Michael Kirk (1996):
Land Tenure Development and Divestiture in Lao P.D.R.

9. International Donors

It cannot be emphasized often enough that international donors have the greatest impact on land policy reform thus far (see a more detailed discussion in Section VI). From the beginning of the transformation process on, they have seen land policy reform as a central objective of their activities. The first international donor to do this was the World Bank which had already furnished technical assistance in reforming resource legislation and land administration. The Bank was, of course, the one which had begun the most hefty to condition financial resources based upon progress with resource tenure reforms. Through the clever build-up of donor consortiums for major projects, it has also narrowly integrated other multi- and bilateral donors into this policy (Finida, AusAid).

While the World Bank has been able to use its economic power in a directly political way which corresponds to its objectives and ideology, other donors have also used their "social capital" of trust, reliability and ability in co-operation and conflict resolution, all of which has been built up over a long period, to newly define forestry-sector property rights in a "step-wise" approach, and to anchor participation (for instance, the Lao-Swedish Forestry Programme which had already begun in the socialist era).

It has also been recognized for other countries undergoing transformation that pressure from outside, especially in the extremely complicated and politically sensitive issue of land tenure, the donors’ approach to the issue may well affect the government's desire or willingness to address the topic. [FN 97] There is a painful limit beyond which is difficult for the Government to go as they may not be willing to concede their basic ideological tenets if pressured too openly "This is particularly true with regard to land reform because the nature of property rights - who controls them and how they are administrated - constitutes the primary ways in which a society defines itself" (Myers 1995:44). The international donor’s community has recognized this in Laos in so far as it did not try to enforce private property as a norm in the Constitution, and not to intervene in the delicate question of the restitution of land to refugees.

The strategies of donors are accordingly altered, lessons are learned, and ways of proceeding become more subtle. If lobbying the Ministries, e.g. for the increased anchoring of participatory approaches in the legislation are inadequate, there is the possibility of applying the existing laws to the letter so as to show that they do not work, and thus to force changes. If there are problems which are of critical importance for the success of a project, there is the possibility of drafting new regulations and to try them out in a pilot project and to demonstrate the proof of loopholes in the legislation, for instance in the area of the Forest Management Agreement (according to Decree 169).

The pressure of time and ideological restriction have also led to the pushing through of a new land policy in Laos; the complex nature of resource tenure reform is lost from view from time to time. This became distinctly clear in that internationally operating NGO's questioned the strictly market-oriented dealings of the big donors in political bargaining and raised the subjects of "customary rights and "indigenous peoples". The dominance of individual donors has given rise to such a countervailing power through NGO's which appeared here as a spearhead (see Chapter VI) and triggered off a discussion amongst other donors.

A particular success for, and growth of, power in NGOs bargaining between Government, bureaucracy, technical and financial co-operation, grassroots groups and even foreign investors must be recognized here. They are not only the lawyers for endangered species or for the creation of protected areas. Initial empirical research was doubtless important for their argumentation so that research organizations cannot be separated form international donors, for Laos has long been a "tabula rasa" where socioeconomic research in agriculture and forestry are concerned. Universities in Asia, Australia, Europe, Canada the USA, and international agricultural research institutes etc. cooperate with development projects or with NGOs and deliver valuable information to the village and household level and offer assistance in argumentation for political bargaining and public relations work.