USAID/OTI BOLIVIA HOT TOPICS
November 2005
Supporting Bolivia's General Elections - OTI expands the reach of balanced information to rural, indigenous communities during lead-up to elections
The Office of Transition Initiatives' Bolivia Program promotes peaceful political participation and stability in El Alto and other marginalized communities and increases access to balanced information on issues of national importance. OTI also expands economic opportunity by supporting short-term, community-based activities in distressed areas. OTI is working with the national government to meet critical needs and help the country prepare for elections. OTI's implementing partner is Casals & Associates. The budget in 2004 was $6.3 million; the 2005 budget is $5.5 million.
Pachacuti Cota Cota, a council leader from the small indigenous village of Orinoca, learned by word-of-mouth about informational workshops being conducted by the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives in larger towns closer to the department capital of Oruro. Cota Cota traveled to Oruro to formally request that a workshop be held in Orinoca. As word has continued to spread in recent weeks, leaders from nearby Rosapata and several other rural Altiplano communities have requested workshops for their own towns in order that their citizens could receive balanced information on decentralization, hydrocarbons and citizen participation.
Ensuring that citizens have adequate access to information and an opportunity to debate issues is a key part of supporting peaceful political participation in indigenous communities. During the lead-up to December's general elections, USAID/OTI is working through local partners LAICO Solidarity Movement and Association of Indigenous Youths of Kollasuyo to facilitate over 700 information workshops and civic education fairs in rural municipalities throughout El Alto and the Altiplano.
Youth leaders from each organization will educate citizens and distribute informational booklets to over 80,000 citizens that have traditionally felt isolated from the democratic process. In fact, the supplemental workshops being held in increasingly remote areas of the Altiplano have made the reach of USAID/OTI's information dissemination activities, in many cases, unprecedented. Citizens and community leaders that have participated in rural workshops have repeatedly told facilitators that, "nobody from any international organization has ever visited our community."
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Amy Frumin, LAC Program Manager, 202-712-4231, afrumin@usaid.gov
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