Report on Our Work in Bolivia

I. INTRODUCTION

This July, I traveled to Southern Bolivia to look at the work of our partner ACLO through the lens of the Millennium Development Goals framework.

You will recall that the heart of ACLO’s program is Radio ACLO – the sole source of empowering information for the Quechua speaking people of the Andes. Last year we launched a new phase of this work in a three-year campaign to train a greatly expanded cadre of volunteer “people’s reporters” – much like Hunger Project animators, except they have the additional duty of carrying the voices of the people back to the radio station.

A woman People's Reporter in Presto.

This is an inspiring time in Bolivia, following the ouster of two presidents due to strong activism by indigenous people. The indigenous movement has strongly protested a political system they perceive as serving only a small number of wealthy families. This has led to a broad, consultative political process that will result in new elections and hopefully to a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution that respects and includes indigenous peoples.

I’m delighted that ACLO’s general director, Rafael Garcia Mora, will be with us at the October board meeting for the first time.

Observations from my visit

The major conclusion from this trip is that ACLO is playing a very strategic role at this moment in Bolivia’s political evolution, and is powerfully positioned to catalyze a greatly expanded campaign of action for rural development in the years to come.

Another point to note for planning next year – August 2006 marks ACLO’s 40^th birthday and ACLO is eager to host a Latin America regional Hunger Project strategy meeting and possibly an investor visit.

Indigenous Communities of Bolivia and the MDGs

I met with ACLO’s leadership at their national headquarters in Sucre and their regional office in Potosi. In addition, I met with the leader of CIPCA in Santa Cruz. On the one hand – both ACLO and CIPCA have long advocated a holistic approach to development. On the other hand, they had not seriously considered utilizing the framework of the MDGs. In fact, the UN does not have an acronym for the MDGs in Spanish. Only next month is the World Bank issuing major reports on Latin America with respect to the MDGs – and the advances on these reports indicate that they are in agreement with The Hunger Project and others that development has bypassed rural indigenous populations.

That said – both ACLO and CIPCA showed enthusiasm for being part of a global movement committed to the MDGs, and particularly for the gender focus of The Hunger Project.

The Sucre staff of ACLO.

MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and also the country with the highest concentration of indigenous people.

In addition to the mobilization/empowerment thrust that we work with directly, ACLO has a good team of agriculturalists who provide training and technical advice to hundreds of rural communities – one of which I visited. The community had launched a project to bring irrigation water from a nearby river to irrigate their field.

ACLO also operates a permanent agricultural training facility, and has trained thousands of farmers in ways to improve both incomes and nutrition.

Community irrigation project outside Potosi.

MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

ACLO began life as a literacy organization – focusing on radio-based literacy instruction. Today, most villagers do attend primary school, yet – with no access to information – they lose their skills. At the request of rural women who increasingly see the value of education – ACLO is piloting a new basic education course designed to refresh, strengthen and maintain educational skills.

MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Our partnership for training people’s reporters has made a special effort to train equal numbers of women and men. However, the logistical hardships of being a people’s reporter in the Andes is extreme, and very few of the trained women are able to attend meetings – which may require a 15 hour walk.

In one town where I was to meet with people’s reporters, zero women attended. We therefore organized an impromptu first-ever “men and gender” workshop based on workshops we used in Bangladesh to mobilize male commitment to gender justice. The challenge facing this program is to redesign the empowerment structures to work for women, rather than trying to get women to participate in a structure that further burdens them.

In a second meeting, there were women participating, and they were able to speak powerfully to the burdens faced by women. Yet, the notion of transforming the program rather than trying to further transform the women was considered a very radical idea by the women as well as the men – but a radical idea they embraced by the end of the meeting. By next board meeting, I hope to be able to report on actual results in this regard.

Participants in Bolivia's first Men and Gender Equality workshop.

MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality and MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health

ACLO’s two main interventions for heath are (a) training in health and nutrition over Radio ACLO and (b) empowering indigenous people, and particularly women, to be actively involved in local government, so that people gain access to government resources for health that are rightfully theirs. The addition of the expanded cadre of People’s Reporters is expected to greatly leverage this work over the next two years.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

Despite its close proximity to Brazil, the indigenous communities of Southern Bolivia have not yet experienced HIV/AIDS. Bolivians do, however, confront one often-fatal disease – Chagas – which ACLO is combating on a priority basis through education, prevention campaigns and treatment. The parasitic disease is carried by insects that live in the mud-based housing that is common amongst the poorest families.

MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

ACLO is committed to sustainable agricultural techniques, and to improved water supplies and sanitation. As in other parts of Latin America, the livelihood of rural indigenous people is directly tied to the environment. The Quechua cherish their ancient wisdom of preserving the environment and they fight for the right to apply that wisdom.

MDG 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

ACLO is working in partnership with four large like-minded NGOs covering other parts of the country in order to conduct a national-scale participatory process known as Apostamos por Bolivia (“We bet on Bolivia!”). This collaboration has been highly successful, and points the ways to the kind of national-level partnership for development possible in the future.