Sombath Somphone

Sombath Somphone is a Lao community-development worker who promoted sustainable agriculture, food security, and participatory rural development. In 1996, he founded the Participatory Development Training Center (PADETC), which trained young people and local officials in community-based development. He received the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and disappeared in Vientiane on December 15, 2012; his whereabouts remain unknown.