Community Authorities represneted the interests of communities recieved varieties of trainings: "project cycle management"; "small hydropower basic maintenance"; "community forest and NTFPs sustainable use and management"; some first hand experience sharings plus presenting what had been done in the community to similar projects that funding through SGP mechanism and attending various government organized events to share lesson learnt.

Gender equality is not only a goal in its own right, but also an important means for GEF-SGP Lao PDR for realizing all the other Millennium Development Goals. It is clear to most of our grantees/partners that we need to do more to empower women. Through out the project cycle management, this project implementers were closely follow up through various means e.g. six monthly progress review organized by SGP that provided opportunity to grantees/partners to present themselves on the success and failures in different issues. Gender-sensitive approach is one of key obligations for SGP partners/grantees. Ensuring gender-sensitive as a priority (identifying women needs, incorporating their concerns into the project design) and a key crosscutting issue in all projects at the earliest stages of the project cycle will promote and make possible for women to have access to necessary resources, opportunities for technical training and represent households? income generation gears and finally voicing their concerns in livelihood improvement.Encouraging the involvement of female-headed CSOs in applying for grants and implementation projects (Provide grants to CSOs, that are sensitively considering a gender issue in terms of the position of women within the community and their needs relating to the depletion of natural resources and degradation of the environmental quality) will be a vehicle for promoting gender equality at community levels The gender balance when implementing project activities measured by counting numbers of women attended in activities. Through the implementation, SGP also promoted supporting team members from province and district of original Hmong ethnic women that worked closely with village women union designated person; in order to facilitate the gender barriers overcomes.