Certificate Handover Ceremony to Lao University Student Volunteers

December 13, 2019

Photo: UNDP Lao PDR

Vientiane, 13 December 2019 – UNDP Lao PDR organised a Certificate Handover Ceremony to the volunteers and teachers from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, National University of Laos, as a token of appreciation for their assistance and cooperation with the Accelerator Lab team in gathering valuable information for the first experimentation at That Luang Festival, between 5-11 November 2019.

The Accelerator Lab team was able to collect both quantitative and qualitative information with the help of the volunteers, thus helping to understand the perception of festival goers towards waste management and to test their knowledge on the given issue. ​ The consolidated result from this short study showed that the increased availability of rubbish bins and other facilities in the festival resulted in less littering. However, more awareness raising through various mediums prior to the festival and at the festival should be widely promoted. A waste management guideline, incentives and stricter enforcement with vendors are to be discussed and considered for future implementation.

Additionally, the mentioned experimentation enabled the team to understand the work of related sectors in waste management and the whole eco-system of waste management, as well as allowing to identify new potential partners such as the Vientiane City Office, Green Vientiane and many more.

Although this event marked the first collaboration with the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, UNDP stands on climate action and volunteerism. Therefore, potential future collaboration is possible and the students were able to learn about opportunities to participate in more volunteering activities and even information regarding the application for the recently available internship programme at the Lao Country Office, which they were also encouraged to share the information with their friends and classmates.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Aksonethip Somvorachit
Communications Analyst, UNDP Lao PDR
Tel: 020 55021550, Email: aksonethip.somvorachit@undp.org

Photo: UNDP Lao PDR