Vientiane, Lao, August 2012
Signals Commitment to Strengthening Policy Implementation and Securing Rights of Local Communities
Laotian Government Presses Ahead with Land Policy
During a riveting keynote speech given at a international land and forestry conference in Vientiane today, Dr. Souvanhpheng Bouphanouvong, President of the National Assembly of Lao’s Committee on Economic Planning and Finance, announced the government’s intention to undergo a nationwide formal process of large scale land reform, and prioritize the need for increased local land management, given that access to land for rural households is fundamental to sustained poverty alleviation. Read more…
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Key Spokespeople Biographies
Dr. Akhom Tounalom, Vice Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, LAO PDR
Souvanhpheng Boupphanouvong, President of the National Assembly of Lao’s Committee on Economic Planning and Finance, LAO PDR
Dr. Souvanpheng Boupphanouvong is the President of the National Assembly’s Economic, Planning and Finance Committee of the National Assembly of Lao PDR. She was previously Vice President of the same committee. She is also the former Head of Secretariat Committee of National Committee for Progression of Women, the Head of the Cotton State Enterprise of the Lao Women’s Union, and the Head of the Union Women’s Newspaper.
Arvind Khare, Executive Director, Rights and Resources Group
Arvind is a natural resources management specialist with more than 20 years of experience in the non-profit, corporate and public sectors. During this period he made significant contributions to the critical examination of poverty-environment linkages, initiated a number of innovative rural development projects and was involved in social risk assessment of development investments in India. His work has also involved the development and analysis of policies in infrastructure, forestry, tribal development, social development and watershed sectors for the state and central governments of India, infrastructure financial institutions, private and public sector enterprises, non government organisations, bilateral and multilateral development institutions. He chaired the External Advisory Group of the World Bank on Forest Sector Strategy Implementation from 2005-2006.
James Bampton, Program Director of RECOFTC
With 18 years of practical forest field experience, much of it working directly with forest communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Mr. Bampton joined RECOFTC in 2007 as the Chief Technical Advisor for a flagship capacity building project in Cambodia. In 2009, James became the overall Manager for Program Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation at RECOFTC , with the task of ensuring synergy across RECOFTC’s entire program and develop functioning Country Programs in our other focal countries. Prior to this, he had spent five years as a lead advisor to the Livelihoods and Forestry Program in Nepal and three years working with communities in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. James has an MSc in Forestry from Oxford University, United Kingdom, and studied senior management at the Open University, United Kingdom.
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