Lao PDR

In addition to the majority Lao-Tai (67 percent of the population), the 5 million residents of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) include three major non-Lao-Tai... Show More + ethno-linguistic groups: the Mon-Khmer (21 percent), the Hmong-Lu Mien (8 percent), and the Chine- Tibetan (3 percent). These categories further include 49 distinct ethnicities and 200 ethnic subgroups. Despite a clear narrowing of disparities in literacy and schooling among all groups, non-Lao-Tai ethno-linguistic minority groups are disadvantaged in many respects relative to the Lao-Tai majority. Non-Lao-Tai access to health services is also limited. Only 7 percent of the non-Lao-Tai population lives in villages that have a health post. In rural areas Lao-Tai adults are about 10 percent more likely to seek treatment when ill than non-Lao-Tai. Women in both groups are less likely to seek medical treatment than men. Existing government policies focus on providing access to basic services, land tenure, and agriculture and these policies have yielded improvements. Although the official policy is that of voluntary resettlement, non-Lao-Tai households have had trouble adapting their livelihoods to the new environments and also face health problems, such as malaria, that were not common in the highlands, and thus need more support services. For these reasons, policies that are tailored to different groups' specific needs and capabilities are likely to be the most successful in raising welfare levels broadly. Policies must address the multiple sources of disadvantage, such as ethno-linguistic affiliation and gender, to ensure that future generations of non-Lao-Tai have better human capital. Such policies will reduce existing disparities and high poverty levels. Newer survey data from 2008/09 already indicate that overall poverty has declined from 25 percent to 18 percent, and for the non-Lao-Tai population, from about 50 percent to 42 percent. Show Less -