Lao PDR: New Skills Bring New Opportunities For Ethnic Minority Women

Increasing access to quality education is at the core of what we do at Aide et Action. In Vietnam and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), we’re also focusing on lifelong learning to offer youth vocational training and new skills to better match them to current job markets and build a more equitable and sustainable future.

In Southeast Asia, gender disparities are found in upper-secondary education where attendance rates for  girls fall below 50% or less in both Cambodia and Lao PDR. Such disparity is  directly linked to the entrenched norms that support the expected roles of  each gender whereby unpaid domestic and care-work is given to women, and  economically productive work is given to men. Within ethnic minority groups, levels of discrimination are typically magnified for girls, particulalry in terms of education. One contributing factor is early marriage and adolescent pregnancy……………………………………………