On 15-16 September, the second National Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Responsible Agriculture and Forestry Investment took place in Vientiane. Building on the success of a first Dialogue in 2021, this year’s event convened various stakeholders from the sector with the aim to review the progress of implementation of responsible investments in agriculture and forestry in Lao PDR, exchange experiences and discuss responsibilities to foster collaboration efforts.
Representatives from national and local government, the private sector, local communities, civil society organisations, academia and the international donor community shared perspectives on suitable approaches to strengthen responsible governance and implementation of land investments and reflected on arising opportunities and challenges and the changing investment environment in Laos. Special focus was put on local level awareness raising, participatory and inclusive consultation processes, investors engagement and capacity building, land allocation for investments, contractual arrangements, grievance redress mechanisms and tools for investment project monitoring.
The dialogue took place as physical event with the option to participate online, garnering over 220 participants in total at peak times. It also included an exhibition on good practices on responsible agricultural and forestry investment and a reflection session on lessons learned from 10 years of implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT).
The event was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and supported by GIZ. Thematic contributions were made by MPI and MAF, the Luang Prabang and Vientiane provincial branches of MPI-IPD, the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project, Village Focus International, GIZ and selected discussants.
The event was organised in the context of the “Promoting Responsible Governance of Investments in Land” (RGIL) project, which is implemented by GIZ and co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union. Further cooperation partners of the event were MRLG, LNCCI and FAO.
All presentations of the dialogue are available here: https://laofab.org/folder/view/554
