The Workshop on Strengthening Legislation-Drafting for Provinces of Central and Southern Laos

5-6 March 2024, Khammoune Province: The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) organized a workshop on Strengthening Legislation-Drafting for ten provinces of Southern Laos. The workshop was co-chaired by H.E. Ms. Thipphakone Chanthavongsa, Vice Minister and Deputy Head of the Prime Minister's Office, and H.E. Dr. Somsaard Ounsida, Vice Provincial Governor of Khammouane, and attended by over 300 participants including high level attendance by provincial senior officials and relevant technical staff from concerned entities of Central and Southern Provinces.

The workshop aimed to enhance the understanding and knowledge on the methodology, regulation and procedure of the legislation drafting process for provincial senior officials and technical staff. The workshop covered legislation-drafting at sub-national level; steps and processes of submission of the draft laws to the Provincial People’s Assembly for consulting with citizens; mandate of the PMO as the Government's Secretariat in the drafting and amendment of legislation process; legislation dissemination; legislative oversight of Provincial People’s Assembly; Extension of International Treaties into sub-law. After the presentations, the participants engaged in a lively exchange of comments and discussion on the legislation drafting process and related challenges. The workshop was supported by Citizen Engagement in Good Governance, Accountability, and Rule of Law Programme (CEGGA II) in collaboration with CEGGA key cooperation partner Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD).

The CEGGA Programme is a joint initiative of the Government of Lao PDR and its “Team Europe” partners, Switzerland, Germany and EU. Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been tasked to implement the programme on behalf of Team Europe with Ministry of Home Affairs and the concerned Lao implementing partners to achieve the overall objective to increase citizens’ engagement in the national development process of Lao PDR through the promotion of good governance, human rights, and the rule of law.