Empowering Civil Society for Citizen Engagement

People's voices must be heard 

In functioning democracies, everyone should be able to determine the course of their own lives and engage as civic actors in the development of society. Citizens can for example, raise their concerns and propose solutions through local representative bodies or CSOs. Robust citizen-state engagement and dialogue is a fundamental tenet for democratic governance, and inclusive national development.

In Laos, citizen-state relations are gradually evolving. Local civil society is as a development actor perceived with caution with a confined role to play in accordance with the Decree on Associations. While there is some acknowledgment that an active broad-based civil society can contribute to society, this is primarily in the socio-economic sphere in support of stated national development priorities and goals.

Stronger together 

CECEI supports CSOs to strengthen their communication, knowledge sharing and advocacy competencies, and offers small grants to implement community-level projects within the thematic areas of environmental protection, gender equality and social inclusion. In parallel, Helvetas works with the PPAs to enhance their capacity to conduct public engagement activities using tools such as Public Hearings, Hotlines and Petitions. A particular focus lies on supporting woman parliamentarians and staff with gender-oriented training and coaching addressing obstacles limiting their full participation in relevant policy work. The project builds on previous Helvetas engagements combining support to state institutions and to CSOs, including in CEGGA I.

Building trust for effective collaboration

The CECEI project contributes to an enabling environment for interaction between citizens, local CSOs and state institutions at national and subnational levels allowing for more inclusive public decision, policymaking and fostering government responsiveness. It aims at a strengthened multi-stakeholder dialogue between state actors of the executive and legislative branches, as well as non-state actors, and a stronger feedback culture among these stakeholders active at different levels in Lao society.

When CSO and PPA staff and members have been trained, and effectively use tools and dialogue forums to engage with each other and the wider public, citizens will have improved opportunities to make their concerns heard. As a result, the state can better fulfill its role of serving its citizens and national development can become more inclusive.