Women’s groups push for greater access to basic services

The Lao Women’s Union and the Social Development Alliance Association (SODA) have developed a guide to measuring gender-responsiveness basic service delivery, to enable more women to participate in social, health, education and economic development.
The guide was presented at a meeting held on Friday to discuss the manual and evaluate the statistical system used for gender analysis in Laos. The meeting was chaired by the Vice President of the Lao Women’s Union, Mrs Sirikit Bouppha, and attended by the British ambassador to Laos, Mr John Pearson.
The production of the guide was supported by the British Embassy and developed by SODA and the Lao Women’s Union.
The objectives of the guide are to promote women’s access to various forms of development, including through employment, administration, legal services, and justice. The guide records statistics on gender equality in Laos in relation to separation of the sexes, and statistics on gender provided by UN Women and Unicef.
The two target user groups of the guide are officials working in the field of gender and service sector statistics, and donors and international organisations.  
The Lao Women’s Union was established in 1955 to unify the country’s women in support of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. Over 40 years later, it has a membership of about 600,000 women nationwide. In 1991 the Union was recognised under the Constitution as being responsible for responding to women’s development needs, promoting the status and role of women, and encouraging unity amongst women of different ethnic groups and social strata.
The main goal of the Social Development Alliance Association is to promote social equity and the rights of impoverished, female and vulnerable groups in Laos, so that they are recognised and supported by the policies and practices of the Lao government and development partners, and by the wider community.

By Viengdavanh Banphahaksa
(Latest Update January 21, 2020)