USAID/OTI Bolivia Field Report
September 2004
Program Description
The OTI/Bolivia program seeks to promote peaceful participation in El Alto and other marginalized communities and increase access to balanced information on issues of national importance. The program focuses on:
- Peaceful dialogue and civic education: through the mass media, theatre, discussion groups for youth, and other forums, providing balanced information and opportunities for dialogue on issues of national concern and civic education training.
- Economic opportunity: supporting short-term community-based activities in distressed areas, such as El Alto and the altiplano, designed to increase self-reliance and reduce dependence on government institutions.
Issues affecting youth and indigenous groups are cross-cutting themes in all of OTI/Bolivia's work. OTI's implementing partner is Casals and Associates and the FY 2004 budget is about $6.5 million.
Country Situation
The Politics of the Hydrocarbon Law A Hydrocarbons Law has yet to be approved by Congress and the issue persists to dominant the political landscape.
- Mesas Strategy Following August's public disputes with Congress, the Mesa Government adopted a different legislative strategy this month. Rather than proceeding with the so-called short law, which would have immediately applied higher taxes but postponed other decisions, the Mesa government sent a comprehensive bill to the legislature in early September.
- Congressional Debate The Congressional Committee on Economic Development and the bi-cameral Hydrocarbons Working Group have been reviewing Mesa's and other's proposals. Consensus has been reached within the legislature on a number of issues including: (a) the "obligatory migration" of existing contracts according to the new legislation; (b) a larger role for a state oversight body, whether it be the current Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales de Bolivia (YPBF) or a new organization; and (c) higher taxes. Major questions remain as to how royalties and taxes will be charged and what percent increase is appropriate. A number of the current proposals advocate for a combination of taxes to increase "government take" (defined as gross revenues minus all investments and operating costs on a cash flow basis) to 50 percent.
Social Protests September was by and large, a calm month with few major blockades or strikes. However, a major skirmish between government forces and coca growers erupted in Cochabamba in late September. The confrontation, which was over the Government's eradication policy, left one coca farmer dead and over a dozen military and coca farmers wounded. Coca growers, led by the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) leader, Evo Morales, called for an immediate cessation to eradication efforts. Consistent with MAS's national political agenda, leaders from the region also linked their demands regarding eradication to nationalization of the hydrocarbons industry. President Mesa agreed to a dialogue and to a five day ban on eradication efforts in the Chapare. Although the government has been in negotiations with the coca growers almost constantly since early 2002, the relationship remains characterized by regular skirmishes and frequent protests. Observers have commented that local MAS leaders may try to perpetuate the conflict in order to sustain media attention in the run-up to the municipal elections, in which MAS stands to win a number of mayoral and councilor seats throughout the region.
Economic Indicators The International Monetary Fund stated in its recent quarterly report that the Bolivian gross national product will increase by 3.8 percent in 2004 rising to 4.5 percent in 2005. The IMF is currently completing a $39 million contingency loan to Bolivia.
Relations with Chile Both countries aired their grievances with the other in the United Nations General Assembly. Mesa, who is under significant domestic pressure to take a hard line with Chile, called Chile's refusal to cede access to the sea a "brake on Bolivia's development," while the Chilean Foreign Minister urged Bolivia to move on and begin a new era of relations with Chile. At the end of the month, the Chilean Counsel to Bolivia resigned after being recalled by Santiago for his remarks that he personally hoped Bolivia would achieve access to the sea.
Preparations for Municipal Elections According to the new law allowing citizen and indigenous groups to participate in the electoral process, the National Electoral Court is responsible for processing paperwork for hundreds of new organizations. As the October 6 deadline approached for presenting all paperwork and candidate lists, political parties, citizen and indigenous groups scrambled to meet National Electoral Court requirements and to identify candidates. More than 900 new groups/organizations applied for recognition through the new law but less than half may actually meet the requirements. Nevertheless, the Court does not have the staff or resources to meet these demands and many organizations protested that processing delays were politically motivated. Given the possibility of significant unrest if the Court was unable to comply with the intent of the law, OTI assisted the Court to hire lawyers and other personnel to help register these organizations on time (see grant summary below).
USAID/OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
In September, OTI/Bolivia identified the following issues as central to carrying out our goals of promoting peaceful dialogue and civic education and facilitating economic opportunity:
- Municipal Elections: Help facilitate the implementation of a new law by educating citizen and indigenous groups, supporting the National Electoral Court and promoting citizen participation through objective information diffusion.
- Constituent Assembly: Support the process of informing the citizenry on the development of a new constitution in 2005.
- Buy Bolivian Campaign: Provide information to public and private sector on new legislation that favors Bolivian products and services.
- Consumption of Natural Gas: Promote the consumption of natural gas particularly in El Alto through the conversion of vehicles and gas connections to schools.
- Legal Status for Citizens: Promote and facilitate the process of securing legal status for Bolivians so that they can enjoy the privileges of citizenship such as voting, receiving pensions or tax refunds, etc.
- Education: Identify priority education needs for the $1 million in Mission development assistance that was transferred to OTI Bolivia.
The elections strategy is immediate and short-term and will focus on the period leading up to the municipal elections scheduled for December 5. As of the end of September, OTI/Bolivia had 13 grants providing non-partisan education on municipal election issues, for a total obligation value of close to $500,000. Based on OTI's experience with the gas referendum, in which groups requested both training and materials, OTI will be working closely with its elections grant partners to provide technical assistance and coordination with its elections grants. With the help of a coordinator, who will provide bi-lateral technical assistance to each group as well as encourage synergies and information sharing between groups, OTI is developing standard educational materials and a training course for facilitators.
The Constituent Assembly and Buy Bolivia Campaigns are longer term endeavors in which OTI is working with both government institutions as well as civil society groups. One of the key roles that OTI can play in this area, besides information diffusion, is helping link government and grassroots efforts to ensure feedback and communication. For example, OTI's three civil society grantees that are providing information and promoting dialogue on the Constituent Assembly have signed accords with the government Constituent Assembly Coordinating Committee to create open flow of information. With regard to Buy Bolivia, OTI is working to increase the capacity of small and medium enterprises to respond to government procurement processes, while helping government raise awareness on the new legislation (see below for September grant to the government).
In the area of education, OTI, in consultation with the Mission, has developed a series of prototype grant activities that can be replicated in numerous schools in the target areas. As September concluded, more than ten grant requests from El Alto schools were being reviewed and it is expected that the majority of them will be approved and implemented in October and November based on number of students in a school.
OTI/Bolivia will support government and civil society efforts to provide legal documentation for hundreds of thousands of Bolivians who lack requisite papers for participating in various institutions of society.
B. Grants Activity Summary
| 1. Municipal Elections |
9 |
$298,620 |
15 |
$477,826 |
| 2. Civic Education |
2 |
$43,120 |
16 |
$287,158 |
| 3. Communications GOB |
1 |
$113,600 |
11 |
$374,753 |
| 4. Community Social Services |
0 |
$0.00 |
3 |
$60,410 |
| 5. Constituent Assembly |
0 |
$0.00 |
10 |
$385,475 |
| 6. Economic Information |
1 |
$14,700 |
8 |
$92,178 |
| 7. Job Creation/Income Generation |
1 |
$13,400 |
8 |
$124,475 |
| 8. Legal Identity (Documentation) |
0 |
$0.00 |
1 |
$3,237 |
| 9. Natural Gas Conversion/Consumption |
1 |
$33,000 |
4 |
$93,894 |
| 10. Other Political |
0 |
$0.00 |
1 |
$42,490 |
| 11. Professional Skills Training |
0 |
$0.00 |
4 |
$84,000 |
| 12. Referendum |
0 |
$0.00 |
18 |
$570,002 |
| 13. School Reconstruction and Education |
1 |
$11,500 |
7 |
$145,804 |
| Total |
16 |
$527,940 |
106 |
$2,741,702 |
In September OTI cleared 16 grants totaling $527, 940. Of the nine grants related to municipal elections, eight are for El Alto/altiplano based organizations that will conduct a series of voter education activities including candidate debates, voting process information and get out the vote activities. In addition, OTI provided a $155,000 grant to the Electoral Court to hire lawyers, database technicians and rent computers in order to process the paperwork of citizen groups interested in competing in the elections. OTI's assistance to the Government of Bolivia this month will allow an inter-ministerial committee to provide information and technical assistance to both government authorities and Bolivian business' on the Buy Bolivia legislation. Ensuring adequate information on this legislation, which requires municipalities to give preferential treatment to Bolivian business, is critical for promoting government transparency and promoting economic development.
In addition, OTI supported: (1) an economic development project to increase farmers' incomes in the altiplano community of Viacha and a resource center in El Alto to provide up to date economic information to local business; (2) two civic education projects for youth; (3) natural gas conversion workshops for mechanics in El Alto; and (4) a school rehabilitation grant in El Alto.
C. Indicators of Success
Constituent Assembly The public policy impact of OTI grants was demonstrated when two of the institutions which participated in the two week simulation of the National Assembly used lessons learned from their experience to draft and propose legislation on the legal framework for the Constituent Assembly.
Municipal Elections An OTI grantee and several groups in El Alto provided technical assistance and training that will allow more than 300 citizen groups to present candidates in the municipal elections. The grantee, with the assistance of the municipal associations in the departments, provided citizen groups with help in preparing documentation in Bolivia's nine departments. The combination of this technical assistance with OTI's grant to the Electoral Court to ensure that the paperwork is reviewed by the deadline, is critical in ensuring that the new legislation can be implemented.
Economic Opportunity The newly formed Chamber of Commerce of El Alto has completed its survey that will help small Alteno businesses to grow by identifying new opportunities with large companies that sub-contract services. The survey determined the current existing needs (in textiles, industrial machinery and carpentry) and will begin providing technical assistance for selected small business that demonstrate potential for competing for big business contracts in these areas. OTI is supporting the survey and training.
OTI has also been able to achieve synergy between many of its economic development and education projects. In numerous cases, OTIs grantees have hired or contracted services from professionals trained by OTI projects.
Education, formal and informal OTI's referendum related projects have had impact past the actual July vote. Several hundred women, who participated in an OTI sponsored literacy-through-democracy course, have formed municipal elections discussions groups. Many said they would vote for the first time in upcoming municipal elections as they could now fully understand the ballot.
An OTI grantee has succeeded in getting the issue of civic education instruction on the agenda of the nationwide network of affiliated training schools. OTI's grant helped the school design teachers' manuals and a module for civic education which the 500 participating teachers will use after graduation. The grantee has decided the civic education curriculum is so valuable that they will present a proposal at their national annual meeting that all affiliates integrate into their training methodology.
Next Steps/Immediate Priorities
OTI will continue to work on strategies and implementation for the priority areas outlined above. The municipal elections will be a key focus for OTI through December, and legal identity or documentation will become an increasingly important issue as the Constituent Assembly approaches.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Amy Frumin, LAC Program Manager, 202-712-4231, afrumin@usaid.gov
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