Contribution of Corporate Social Investment to Livelihoods of Lao People after Relocation

Abstract

This paper explores the impacts of multinational companies’ (MNCs’) social investment on the livelihoods of local people in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and explores the drivers that influence these impacts. The study advances an argument that MNCs’ social investment produced two distinct types of families after being relocated to new villages: poor and well-off families. The well-off families received the fewest direct benefits from the MNCs’ social investments, but with a greater degree of self-resilience than the poor families, they were able to adapt to their new environments and availed of the MNCs’ social investment to improve their livelihoods. This study concludes that the impacts of the MNCs’ social investment on the livelihoods of the affected families depend not only on the behavior and commitment of the MNCs, but also on the economic and cultural capability of the affected families to adjust to the new environment and on the commitment of the host country’s government.