Huapanh, Lao PDR (March, 2022) – Resident Coordinator to Lao PDR, Ms Sara Sekkenes, conducted a field visit to coffee growing communities supported by UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Huapanh province. The project centres around the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative, which consists of 383 farmer families, who joined forces to better represent their interests and grow coffee sustainably. While appreciating the stunning mountainous landscape of Huapanh, the Resident Coordinator and her team learned that there is much more to coffee and UNODC’s project than one would assume at first sight. Fighting against the opium production. On Monday morning, the Resident Coordinator set out with UNODC’s team to visit a farming village of the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative, about an hour ‘s drive from the picturesque provincial capital of Sam Neua. UNODC’s project manager, Mr. Erlend Audunson Falch, explained that local farmers have been growing opium for generations in this region. One of the project objectives and the cooperative’s key aim is to grow coffee as an alternative cash-crop. The planting, harvesting and local processing of coffee should provide the farmers with a stable and fair income. Detailing the income he earned last year, proud farmer Mr. Xaiphone explained that together, the members of the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative have already planted around 400 hectares of coffee and exported nearly 20 tons of coffee beans in 2021 to the French coffee company Malongo. Supporting local talents and providing quality jobs. At the coffee plantation, the Resident Coordinator and her team were introduced to UNODC agronomist, Ms. Somephone Sinxaypunya, who skilfully guides the farmers on cultivating and harvesting practices, processing requirements and the best storage conditions for the coffee beans to render the highest quality coffee and the possibilities to qualify for Fair Trade marketing. Graduating in 2016, Ms Somephone studied agronomy at the National University of Laos in Vientiane and has been supporting the project since she left university. Informed by her technical and professional guidance, the team of village workers, after cleaning, weighing and registering each farmers plot contribution, filter the harvest through the many quality criteria outlined, including studying the colour, size, and density of each individual bean to ensure that the quality of the coffee meets the high standards of the European export market. Reaching its fifth year of growth, with the maturing of the plantation, and the primary and secondary processing, the coffee harvest in 2021/22 is set to yield more than 40 tons of green beans for export, a doubling of the amount exported in 2020/21. This directly results in higher incomes for the farmer families and the possibility for further investments into the cooperative. As of now, the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative consists of 383 families from 12 villages in four different districts in the north-eastern-most province of Huapanh and employs 5 staff and is looking for further talents in Lao PDR. Preserving natural resources and the environment. Continuing the journey, the UN team learned that nature friendly production is a core objective of the cooperative. The farmers receive guidance on organic pest treatment and fertilizer production, and is transitioning into fully organic production. The cooperative has its very own environmental protection officer whose work is to continuously improve the environmental footprint of the organisation across the value chain. Amongst other, village compost and coffee bean pulp form the basis for Vanmai’s own biological fertiliser production, which is used to boost the growth of the coffee bushes; other productive crops, including shade trees and citrus shrubs native to the area are planted interspersed among the coffee bringing additional nutrients to the soil and the farmers ensure that no chemicals and pesticide residue enters back into the water table. The cooperative is currently also exploring opportunities to receive an organic production certification that will further position its produce on the bourgoning European coffee gourmet market. Strengthening solidarity and empowering women. After learning more about the many facets of coffee cultivation in the field, the group travelled back to Sam Neua to meet the management of the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative at its local office. The manager, Mr Tee Yang, elaborated the cooperative’s growth since the start-up in 2019 and its plans for further expansion. An important element of the project is to strengthen the local community’s cohesion and encouraging knowledge sharing. Today, the 383 families make up the core of the cooperative but during our visit, discussions were held with the local authorities of expanding the plantations with an additional 400 hectares which would benefit an additional 400 families in other remote villages. Additionally, Vanmai wants to strengthen women’s representation. It has recently established a women’s network with 12 elected members. The network’s aim is to support female leaders through in-depth trainings on commercial coffee cultivation and sale. At the end of the presentation, the group was offered a cup of Vanmai’s own coffee and was convince about the quality of the beans and further prospects of the cooperative. A short trip up the hill, the visitors were also showed the location for a new larger office, processing and storage facility which would also cater a showroom and café. Working closely with the local Government. After a good night’s rest – despite the coffee tasting the previous day – Ms Sara Sekkenes and the UNODC team met with the Governor of Huapanh, H.E. Mr. Vanhxay Pheangsumma. The Governor emphasised that as reflected in the National Agenda, drug prevention is a priority of the Government of Lao PDR. Under the Governors leadership, the province has provided generous support for the project since the beginning and recently decided to allocate additional land to the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative where they can construct their own office and processing facility, with support by the project. This will enable the cooperative to independently and sustainably control the full value chain until the coffee is exported.   Sustainability and local ownership. The UNODC supported project duration was recently extended until December 2023 based on available funding, with the aim to continue supporting local efforts until at least 2025. In the long term, the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative is envisioned to operate on its own. The signing of a long-term commercial partnership agreement with the renowned French coffee roaster Malongo, last April marks an important step towards financial autonomy. Further thoughts are also being introduced with regards to the longer-term sustainability against the backdrop of climate change and workshops on climate action, mitigation and adaptation efforts are also being discussed to secure the beautiful slopes of expanding coffee plantations across the province. Until this can be achieved, the motivated team from UNODC continues its invaluable engagement for the cooperative. The Resident Coordinator and her team returned to Vientiane with many new impressions about the project and its many facets including drug prevention as the original rational underpinning the alternative community development initiative, the local economy and job market, trade and value chains, environmental aspects and women’s empowerment set in the midst of the larger community cooperative, built on values of solidarity and social cohesion, and employing numerous of diverse skills sets including accounting, human resources, marketing, management, transport and logistics, to name just a few. The dedication of UNODC’s team, the employees of Vanmai as well as the farmer families was truly inspiring and can serve as an example for many other initiatives in Lao PDR.

With the widespread impact of the pandemic, proper waste disposal becomes critical. At the central level, in field hospitals, and quarantine facilities- all are faced with a high amount of infectious waste increase during the pandemic. Numbers of sports complexes, stadiums, schools, and dormitories were repurposed into isolation and quarantine facilities to accommodate more and more people. General and infectious wastes are being generated from these facilities, hence, the capacity to manage wastes has to be enhanced. Dr. Bouakham Tounnalom, Deputy Director of Hygiene Management Division, Ministry of Health has been working to support sanitation, water and waste management for almost 3 decades. Her main areas of responsibility include environmental cleaning, water, sanitation & hygiene, health care waste management and health impact assessment, as a result of being surrounded by heavy construction such as mining, and the health of factory workers across the provinces. Dr. Bouakham, with her accumulated years of experience, has provided training and workshops on wastewater sanitation and general waste management throughout the country. Although Dr. Bouakham went through general medical studies and has never formally received specialized training in this field, she was assigned to support the unit once she joined the Ministry. In addition to learning on the job, she received training both locally and internationally to enhance her skills for this job. Dr. Bouakham reflected, “waste collection, treatment, transport and disposal systems have limited capacity. Waste collection companies have to ensure proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), preventive measures and need to increase their frequency of picking up waste every week. Protocols and contracts have been signed to ensure safety measures are put into place for such services.” She adds that both solid and liquid wastes require immediate safe treatment and disposal in some quarantine and isolation facilities. “We can’t just let the wastewater flow out into the environment without a proper treatment system,” said Dr. Bouakham. With solid waste, WHO has provided technical support in developing guidance, training materials, and autoclaves to disinfect/treat infectious waste before further disposal. The maximum loading capacity is an average of 50-85 kilograms. Normally, the autoclave can load one- or two times, but during COVID-19 response, with the increase of waste amount, the autoclave now needs to operate two to three times per day. Not only has the volume of wastes increased but also the types of waste, particularly single-use items. For hygiene reasons, most facilities use single-use foam containers for meals that were delivered to patients or individuals. These single-use products, including plastic water bottles, are snowballing during the pandemic and there are many challenges to safely dispose these items without causing environmental pollution and human health impacts. These issues are only a small portion of what the government and its development partners are dealing with in order to respond to the rising medical waste demands. As part of the Learning from Experience to Improve Responding to COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific Region project funded by the People’s Republic of China, UNDP will provide technical support for Laos to upgrade the medical waste treatment system in the receiving hospitals, provide technical support for medical personnel, grass-roots civil servants and other key posts to enhance their capabilities. As the largest developing country, the People’s Republic of China is a firm supporter, active participant, and important contributor to South-South Cooperation. UNDP appreciates being a partner to both the People’s Republic of China and Lao PDR to support improved medical waste management. The above-mentioned project has received support from the South-South Cooperation Assistance Funds (SSCAF), to strengthen the preparedness and responding capacity at the Asia-Pacific regional level. UNDP will collaborate with WHO in Lao PDR, MoH and MICT and several Chinese counterparts to provide advocacy, information sharing and communication support on protection against COVID-19 and its response for people in poverty and vulnerable groups - to ensure that they are not left behind and can equally benefit from the interventions to stay safe and healthy.  

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the products they drink and eat – whether it is safe for their health or the environment. And the same applies to coffee. As a big market, the European Union (EU) represents nearly half of the world’s coffee imports. In 2019, the total coffee import was 3 million tons, worth €7.5 billion. Between 2019 and 2020, Lao PDR’s coffee and tea exports to the EU has almost doubled, from €16 million to €29 million. According to the Lao PDR Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, coffee is one of the country’s top three agricultural crops with the highest export value. It is only natural that the country aims to increase its coffee production to one million tons by 2025. Locating in southern Lao PDR, the Bolaven Plateau is ideally placed for producing high quality coffee and potentially compete in the market for specialty and organic coffee, products that carry premium prices. Despite these opportunities, Lao coffee sector faces many challenges, such as low farm-level productivity, lack of minimum quality standards, high logistical costs, as well as low capacity for research and commercialization, among others. To address these challenges, the International Trade Centre and local partners of the country’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce along with the Lao Coffee Association jointly organized a training on how to start organic coffee farms. The training offered Lao farmers, cooperatives, and small businesses an opportunity to strengthen their knowledge regarding the organic production, processing and marketing of coffee. "This training is one of the solutions offered by the Coffee Export Roadmap, which the Lao Government has recently endorsed, to help Lao farmers and small businesses secure their spots in the global, sustainable coffee market", said Xaysomphet Norasingh, Director General of the Department of Trade Promotion at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. “It’s a win-win partnership between the Lao Government and development partners in the coffee sector. We love coffee, and Lao people produce great coffee, so the European consumers are ready to pay a higher price for a cup of coffee which is organic, respectful to the environment, provide decent jobs and make a positive impact in the community,” said Vincent Vire, Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation in Lao PDR. Amongst the 70 participants who joined virtually from across Lao PDR, Phaengsy Daoduangdee, the owner of Duangdee Coffee Farm, said: “I was able to gain a deeper understanding of organic farming and the process of applying for organic certification. In addition, I learned different organic ways to eliminate coffee pests, particularly coffee stem-borers, which have been a big issue for us, farmers, for some time.” In addition, the manager and support staff of the Vanmai cooperative in Northern Lao PDR, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been supporting 383 farmers to grow coffee since 2016, participated in this training. The UNODC project aims at assisting beneficiaries in the communities who want to transition from opium crops, while building a financially sustainable and resilient cooperative. The farmers have planted around 400 hectares of coffee and established their own cooperative to independently process and commercialize coffee for premium international markets. A transition to fully organic production and obtaining an organic certification is an important part of the long-term strategy of the Vanmai cooperative, and participation in the training provided valuable inputs for this transition process. This training was the first in a series. Next trainings in the coming months will focus on organic marketing and certification and improving sensory and cupping skills for specialty coffee. In fact, Phaengsy has already applied for the second training, and she is looking forward to more practical learning opportunities. The training formed part of the EU-funded initiative, the ASEAN Regional Integration Support to Lao PDR (ARISE Plus), which supports sustainable agricultural value chain development in Lao PDR, especially those based on organic production and fair trade – and ultimately, promoting inclusive economic growth, climate change resilience, mitigating vulnerability and job creation in Lao PDR. About ITC: The International Trade Centre is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. ITC assists small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing and transition economies to become more competitive in global markets, thereby contributing to sustainable economic development within the frameworks of the Aid-for-Trade agenda and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Vanmai Coffee Cooperative is a community of families in Huaphan Province in northern Laos, growing coffee to leave behind a troublesome past. Vanmai means new day in the local Lao language. With the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Lao Commission for Drug Control and Supervision (LCDC), 383 Vanmai farmers began their transition towards cultivating coffee in late 2016. Since then, their achievements have been many. With the assistance of UNODC experts and agronomists, they have planted around 400 hectares of coffee and established their own cooperative to independently process and commercialize coffee for premium international markets. Supported by UNODC’s Alternative Development project, wet processing centers have already been installed across 12 coffee growing communities. The construction of a warehouse, a dry mill and an office for the cooperative —boasting its own coffee shop— is scheduled to begin in 2021. April 6, 2021 marked a further remarkable step for Vanmai farmers. A five-year partnership agreement with the renowned French Coffee Roaster Malongo was signed and their coffee export expects to increase over five-year period, from 20 tons in 2021 to 200 tons in 2025.  “We will improve the quality of our coffee, the organic coffee that is free from toxic chemical, because we think it is the way to add value to our products and to protect environment” said Savaythong Khounsavanh, President of the Vanmai Cooperative. “We believe that the project will help villagers in the area, particularly twelve targeted villages in the four districts of Hua Phan province, have a better livelihood in the future.” Supported by the project, Vanmai has recently established a women’s network with 12 elected members. With the aim of building a cohort of female leaders, the project supports this group with in-depth trainings on coffee as a business. Being a member of the women’s network and the Vanmai Cooperative, Ms Siathor Yialao is happy that she can participate in the project from the beginning. She believes the project can help her family and other families in the villages to be out of poverty. “I want to earn money so I can send my children to school and I can buy things in the market. Before the project, I did not have money to travel outside of my home province. Now, I can travel to other provinces. And one day, I think I will earn enough money to travel abroad.” She added: “But as women, we also have difficulties. Many women in my village cannot speak the main Lao language fluently. That is why it is not easy to communicate and get all information about the project”. Ms. Sengvida Sengmanivong, from Na Or village, the leader of the Vanmai Women’s Network, found the positive thing that the project brings to her and other women is that there is no more opium plantation in the area. She was confident: “We can earn income without opium. Thanks to the project, we are now with higher incomes than before. We can buy medicines and household items for our daily life.” Members from the Women’s Network of the 12 villages participated on the trainings on coffee tasting and gender empowerment and they hope to have the chance to participate in other trainings in the future. Women’s Network also set up interest groups for their participants to share knowledge with others. Sengvida said: “It is not only about coffee plantation, but also about other things in life that we can talk and share. We feel that we have more solidarity among villagers through these activities”. This UNODC-led project was recently extended to December 2023 based on available funding, with the aim to continue supporting local efforts until at least 2025. Over the coming project cycle, UNODC will continue to build up the management skills of the Vanmai Cooperative, based on a solid democratic foundation that also empowers women. The project aims to double the cultivation area in the coming years, with the objective of assisting more beneficiaries in the communities who want to transition from opium crops, while building a financially sustainable and resilient cooperative. The project has been funded by the Governments of Luxembourg, the United States, Germany, and Japan.