USAID/OTI BOLIVIA HOT TOPICS
August 2006
Meeting the Informational Needs of Delegates to the Constituent Assembly
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| Information Technology students from the San Francisco Xavier University install a new informational database into USAID-funded computers at the new Constituent Assembly Information Center. |
Support for the Constituent Assembly Information Center is executed by USAID/OTI through its partner Casals and Associates.
OTI’s grant to the University San Francisco Xavier, through its operational arm, Proyecto Sucre Ciudad Universitaria (PSCU), will equip designated rooms with 50 computers, internet access, and furniture. OTI’s grant will also fund technical assistance in support of PSCU’s management of the information center. The University will provide teachers and, through internships, graduate students in the fields of Law and Communications to staff the center and provide informational support to delegates. Spanish, German, and Dutch aid will provide additional rooms, computers, a library, and a wealth of technical information covering key themes being treated during the Constituent Assembly. Representatives from the central government, municipal, and departmental governments will provide logistical support and facilitate coordination with Assembly delegates.
Driven by a surge in national pride and its citizens’ demands for political change, Bolivia initiated a Constituent Assembly, a mission to rewrite the fundamental components, procedures, laws and limitations that constitute its system of government. While the national dialogue surrounding this process has been understandably political, the 255 recently-elected delegates to the Constituent Assembly have the responsibility to treat not only the current Constitution’s broader symbolic principles, but also the more complex technical statutes that underlie those principles.
In coordination with international donor agencies from Spain, Germany and Holland, the Bolivian National Archives, and central, regional and local government representatives, USAID/Bolivia’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) is supporting efforts by a Bolivian public university to establish a technical information center in Sucre, the host site of the Constituent Assembly. OTI is providing the initial $85,000 in computers, related equipment and technical assistance to the University San Francisco Xavier, whose students and professors will manage the center.
The center will provide Constituent Assembly delegates and their assistants with access to an extensive, systematized library of legislative and technical information. Through a combination of printed materials and a computer database, the center’s objective is to enrich delegates’ understanding of analogous democratic processes and experiences around the world, and address key topics to be treated by the Assembly. The center will also provide the services of both Bolivian and international specialists with expertise in core areas to be addressed, including administration of land and natural resources, system of government, the economic system, and citizen rights and responsibilities.
With the support of USAID and its international donor counterparts, this information center will also support a consortium of Bolivian government, academic, and civil society institutions that will be available to provide background to delegates as needed. The consortium will be available to provide a technical appreciation for the practical implications of their decisions.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Russell Porter, Regional Team Leader, 202-712-5455, rporter@usaid.gov
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