USAID/OTI Bolivia Field Report
October 2004
Program Description
The OTI/Bolivia program promotes peaceful participation in El Alto and other marginalized communities and increases access to balanced information on issues of national importance. Specifically, the program supports peaceful dialogue and civic education through mass media, theatre, discussion groups for youth, and other forums, providing balanced information and op-portunities for dialogue on issues of national concern and civic education training. It also ex-pands economic opportunity by supporting short-term, community-based activities in distressed areas, such as El Alto and the altiplano, which are designed to increase self-reliance. Issues af-fecting 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 was $6.3 million.
Country Situation
Anniversary of the October 2003 Uprising – October marked the first anniversary of the El Alto uprising that resulted in more than 50 deaths and the flight of then-President Sanchez de Lozada to the United States. While there were some demonstrations in La Paz, generally the atmosphere was peaceful. Prior to the anniversary week, Congress passed a law to allow ex-President Sanchez de Lozada to be brought to trial.
The Hydrocarbons Law – The Hydrocarbons Law remains a major point of political contention. The Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) draft of the law was passed in broad form by the lower house of Congress, and the details are now being debated. The most controversial clauses to be debated are those calling for an increase in the government's tax from the current 18 percent to 50 percent. Congress may decide to postpone further debate until after the municipal elections on December 5, in order to avoid perceptions that electoral interests are influencing positions on the hydrocarbons issue.
Autonomy Debate in Santa Cruz – The civic committee of Santa Cruz (an informal but influential association of unions, business and other key sectors representatives) reinstituted its demand for greater autonomy from the national government. The committee is threatening strikes if the government does not hold a nationwide referendum on autonomy simultaneously with municipal elections. The government's response to this, and similar calls for autonomy by all other regions of Bolivia, is that autonomy should be addressed during the Constituent Assembly and not in a separate process.
Municipal Elections – Due to new legislation allowing candidates with no party affiliation to seek election, a record number of 13,417 candidates will run in the municipal elections, 821 more than in 1999. While 299 fewer men will participate this year than in the 1999 municipal elections, 1,120 more women will run, demonstrating that women are taking advantage of the new legislation to become more involved in the political process.
USAID/OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
OTI/Bolivia is providing voter education technical assistance for the December 5, 2004 elec-tions. The 15 grants to community based organizations in El Alto, totaling almost $306,000, and four national level grants, for a total of $404,000, will fund projects to inform voters and candi-dates of the functions performed by elected municipal authorities. Specifically, OTI/Bolivia is supporting training courses for facilitators from all its grantee organizations that will increase their own understanding as well as their abilities to provide high-quality workshops for others. Also, based on past experience with the referendum that demonstrated the importance of produc-ing a common set of materials to ensure that the information provided is balanced and accurate, OTI/Bolivia is supporting the production and publication of hundreds of thousands of booklets on municipal governance and elections, legal guides, municipal law compendiums and voting flyers to promote participation.
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| A parent teacher association of an El Alto school contributes to the construction of school facilities which will be used for adult education on seminars on democracy, among other topics. |
OTI/Bolivia has identified four schools in El Alto with immediate needs that have been over-looked by other education rehabilitation projects. Desks, computers, and classroom materials will be provided along with the infrastructure rehabilitation. The two schools that will receive the computers will also serve as community resource centers. OTI/Bolivia is continuing to work with the parent/teacher associations for the four schools, which have demonstrated their commitment to providing labor and ensuring the sustainability of OTI's contributions.
OTI/Bolivia continues to assist an estimated 12-15 percent of the population who do not have any legal status due to lack of necessary government documentation. Without proper identifica-tion these people cannot vote or exercise other basic rights. OTI/Bolivia is funding an El Alto based NGO, which is helping residents obtain appropriate documentation. In addition, OTI/Bolivia is funding a government campaign to publicize legal changes which make obtaining legal documentation much easier.
B. Grants Activity Summary
This month, OTI/Bolivia cleared 17 new grants, totaling $561,281. Also this month, OTI/Bolivia completed 28 grants, several of which help closing events.
One such event was attended by the USAID Deputy Administrator, Fred Schieck, who spoke at the graduation ceremony for a micro-enterprise development program that provided 583 youth from the poorest areas in El Alto with professional skills training in metal-woodworking, infor-mation technology, baking, and business administration. The OTI grantee used a market study of El Alto business needs to determine focal points for its four-month training modules that in-cluded coursework, business plan design and internships. The grantee expects that 50 percent of the formerly unemployed high school graduates will be joining the labor market in the next three months. In his remarks to the students, Deputy Administrator Schieck noted that the OTI/Bolivia grant is part of USAID's larger efforts to help create jobs and other opportunities for youth in El Alto and to encourage youths' constructive engagement in their communities.
| 1. Municipal Elections |
5 |
$257,581 |
21 |
$764,584 |
| 2. Civic Education |
|
|
16 |
$287,158 |
| 3. Communications GOB |
3 |
$184,000 |
15 |
$589,505 |
| 4. Community Social Services |
|
|
3 |
$ 68,491 |
| 5. Constituent Assembly |
1 |
$ 5,050 |
11 |
$378,364 |
| 6. Economic Information |
1 |
$ 16,000 |
9 |
$108,745 |
| 7. Job Creation/Income Generation |
1 |
$ 9,900 |
8 |
$110,758 |
| 8. Legal Identity (Documentation) |
2 |
$ 34,900 |
3 |
$ 38,137 |
| 9. Natural Gas Conversion/ Consumption |
|
|
4 |
$ 93,894 |
| 10. Other Political |
|
|
1 |
$ 42,490 |
| 11. Professional Skills Training |
|
|
3 |
$ 66,000 |
| 12. Referendum |
|
|
17 |
$537,842 |
| 13. School Reconstruction and Education |
4 |
$ 53,850 |
11 |
$199,654 |
| Total |
17 |
$561,281 |
123 |
$3,285,620 |
Note: In some cases grants were cancelled or reclassified to a different sector, thus accounting for discrepancies from last month’s report.
C. Indicators of Success
In the past month there are four clear examples of where the OTI/Bolivia program is promoting peaceful participation in El Alto and other marginalized communities and increasing access to balanced information on issues of national importance. They include:
An OTI/Bolvia grant to the Electoral Court allowed four departmental courts in the country's most populous areas of Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Oruro and Potosi to register 263 citizen groups and 46 indigenous communities by the deadline in order that they could participate in the mu-nicipal elections. The Electoral Court was hard pressed to meet the demand of hundreds of citi-zen groups requiring technical assistance to complete registration paperwork within the tight deadlines set by electoral law. When faced with delays, many groups accused the Court of delib-erate manipulation. OTI's $155,000 grant to the Court funded personnel and equipment to ensure participation of all qualified groups, thus reducing tensions. The President of the Electoral Court of Potosi noted that "if it were not for the assistance, (they) never would have made the dead-lines", nor implemented the legislation aimed at opening up the political process.
With support from OTI/Bolivia news programs in Aymara, Quechua and Guarani are becoming a standard feature of local radio stations. The State radio station, Radio Ilimani, began the trend by using OTI assistance to introduce a series of native language news programs. The programs in-clude information from indigenous and non-government sources throughout the country. Radio Ilimani recently learned that numerous radio stations in the Yungas, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz are downloading the satellite signals and re-broadcasting the programs locally. In addition, other radio stations are using the programs as a starting point for developing their own.
Recently, the Ministry of Defense and the Police Department announced that they will use a model initiated with support from OTI/Bolivia that sponsored the follow-up activities to two trade fairs, during which over a million small businesses exhibited for larger buyers more than 50,000 products and services, with a value of $350 million. Thus far, an estimated 5,000 sales have resulted from the fair. Twenty-three of these contracts are being executed with the help of credit given to El Alto small business owners through an earlier OTI grant (March 2004), which contributed to establishing a revolving credit fund. OTI/Bolivia also provided $15,000 to develop materials to advertise goods and services needed in the marketplace. This grant is additionally funding the creation of materials to facilitate the replication of such trade fairs in other munici-palities throughout the country, including an audio and written guide to setting up a fair, a cata-log and a database with the market demands of larger companies.
In October, an OTI/Bolivia grantee completed its project to educate adolescent mothers in El Alto about child development and other relevant issues. Participants found the information so valuable that at the conclusion of the project, they joined together to obtain new support from local hospitals and neighborhood youth groups to continue the project.
For the first time at the both the local and national level, sporting events have successfully brought together two historically divided communities. The OTI/Bolivia funded project brought 576 youth as well as parents and community members from La Paz and El Alto together in inte-grated sports teams, which competed over the past several months. The closing event, which was very well attended, did not signal the end of the exchange between the communities because permanent teams have now been created.
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
The municipal elections will be a key focus for OTI throughout December.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Amy Frumin, LAC Program Manager, 202-712-4231, afrumin@usaid.gov
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