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Abstract: "Australian
Aid, Development Advocacy and Governance in the Lao PDR
Mixed Messages and Emerging Possibilities" Complete
Paper (pdf 261KB)
Australia has been a significant participant in the Lao development process.
Through the aid program, Australian development organisations have undertaken
development advocacy in a number of forms, and in the pursuit of various
agendas. There are two broad areas in which this advocacy has played a
particularly interesting role: (i) the processes of modernisation and
integration into the global economy; and (ii) the advancement of rural
livelihoods and well-being. It will be argued that AusAID, primarily through
programs under the rubric of "good governance", but also through
other mechanisms, has acted as an advocate for the very particular, and
inherently political, prescriptions of the Western liberal economic order.
However, at the same time, AusAID has given strong support to Australian
NGOs that have displayed a sophisticated understanding of the needs and
issues facing the rural poor in Laos, and have become an important advocate
for them.
In the context of Lao development, it is argued that ultimately these
two areas of development advocacy lie on conflicting paths, a fact which
the Australian Government is yet to fully appreciate. In many ways, the
current trajectory of the development process in Laos is in danger of
bypassing the rural poor, and increasingly poses a threat to their already
tenuous livelihoods. This current trajectory is reinforced by a tendency
for good governance programs to enhance the capacity of the centre in
Lao Government to implement development plans to the detriment of the
locality.
However, there may be possibilities for providing development advocacy
concerning both integration into the global economy and the advancement
of rural livelihoods in a coherent and mutually reinforcing manner. Indeed,
some emerging possibilities are already evident within the bilateral aid
program to Laos, involving a high level of commitment in both AusAID and
NGOs to development advocacy and institutional strengthening at both the
locality and at the centre.
© 2005 Australian Mekong Resource Centre |
