Evidence based policymaking: IWMI’s work on food, land and water in Lao PDR aims to improve the agriculture sector and rural development as a whole.

This article was originally published on www.IWMI.org

Building trust as an international non-governmental organization in the context of engaging with Lao PDR's policy space requires contextual understanding of the country's governance structures, cultural norms and development priorities. It requires advocating for external support and local partnerships. It needs the comprehensive study of practical entry points as well as long-term commitment as change takes time. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), through the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies and local partners, advocates and conducts evidence-based research for policy formulation processes and engagements through multi-scale platforms and spaces for change.

A cross-sectoral approach

Policy coherence in the agriculture sector is one area of IWMI's work. Policy design fares better than implementation as it is often done in a comprehensive process based on stakeholder consultations. Implementation suffers due to a lack of capacity - often funding - of the provincial or district agencies tasked with implementing different development policies.

For instance, the national master plan on land allocation is governed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Its implementation involves a variety of stakeholders including the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and its agencies. So while there is a national structure in place to facilitate cross-sectoral cooperation, limited budgets for their primary missions means that this cooperation receives short shrift.

The development priorities of different sectors pose yet another challenge. Lao PDR is a least developed country and government plans are specifically formulated to attract foreign investment. This however requires convergence with international partner priorities and funding availability to ensure that policy formulation supports a cross-sectoral approach to development.

Policy coherence and a community of practice

An adequate supply of water is another issue confronting Lao farmers. Rice cultivation is mainly practiced during the wet season. Farmers looking to cultivate cash crops, for instance, during the dry season require a water supply for irrigation which is mainly available in the lowlands due to the pumping system employed locally. Water pumping is not sufficient in the highlands and instead requires a supply of groundwater which in turn necessitates investment and technology for groundwater irrigation. IWMI is working with groundwater management partners to improve collaboration between ministries and to ensure that policies cohere to the ground realities and across sectors. This includes ensuring that the Department of Irrigation considers how groundwater management fits into the National Plan on Water Resource Management. Funding, however, is the perennial issue even with improved collaboration. IWMI plays a vital role in turning intention into action.

This means strengthening coherence both at the design and implementation stage as well as promoting a community of policy practice by bringing together partners who use evidence-based research to support policy formulation. This approach leads to informed decision making on the part of policymakers to improve the agriculture specifically and rural development as a whole in Lao PDR.

Participants of a consultation workshop for the Policy Think Tank. Photo: IWMI

Policy engagements and advocacy for evidence-based research

Since early 2023, IWMI's research on policy coherence has looked at five policies from three ministries. The National Master Plan for Land Allocation and the Decree to Implement the Law on Water and Water Resources of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; the National Plan on Agro-biodiversity and the Green and Sustainable Agricultural Framework of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; as well as the Ministry of Health's Action Plan on Nutrition.

The Policy Think Tank of the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute is IWMI's primary interlocutor. The Policy Think Tank works through the Sector Working Group on Agricultural and Rural Development composed of sub-sector working groups for forestry, agrobiodiversity, agribusiness and irrigation. IWMI has provided technical support to strengthen the Policy Think Tank, including to its stakeholder meetings.

IWMI has improved capacity sharing, conducted regional, national and sub-national workshops, consultations, high-level events and contributed to the co-development of strategies, policies and management plans. IWMI has also supported the development of research agenda priorities, designed a data collection approach, set up sectoral consultations to improve understanding of development priorities and assisted in the drafting of a policy on research priorities. Once endorsed, the policy can guide research for evidence-based decision making.

Looking ahead, IWMI aims to build on its convening power and the partnerships established to mobilize coalitions for collective action on water security and food system transformation. The experiences and lessons learned from policy engagement and formulation processes will strengthen interventions in other policy areas such as migration and transboundary water governance and implementation of national strategic action plans.

Authors

Souphalack Inphonephong, National Researcher - Social-Political Scientist, IWMI

Tania Perera, Senior Communications Specialist, IWMI

Mark Dubois, Country Representative - Lao & Regional Representative - South East Asia, IWMI

This work is part of the CGIAR Research Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS). CGIAR launched NPS with national and international partners to build policy coherence, respond to policy demands and crises, and integrate policy tools at national and subnational levels in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CGIAR centers participating in NPS are The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Potato Center (CIP), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and WorldFish. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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