HJA-DGD 22-26 SP and Labour Rights A large segment of ASEAN's informal economy is made up of the agri-food sector. They should be regarded as workers who have a rightto a decent job with good social protection, particularly in the Lao PDR's small-scale agriculture-cultivation, food production-sales industry. Even though the percentage of people employed in the agricultural industry has reduced (to 59% in Lao PDR in 2018), it can still be argued that they build up a significant share of the informal workforce. which uses cheap labor, is insufficient to complete the tasks in hand, and has limited potential. majority of them are MSMEs. In the Lao PDR, the agricultural industry employs 99.1% of the workforce, while 88% of rural jobs are in the informal sector. Many of them, primarily women and children, work in familybusinesses as unpaid labor.
Laos has more than 7 million people, with 18 provinces and 143 district, the average GDP increases by 5.8% per year, it is a country with about 3 million workers, informal workers in Laos account for 83% of all workers in the country, and these informal workers are an important force in socio-economic development. According to the findings of a joint study conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are still a significant number of workers who receive a daily pay, have precarious employment, and are not covered by social welfare or social protection. The most impactedare women workers in the informal economic sector  who are disadvantaged andvulnerable in socio-economic terms, which includes the self-employed, small farmers, migrant workers, unemployed workers, and including their family members. The relevant parties still lack good policies and effective enforcement in promoting decent employment and lack of a good social protection system. The government of Laos is aware of this issues and has attempted to promote and implement social protection policies, such as the adoption of the"ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Social Protection" bythe Lao PDR in October 2014, which recognizes equal access to social protection as a fundamental human right. And the ministry is supported by the International Labor Organization's guidelines R202 on the Social Protection Floor and the promotion to develop the policy to cover 4 main goals: Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Child Income Security, Income security for the elderly and working age workers. With the goal to "enhance the living, access to welfare, and goodliving of people according to their lifecycle" and look back, especially in collecting various problems of disadvantage. In addition, ASEAN has also created "ASEAN Plans and Action Plans for the implementation of the resource plan on strengthening social protection work". Based on the actionplan, a responsible committee and related ministries were organized to promote, support, and monitor member countries regarding the design, contribution of resources, and development into a national policy plan on social protection.
Due to the mentionedproblems and circumstances, this program is made to effectively assist the growth of social protection for the benefit of underprivileged employees and their families. It intends to contribute to the development of regional, governmental, and worldwide socialprotection work policies and practices to increase access to various public service systems as well as to contribute tothe socio-economic development plan of the Lao PDR (Plan 9) and the government and international poverty eradication plan. This projectwill be a project that promotes informal worker groups in the food production chain, in accessing social protection, becoming a member of social security, receiving appropriate social welfare and access to good social services, self-protection in termsofworking safety, training to upgrade skills, promoting technical farming, livestock farming, fund management, production and market distribution, in order to comply with the government's policies. The project will work in close cooperation with theLao Federation of TradeUnion from the central to the local level, enabling informal workers to access and understand social protection policies set by thegovernment such as social security laws, health insurance, including social welfare policies that coverlow-wage workers. In order to give the underprivileged workers a protection in the event of illness, they should voluntarily join social security and have access to the public health insurance system (which covers 17 provinces).