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Fact Sheet - June 2007

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USAID/OTI Bolivia Field Report

Apr-June 2007


Program Description

In March 2004, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) launched its Bolivia program to help reduce tensions in areas prone to social conflict and to assist the country in preparing for key electoral events. At the time, Bolivia was experiencing heightened political unrest following the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in addition to increasing demands for regional autonomy from several departments (i.e., administrative divisions). OTI's activities sought to improve access to balanced information on issues of national importance, promote peaceful participation and economic opportunity in marginalized areas, and conduct civic education and leadership training in support of Bolivia's emerging indigenous leadership.

For the first time, the general elections in December 2005 included the popular election of prefects (i.e., governors), making decentralization one of the key transition issues now facing the country. In response to the new political dynamic, OTI retargeted its program to reflect the needs of a country engaged in a process of expanding regional authority. OTI activities are aimed at building the capacity of prefect-led departmental governments to help them better respond to the constituencies they govern. OTI will also continue to work closely with indigenous groups to increase access to, and participation in, Bolivia's political system. Through June 2007, OTI has committed $13.3 million to 379 projects through its partner, Casals and Associates. The projects were implemented in collaboration with civil society organizations, indigenous groups, and local and national government bodies. OTI/Bolivia has nearly committed its pool of funding for grants; beginning July 1, OTI/Bolivia enters its 3-month program closeout phase.

Country Situation

Issues of Regional Autonomy Unresolved - Political events in Bolivia during the second quarter of 2007 focused on the country's ongoing Constituent Assembly (CA) process. Debate on contentious issues within the Assembly and by the broad range of pro-government and opposition groups mobilized in Sucre, Chuquisaca, the site of the CA, sparked more angry protests in the streets as well as threats against delegates for not supporting certain positions. While competing political and other interest groups avoided a repeat of the deadly violence that took place in the city of Cochabamba in January, polarization remains high.

A plan aimed at reducing tensions was offered by the Movement Toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)) party, which proposed withdrawing some of the more controversial ideas from consideration by the Assembly. However, proposals are still under consideration to relocate the executive and legislative branches from La Paz to Sucre and to delegate oversight of the autonomous university system to "social movements" aligned with the MAS.

Nonetheless, key points of conflict continue to revolve around competing visions of how to recognize Bolivia's indigenous communities and how to define the extent to which they will play a role in the country's administrative and political system. An illustrative case demonstrating the acrimony on indigenous issues in the CA took place on June 7 when MAS delegates writing a preamble to the Constitution that will set the tone on the state role of indigenous and social sectors voted on and approved both the majority and minority reports without the participation of the opposition delegates. Opposition PODEMOS (Poder Democrático y Social) delegates accused the MAS of violating assembly rules. While the idea behind the minority report is, according to PODEMOS, to provide an opportunity for the opposition to contribute its vision to the debate, MAS delegates drafted both "vision" reports. Some analysts described the minority report as being even more radically pro-indigenous than the majority report. The action set off a string of protests by opposition supporters throughout the country.

The debate over administrative decentralization and autonomy continues to be the primary root of conflict. While both sides wait for the CA's autonomy commission to submit its reports, they continue to wage battles in the press and on the streets to influence the debate. On June 18, the Democratic Autonomy Junta, a body composed of prefects, civic committee leaders, and other representatives from the Departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and Tarija called for a massive public mobilization to challenge the CA's latest proposal on indigenous and regional autonomy. The Junta also called upon the Bolivian armed forces to "defend the country from the Government of Bolivia's (GOB) attacks against the democratic system." President Evo Morales and GOB officials accused the Junta of anti-democratic activities and of planning a coup against the Government. Armed Forces Commander General Wilfredo Vargas responded that the military will defend the Government and the country's territorial integrity and would not allow any groups to foster armed struggle, division, or independence.

Needless to say, by late June, the lack of progress by the CA had made an extension of the Assembly's mandate beyond the current date of August 6 a near certainty.

Judicial Independence Threatened - During the second quarter, tensions between the executive and judicial branches escalated. President Morales, with backing from the MAS members of Congress, advocated for the impeachment of four of the five judges in Bolivia's Constitutional Tribunal (CT). If successful, the impeachments could weaken an important cornerstone of the justice system and potentially allow the executive to appoint the judges' successors by decree during a congressional recess. This initiative, along with other MAS-led attacks on the Supreme Court, elicited criticism by opposition groups in defense of judicial independence. Citing the executive branch's attempts to impeach the four judges, the entire judicial branch held a one-day strike on June 5. President Morales has accused CT judges of issuing verdicts that favor private companies and damage the Bolivian state.

Mixed Messages on Trade - On the trade front, the U.S. Congress is expected to extend Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) trade preferences to Bolivia and other participating countries by 8 months. The move comes after a Bolivian delegation visited the Congress in May to lobby for a 2-year extension and follows continued mixed messages on trade by the GOB, which announced on May 8 that it will gradually seek to renegotiate or abandon its bilateral investment treaties with 22 countries, including the United States.

OTI Highlights

A. Narrative Summary

During the second quarter of 2007, OTI continued to build on its portfolio of activities designed to strengthen the institutional capacity of departmental governments. Since March 2006, OTI has approved 116 grants for $4,451,249 to help departmental governments operate more strategically, to improve service delivery and outreach to both urban and rural indigenous communities, and to help prefects become successful promoters of regional economic development. The projects have provided technical support and training for prefecture staff in the areas of strategic planning, budget and project management, financial management, administrative transparency, communications and outreach, and education-sector administration. OTI also assisted prefectures in departments that have been affected by floods with reconstruction efforts. Finally, OTI continued its support to the multi-donor Constituent Assembly Information Center (CIEDAC by its Spanish acronym) in Sucre, funding conferences and technical information workshops for assembly delegates.

B. Grants Activity Summary

During the second quarter, OTI approved 18 projects for $488,210. While the majority of the new grants funded prefecture support activities, OTI also expanded its efforts to provide information and training to CA delegates via CIEDAC. The CIEDAC grant financed 36 technical workshops for 5 CA commissions, including sessions on autonomy, new state institutions, and the organization and structure of state commissions. OTI support also covered the costs incurred for technical experts that presented at the workshops as well as CIEDAC's costs for organizing and facilitating the workshops.

Prefecture support activities covered a variety of sectors, including economic development, which is a core responsibility of each of Bolivia's departmental governments. One new grant is supporting the Prefecture of La Paz's strategic effort to facilitate regional economic development. The grant is helping the prefecture promote locally produced goods in international markets. By expanding the markets available to local microenterprises and small and medium-size businesses, the prefecture expects to generate at least 250 jobs. Another new project provided support to three strategic initiatives that originated from the Prefecture of Potosí's economic development plan. The initiatives include (1) streamlining the prefecture's solid waste plan to conform to national standards; (2) printing training manuals related to national environmental legislation that the prefecture can use to inform and train municipal government officials; and (3) supporting an economic development fair in the southwest corner of Potosí that will promote the area's two principal products - quinua, a protein-rich grain, and "cattle" (i.e., alpacas and llamas).

OTI also inaugurated a number of high-profile projects in coordination with prefecture partners. On May 30, USAID/Bolivia Director Michael Yates and La Paz Prefect José Luis Paredes celebrated OTI's $17,000 rehabilitation of a public school in the rural town of Mecapaca, a project that benefits some 200 indigenous students. During the event, the prefect strongly acknowledged U.S. Government (USG) support, saying, "I am never going to get tired of saying thanks USAID, a thousand times, for your support to Bolivia." In April, in coordination with the Department of Potosí and Prefect Mario Virreira, OTI inaugurated a department-wide public procurement fair, through which local enterprises competed to supply $4.4 million in goods and services required by the prefecture. OTI's $89,000 grant helped bring transparency to the prefecture's procurement processes and create opportunities for microenterprises. The prefecture has institutionalized the fair as an annual event thanks to OTI support.

SECTOR New Grants in this Quarter
(Apr - June 2007)
Total Grants Cleared
(Mar 2004 - June 2007)
Grants Cleared Amount ($) Grants Cleared Amount ($)
Departmental Government Strengthening 15 $432,210 77 $2,711,890
Linkages between Indigenous Groups and Democratic Structures $0 8 $365,900
Community Development and Economic Opportunity 1 $16,000 108 $3,564,929
Civic Education for Emerging Leaders $0 28 $886,790
Information Diffusion and Dialogue 2 $40,000 106 $4,027,253
School Reconstruction and Education $0 52 $1,708,534
Total 18 $488,210 379 $13,305,296

C. Indicators of Success

Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Indigenous Communities - In the high plains of La Paz, the Catholic University of Bolivia (UCB) operates rural technical training academies (UACs) that school gifted indigenous youth in agricultural science, nursing, and business studies. Because of their remote location, the academies have paid exorbitant prices for weak Internet connections or have gone without Internet access altogether. In partnership with the Motorola Corporation, USAID has helped the Prefecture of La Paz and the UCB bring the latest in information technology to the cradle of Aymara civilization. Through OTI, USAID provided $60,000 for the installation of Motorola's new ultra-high-speed WIMAX Internet service, which amplifies Internet bandwidth through a network of antennas.

With antennas installed in the city of El Alto and at UACs located in the rural communities of Batallas, Pucarani, Escoma, and the pre-Incan capital of Tihuanacu, the network reaches an area of more than 50 square miles and operates at an altitude of 4,200 meters. Local Internet service now operates 32 times faster than before, allowing UAC students to participate in remote online training courses, quickly download large texts from digital libraries, and access 2,300 television channels from 110 countries. The project benefits more than 2,200 students currently studying at 4 rural agricultural academies, creating a new incentive for these talented indigenous youth to improve agricultural and cattle production in their communities instead of leaving the altiplano to look for work in overburdened urban centers. In addition to providing the project with logistical and institutional support, the Prefecture of La Paz funded 40 scholarships to help secondary school graduates from local communities attend the UACs. This project meets OTI Bolivia objectives by helping the prefecture improve its outreach to rural communities and by improving access to global information.

Update on Cross-Cutting USAID Reconstruction Teams - In the aftermath of floods that left hundreds of thousands homeless and resulted in millions of dollars of losses to infrastructure and agriculture, OTI organized a cross-cutting USAID reconstruction effort in Bolivia. To leverage technical resources from USAID's other ongoing projects, OTI coordinated multidisciplinary teams of professionals that deployed to the three departments most affected by the flooding, Beni, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz, to help the prefectures develop reconstruction plans. All three prefectures are now concluding comprehensive multisectoral reconstruction plans (that also prioritize preventive actions) based on the technical assistance they received from the USAID teams. In many cases, these plans include final project designs and agreements for co-financing from municipalities and other donors. While the possibility of receiving funding from the central government remains uncertain, all three prefectures are in the process of reformulating their annual operating plans to accommodate reconstruction projects. OTI continues to provide technical assistance to the prefectures through this process. This cross-team effort built upon the USG disaster relief coordinated by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and will allow USAID to continue assisting Bolivia at a critical moment while taking advantage of existing resources.

Ernesto Suarez, Prefect of Beni, commented to the USAID team, "Your support arrived when we were still focused on emergency assistance and helped us move to the next phase."

Program Appraisal

During the second quarter, OTI and implementing partner Casals and Associates began preparing for the July-September program closeout. OTI has almost reached its grants funding ceiling and will now focus on completing implementation of ongoing projects, including an array of final activities to be carried out in coordination with departmental governments. OTI also plans to hold a series of final prefectural "summits" to present results, best practices, and lessons learned to the program's partners. In the spirit of program handover, representatives from USAID/Bolivia's democracy team and other donor agencies will be invited to attend.

OTI continues to document and evaluate its work with the Bolivian prefectures as well as its activities in all other sectors over the life of the program, including work with indigenous groups, the education sector, GOB communications and information diffusion, public procurement fairs, and microenterprises.

Next Steps/Immediate Priorities

During the third quarter of 2007, OTI/Bolivia will carry out the program's 3-month closeout phase, finish its work with the departmental governments, and prepare for an After Exit Review during the first week of October.

For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Russell Porter, Team Leader, 202-712-5455, rporter@usaid.gov

 

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Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:50:10 -0500
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