ACF International Network
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Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
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Central to the targeting of malnutrition, Action Against Hunger extends water and sanitation improvements to communities with little or no access to proper sources.
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Action Against Hunger's programs are sustainable because of our commitment to community participation—to build local capacity and harnesses a population's energy and resources.
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Though strategies may vary, our food security interventions all share a common goal: to fight hunger by preserving and strengthening livelihoods in a sustainable and contextual manner.
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Action Against Hunger’s innovative food security programs offer a broad range of solutions for generating income, boosting food production, and strengthening livelihoods.
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Our comprehensive approach to hunger involves extending water and sanitation services to communities faced with water scarcity, unsafe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation.
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Action Against Hunger occupies a unique place among international organizations: our expertise encompasses emergency relief, longer-term development, and the terrain in between.
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We have developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory committee.
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Action Against Hunger helps rehabilitate and restock public health infrastructure, fields mobile health clinics, and trains local medical personnel on preventative and diagnostic care.
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Our comprehensive programs address the linkages between disease and malnutrition by coordinating with local expertise and strengthening existing public health systems.
ACF International Map
Where We Work

Laos
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Laos is the least developed country in Asia and one of the poorest in the world: 48% of the population lives below the poverty line (particularly in rural areas).

Program Information

Directing HQ: 
Action Against Hunger - France
Launch Date: 
January 1991
World Region: 
Asia
Location(s): 
Thathom District, Province of Luang Namtha
Expatriates: 
8
Local Staff: 
104
Beneficiaries: 
35,901people
Funding: 
ECHO, WFP, EuropeAid, private donors

Humanitarian Context

Laos is the least developed country in Asia and one of the poorest in the world: 48% of the population lives below the poverty line (particularly in rural areas).

Laos has numerous ethnic minorities (50% of the population belongs to 47 different ethnic groups). The minorities live in isolated mountain villages where infrastructure is practically non-existent and there is limited access to health, education and other services.

Displaced minorities live with alarming malnutrition, mortality and morbidity rates.

At the end of the 90s the government began a rural development plan for the minorities who live in the mountains but instead of building infrastructure and roads in the most isolated places, it promotes the displacement of people towards the plains. This only worsens living conditions for the most vulnerable people.

Until 1986 Laos was under a Soviet-style totalitarian regime: collectivization of land, centralized planning, authoritarian control of the people, closure of borders, political re-education camps, etc. This situation caused 300,000 refugees to leave for Thailand, France and the EU and the progressive deterioration of the economic situation.

In 1986 the Government began a program of liberalization and economic opening but it remains hermetic in terms of political freedom, systematically repressing dissidents of all types.

Area(s) of Work

Food Security: 
  • Surveys on food security and nutrition
  • Support to income-generating activities
  • Monitoring of the alimentary situation
Water & Sanitation: 
  • Construction and rehabilitation of water points (gravitation system)
  • Construction of latrines and distribution of hygiene kits
  • Training and promotion of hygiene
  • Creation of rural committees for water management
  • Training on construction and maintenance of the committee structures