1 AIT Asian Institute of Technology

Community participation under present-day decentralization policy in Lao PDR : case study in solid waste management in Luang Prabang

AuthorVirachith Douangchanh
Call NumberAIT Thesis no.UE-04-03
Subject(s)Refuse and refuse disposal--Laos
Decentralization in management--Laos
NoteA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
PublisherAsian Institute of Technology
AbstractThis study was conducted in respond to the current situation of the community participation development in solid waste management in Luang Prabang Urban Development Administration Authority (UDAA) of Lao PDR. At present, under the ongoing decentralization policy of Lao PDR, urban management is now requiring local authority to utilize a range of tools and approaches in order to be more effective to deal with number of issues they are faced with. In case of UDAA of Luang Prabang, community participation development in solid waste management is recognized as one major approach for facilitate development projects in local authorities. This research studies and analyses the official procedures and existing practices of community participation in solid waste management in UDAA through views of local villagers and frontline UDAA staffs and identifies constraints and problems. It also provides recommendations for improving community participation in the conduct of local authorities. Methods employed in this study include various techniques in collecting primary data, such as site observation, questionnaire survey, and unstructured interviews with key informants in order to describe the state of community participation development in UDAA of Luang Prabang. Opinions and suggestions from local people as well as UDAA staffs regarding community participation development of UDAA were collected. A comparative analysis was then conducted in order to understand the actual situation of community participation in UDAA of Luang Prabang. The study found that there are number of problems in community participation conduct of UDAA. Major problems include low number of attendees in UDAA's participatory procedures. Further, the participants' satisfaction rate in these UDAA's putative participatory meetings is only at moderate/low level. Reasons given for low level of satisfaction are inadequacy of solid waste management campaigns, waste management workshop, and community awareness and education programs, lack of coordination between UDAA and community people, and lack of incentives for people to participate in UDAA activities. In response to the findings to improve and encourage active community participation in solid waste management, all constraints encountered needed to be urgently addressed. This study recommends the way to improve development community participation with provide incentive for local villagers to participate into solid waste management activities and, more importantly enhance capacity of UDAA staffs in community participation development.
Year2004
TypeThesis
SchoolSchool of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD)
DepartmentDepartment of Development and Sustainability (DDS)
Academic Program/FoSUrban Environmental and Management (UE)
Chairperson(s)Sajor, Edsel ;
Examination Committee(s)Soparth Pongquan ;Chretien, Michel ;Vilas Nitivattananon
Scholarship Donor(s)Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) ;AIT Fellowship
DegreeThesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004


Usage Metrics
View Detail0
Read PDF0
Download PDF0