Country Gender Assessment of Agriculture and The rural sector in Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

This Country Gender Assessment (CGA) was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in October 2017 as a way to gauge Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s progress in achieving gender equality in the agricultural and rural sectors, and as a mechanism to guide FAO’s strategic mission in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The analysis in this assessment comes from both an extensive desk review of existing literature related to women in agriculture in Lao People’s Democratic Republic and from fieldwork in the Phaxai district of Xieng Khouang province which lies in the northeast of the country. Women are an integral part of the agriculture sector in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, comprising over 50 percent of the agricultural workforce and contributing significantly to all parts of agricultural production. Despite women’s heavy involvement in agricultural work, however, women face significant and persistent barriers to participating fully in the rural sector.