BOLIVIA
SECTOR: Planning and Reform
PROJECT NAME: Social Management Support Program
(982/SF-BO)
TOTAL COST: $3.5 million
FINANCING:
IDB $3.0 million
LOCAL $0.5 million
DATE OF APPROVAL: October 9, 1996
DESCRIPTION: The objectives are to ease the decentralization
process, provide support for social management at
the various levels of government responsible for
delivery of social programs such as education and
health care, and improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of social spending. Training in
areas relating to the design and administration of
social programs and policies will be provided for
technical personnel from the central administration
and the departmental governments (nine
prefectures); and an ongoing training system will
be established for municipal teams and other active
agents of civil society. The program also calls
for updating and coordinating management
information systems in support of social
management.
The program comprises three subprograms. The training and
advisory assistance for social management subprogram will
consist of: (a) training in the design and management of
social policy, to be provided for at least 300 officials from
the Ministerio de Desarrollo Humano (MDH) and the nine
departmental prefectures; (b) development and application of
instruments or tools for diagnostic assessment, planning,
formulation, monitoring and evaluation of projects and
budgets, stakeholder analysis, and promoting citizen
participation at the level of the central government and
within departmental prefectures; (c) problem-
solving for obstacles that hinder the management of social
policy within the MDH and the nine departments, through
training and analysis workshops;
(d) strengthening and consolidation of training and technical
assistance capacity in areas relating to social management;
and (e) promotion of modern methods of administration in the
social sector among a wide audience which includes NGOs
engaged in managing social programs.
The subprogram to develop and implement a management
information system in the social sphere will support the
design and strengthening of the MDH management information
system and the data subsystems of the national secretariats.
It will include the quantification and geographical location
of infrastructure in the education, health and basic
sanitation sectors, with subsequent expansion to include
subsidized housing, secondary roads, agricultural production
centers, sports, and culture. Digitization will be carried
out and procedures established for updating the poverty and
malnutrition maps, district health indicators and the
georegional map of educational units; work will be done on the
standardization, compilation, quality and digitization of
sectoral administrative records in health, education, care of
children and other areas in the MDH; and a standard will be
prepared to facilitate coordination of information from health
districts with educational units and other indicators of
demand, disaggregated by local community.
The third subprogram will finance specific consulting services
to finetune designated national planning instruments whose use
is compulsory under the new, decentralized structure.
CONSULTANTS: The following consulting services will be financed:
(a) a firm to provide training and advisory
assistance for the social management program (18
months), including conducting meetings to heighten
awareness of social management and help MDH adjust
its management role to fit the decentralized system
through the launching of a national training
program, designing training courses in design,
management and evaluation of social policies and
programs for MDH staff, conducting problem-solving
workshops to examine specific challenges and devise
alternative solutions, organizing meetings to
heighten awareness of social management in the nine
departments, conducting training courses on
management and evaluation of social policies and
programs for technical staff under the departmental
secretaries, holding problem-solving workshops for
departmental technical staff,
identifying procedures and tools that would improve social
management, recommending concrete measures that could
facilitate the use of certain methods or tools, cooperating in
the design, testing and correction of techniques for applying
certain methods or tools, training instructors in the training
and advisory activities being carried out, disseminating
information on modern social management to NGOs, civil society
organizations and grassroots organizations through public
lectures, preparing and updating case studies based on
Bolivian experiences, coordinating on the analyses of the
integrated, georeferenced social management data system and
using that system in training programs and advisory
initiatives, coordinating with MDH staff to upgrade planning,
public investemtn and social management monitoring and
evalution systems, and preparing and publishing texts and
materials to support ongoing training activities in the social
sectors; (b) a firm to design an information management system
that integrates all social sectors (18 months), including
conducting a survey and diagnostic study of existing
information and information systems, as well as the procedures
currently used to access the different data sources, defining
information requirements and needs of system users,
establishing a permanent framework for liaison between the
system and its institutional users, proposing and studying
ways of meeting specific requirements of the system in terms
of procedures, hardware and software, and any other
infrastructure needed for implementation of the system,
designing the system based on the overall objectives and
requirements of each user, identifying the equipment and
software necessary to run the new system, inputting and
building up databases, installing the system, and training
personnel in the use of the system and its outputs through
training activities aimed at its main beneficiary
institutions; and
(c) local individual consultants to fine-tune national
planning instruments and develop managerial tools for the
social sectors.
GOODS AND EQUIPMENT: Equipment and supplies for the training
and advisory assistance for social
management pubprogram, as well as
software and hardware required by the new
system will be purchased.
EXECUTING AGENCY: Ministerio de Desarrollo Humano (MDH)
Secretaría Nacional de Participación Popular
Avenida Arce 2147
La Paz, Bolivia
Tel: (591-2) 374-914
Fax: (591-2) 371-376
Contact: Freddy Teodovic
