Climate change is increasingly felt by farmers in Phongsaly, the northernmost province of Lao PDR, who depend on weather for maintaining their livelihoods and ecosystems. A more unpredictable length, start and end of the rainy and dry seasons, stronger winds and storms, longer droughts but at the same time increased intensity of rainfall resulting in floods and localized landslides, and erratic temperature patterns with more severe cold and hot spells all heavily impact on livelihoods, people and natural resources. At the same time, farmers are positively as well as negatively influenced by other socio-economic influences such as infrastructure development, international and local market pressures, modernization of agriculture, hydropower expansion and increased connectivity.
Within this dynamic resilience context, CARE, CCL and SAEDA in partnership with local authorities are implementing the „Northern Uplands Promoting Climate Resilience’ (NU PCR) project, in 3 districts of Phongsaly province. Through targeted support on climate risk analysis and planning, gender-responsive livelihood and disaster risk reduction interventions, and research and documentation for advocacy and scaling, the project aims to improve the resilience of communities in 30 villages, directly reaching 1,500 farming households and indirectly more than 78,000 women and men. The project started in 2014 and will be implemented until March 2018.
The NU PCR project has commissioned a mid-term review to assess relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the project strategies towards achieving the overall objective to date, assess how the project is integrating gender and how this can be enhanced to transform unequal gender relations. The review applied a participatory and strengths- based approach and used a variety of tools such as desk review, key informant interviews, reflection exercises and knowledge, attitude and practice mapping. It was conducted in February-March 2016.