a growing number of private companies will compete with revitalized (and often corporatized) public utilities. Capital will, increasingly, come from the private capital markets, with the critical government role being that of light, transparent benchmarking and regulation. Third, the adaptation to the winds of change is least advanced in the public irrigation sector, which has long been characterized by public financing and 'rent seeking' by bureaucracies, politicians and private beneficiaries. It is only in recent years, and only in a few countries, that the irrigation sector has modernized. In these cases irrigation has become like any other utility, in which accountable, autonomous agencies provide users with the services the users want. In many instances, farmers have become responsible for the costs of operating and maintaining their systems; in some instances they are responsible for meeting the full costs of replacement, rehabilitation and new investments. Where these changes have taken place, there have not only been sharp swings in the relative proportion of private and public spending, but there have been dramatic improvements in the efficiency of investment and operation and, in most cases, major positive environmental impacts.
A survey of energy use on Mauritius was carried out during the period July–September 1979. It shows that the island is dependent on oil for 90% of its energy supplies and that about half of the energy consumed is used for transport. The potential for developing renewable energy sources in Mauritius is considered and it is shown that solar water-heating and the use of sugar by-products could make significant contributions to the future energy economy of the island.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic, a least developed land-locked country in Southeast Asia, was able to quadruple its electrification rate from 16% in 1995 to 63% in 2009. This has been achieved due to a series of projects undertaken by the government in conjunction with multilateral aid organizations. This study examines one such project undertaken recently by the Lao government and the World Bank called the Rural Electrification Project Phase I (REP I). Based on field research and research interviews conducted in Laos, the focus of this study is to understand this project's design and implementation, key success factors, and shortcomings. The authors derive lessons for both developing countries and those giving energy aid (such as multilateral financial institutions and development agencies) by laying out the dilemmas the project faced and emphasizing how key challenges were overcome. The study concludes by arguing that geographic and socio-economic data should be collected before electrification programs proceed, that programs must focus on the commercial viability of electricity suppliers, that fee-for-service models hold great promise, and that outsourcing can improve the efficiency and efficacy of electrification efforts.Research Highlights► Laos has quadrupled its electrification rate from 16% in 1995 to 63% in 2009. ► The experience with Laos shows that geographic and socio-economic data should be collected before electrification programs proceed. ► It also shows that programs must focus on the commercial viability of electricity suppliers and that fee-for-service models hold great promise.
While there is an important body of research on environmental discourses and policy in Southeast Asia, the situation in the Lao PDR remains understudied. This paper builds on debates related to environmental change and knowledge production and examines the socio-political construction of the current mainstream discourse on land degradation in Laos. It highlights that, despite significant uncertainties as regard the extent and severity of the issue, land degradation in the uplands is represented by the Laotian authorities and many of their development partners as a major and imminent threat to the development of the country. The paper also examines the way this perspective is translated into policies specifically aimed at resolving the upland issue and proposes an alternative reading of this process where mainstream discourse and associated policy appear partly shaped by the subjectivities and political economic projects of Laos’ policy-makers. Finally, drawing on the case of Laos, the paper provides a critical reflection on conventional approaches to assessing socio-environmental issues and defining policy interventions.
The article describes the widespread use of an estimated 60,000 low-head pico-hydropower turbines and well-developed networks of supply and support in the Northern part of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). This apparent widespread use is contrasted with the policy narratives of key actors in the government, multilateral organisations and the private sector which show an often simplified and overly negative attitude towards pico-hydropower. Based on empirical research carried out in three upland districts and the capital, Vientiane, the paper critically investigates the apparent disjuncture between policy and practice by placing pico-hydropower within the broader political context of rural electrification in the Lao PDR. It is argued that the neglect of pico-hydropower and other off-grid household electrification technologies is a result of an endemic lack of information on which to base policy decisions, the orientation of the government to facilitate large scale foreign investment in large hydropower dams, the universal applicability of solar home systems, and the broader state agenda of centralisation and control over service provision to remote upland areas.