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Strategic Plan 2022 – 2030
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Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APL+)
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[/vc_column_text][/ult_sticky_section][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Recent challenges to development and the COVID-19 pandemic
While Lao PDR made good development progress over the past twenty years, halving poverty, reducing malnutrition and improving education and health outcomes, economic growth has now slowed and there is a danger that some of the gains previously made could be reversed.
According to the World Bank, the growth of the past two decades was predominantly driven by large-scale investments in capital intensive sectors, particularly in mining and hydropower. However, these investments have failed to support job creation, and some have entailed considerable environmental costs. Moreover, public investment in the power sector has been mostly financed by external debt — often on commercial terms — gradually jeopardizing macroeconomic stability. The economic slowdown has been greatly exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted how vulnerable Laos is to external shocks. Measures to contain the virus have resulted in job and livelihood losses and led to a further reduction in the government’s ability to collect revenue. Economic growth declined to an estimated 0.4% in 2020, the lowest level in three decades, and a second wave of the pandemic in 2021 has dented hopes of a rebound, with a growth rate of just 2.2% forecast for 2021. The country faces macroeconomic instability, with growing debt service obligations, heightened financial risks, and insufficient foreign exchange earnings.[1]
The HIV situation in Laos PDR
The country has done relatively well in HIV prevention and control, with a clear declining trend in the numbers of new infections from 2010-2020, though revised estimates made by CHAS in 2022 project a worrying increase (see figure below). It is estimated that there will be 800-1000 new infections per year, a 20% increase from 2020. Currently CHAS estimates there are an estimated 15500 PLHIV (0.003% of the adult population, or roughly one in 300). 6400 are females (41%). The epidemic seems to be concentrated in key populations – gay and other men who have sex with men, female sex workers, transgender women, and migrants/mobile populations, where sero prevalence is between 1 to 3%. There is little information on injecting drug use in Laos.
[1] https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/lao/overview#1 (October 2021)
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