The five Lower Mekong countries include: Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Photo Credit: CIA World Factbook

The Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) is a multinational partnership effort initiated by the United States in 2009 to promote greater cooperation in the Mekong sub-region. The effort is focused on six Pillars: Agriculture and Food Security, Connectivity, Education, Energy Security, Environment and Water, and Health, Gender and other and cross-cutting issues. LMI has been designed to serve as a forum for LMI partners to develop shared responses to the most pressing cross-border development challenges.

Through the United States’ long history of engagement with the countries of Southeast Asia, there is an increasing awareness of the growing number of issues that cross national boundaries. The countries of the Lower Mekong sub-region share a variety of common concerns, including trans-boundary water resources management, infectious diseases such as dengue and pandemic influenza, and vulnerability to climate change. LMI seeks to support a common regional understanding of these issues and to facilitate effective, coordinated responses.

To learn more about the programs and initiatives of the Lower Mekong Initiative, please check out the factsheets below:

An Overview of the Lower Mekong Initiative (PDF, 76.1kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: The LMI Coordination Hub (PDF, 109kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Friends of the Lower Mekong (PDF, 82.8kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Agriculture and Food Security Pillar (PDF, 75.9kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Connectivity Pillar (PDF, 101kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Education Pillar (PDF, 89.6kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Energy Security Pillar (PDF, 82kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Environment and Water Pillar (PDF, 78.1kb)

Lower Mekong Initiative: Health Pillar (PDF, 110kb)

LMI: Bringing Water & Sanitation to the Urban Poor

LMI: Managing Sediment, Climate Change in Mekong Basin Dams

LMI: Asia's Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking (ARREST)