A demand-driven community approach facilitates better implementation. The village area improvement experience highlights the importance of proactive communities during the design, implementation, and maintenance of projects. The use of similar principles may be replicated or expanded for a larger set of beneficiaries. An important lesson from the village area improvement program is its use of a demand-driven approach to development instead of the top-down, supply-driven activities of the past. The main advantages of the village area improvement approach are community inputs and an applied gender-balance concept. These include (i) the participation of many parties, (ii) consultations, (iii) action at the grassroots level, and (iv) the solidarity of the village committee members.
Vientiane Urban Infrastructure and Services Project