Laos People's Democratic Republic

Plan opened its Laos office in the capital, Vientiane, in November 2006.

Plan Laos’s first programme is in Early Childhood Education and Development - to expand activities in the coming years.

Plan will work in early education at both national level – working with the Ministry of Education to improve the pre-school curriculum, advocacy and lobbying for higher investment in early childhood – and at community level – for example, helping villages and District authorities to establish pre-schools linked to primary schools, supporting in-service teacher training and pre-school committee training and improving water, sanitation and hygiene at schools.

Once the Early Childhood Education and Development Programme is fully established, Plan will develop further child centered programmes, such as water and environmental sanitation, nutrition and children’s rights to protection and participation.

Plan aims to serve the poorest areas of the country. 47 of Laos’s 142 Districts are officially designated as “poorest” and these are almost all in mountainous areas, with very difficult communications.

Some of the reasons why Plan works in Laos

• Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia, at 133rd out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index 
• Functional literacy levels are low. Many children drop out of primary school in the first or second year
• Child nutrition levels are very poor, with 40% of children under the proper weight for their age