Lao is an agrarian country where the agriculture represents 80% of the subsistence economy for the majority of households.
This means that people eat what they cultivate and sell a surplus which approximately represents only 10 to 15% of the production.
These trends are about to change.
If Lao used to be the best kept secret of East Asia, it is about to change dramatically.
While the capital city Vientiane still keeps a laid back feeling especially at night and during the week ends, the number of cars and the passage to a service economy are about to transform the shape of people's lives.
All over the world when change occurs, women are the first ones to be affected negatively by economic development.
The chances are that Lao women may see a similar situation unfold for them Various reports, studies and publications reveal that in Lao rural women play a significant role in agriculture.
More specifically the 2005 Population Census reported that 64 percent of the active population is involved as farmers and that of these 66 percent were women.
As a result of lack of sex-disaggregated data across all sectors the contribution of women to the economy and the rural economy in particular is greatly under-valued.
The agriculture sector comprises of small holders operating at a subsistence level in a social pattern comprising of various ethnic groups, practices, and traditions.
Women's roles and contributions to the agricultural sector are often under-valued and rarely accounted for in public accounts.
This is in sharp contract with their actual critical role in agriculture as active producers (active economic agents) and the use of natural resources as primary caretaker for maintaining their families' food security and overall livelihoods.
Moreover men are described as the heads of the households representing their families' at all official meetings to discuss village development activities while, across most ethnic groups, women tend to remain silent even though attending meetings.
Illiteracy is often seen as the main constraints for women's lack of contribution to the village's development activities.
However traditional gender challenges also must be taken into account and in particular a traditional gender division of labor where women community roles are not considered in economic terms as productive and paid but rather exclusively, in social and cultural terms.
This means that unless the contribution of women is made clear, exposed and mainstreamed these differentials will be perpetuated, replicated and in some cases could also be widened.
This is particularly true for a context undergoing rapid structural changes such as in the agriculture sector.
This means that people eat what they cultivate and sell a surplus which approximately represents only 10 to 15% of the production.
These trends are about to change.
If Lao used to be the best kept secret of East Asia, it is about to change dramatically.
While the capital city Vientiane still keeps a laid back feeling especially at night and during the week ends, the number of cars and the passage to a service economy are about to transform the shape of people's lives.
All over the world when change occurs, women are the first ones to be affected negatively by economic development.
The chances are that Lao women may see a similar situation unfold for them Various reports, studies and publications reveal that in Lao rural women play a significant role in agriculture.
More specifically the 2005 Population Census reported that 64 percent of the active population is involved as farmers and that of these 66 percent were women.
As a result of lack of sex-disaggregated data across all sectors the contribution of women to the economy and the rural economy in particular is greatly under-valued.
The agriculture sector comprises of small holders operating at a subsistence level in a social pattern comprising of various ethnic groups, practices, and traditions.
Women's roles and contributions to the agricultural sector are often under-valued and rarely accounted for in public accounts.
This is in sharp contract with their actual critical role in agriculture as active producers (active economic agents) and the use of natural resources as primary caretaker for maintaining their families' food security and overall livelihoods.
Moreover men are described as the heads of the households representing their families' at all official meetings to discuss village development activities while, across most ethnic groups, women tend to remain silent even though attending meetings.
Illiteracy is often seen as the main constraints for women's lack of contribution to the village's development activities.
However traditional gender challenges also must be taken into account and in particular a traditional gender division of labor where women community roles are not considered in economic terms as productive and paid but rather exclusively, in social and cultural terms.
This means that unless the contribution of women is made clear, exposed and mainstreamed these differentials will be perpetuated, replicated and in some cases could also be widened.
This is particularly true for a context undergoing rapid structural changes such as in the agriculture sector.
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