Bolivia obtains IDB support for employment programs

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $20 million loan to help Bolivia expand the coverage and effectiveness of its programs for job seekers. 

The employment programs, implemented by the country’s Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security (MTEPS), seek to better incorporate job seekers into the labor market.

The project is made up of three components: expansion of the Employment Service; a pilot project to support employment for adults; and planning, analysis of employment policies and evaluation. 

Employment services in Latin America and the Caribbean are a recent innovation and have the potential to become real assets for the labor market by matching employers and job seekers in a timely, effective and relevant manner.  However, most employment services in the region, including Bolivia, have limited coverage, essentially providing job banks for brick and mortar operations. 

The first component of the project of $6.4 million will focus on development and implementation of systems and instruments that facilitate full service labor intermediation support, job training, and job counseling including personalized services, internet and a call center that job seekers may access from anywhere in the country.  

The second component employment support for adults of $11.9 million is a program linking training with internships. It primarily targets professional adults who have graduated from technical schools and universities but do not have an access to employment opportunities that would give them the on-the-job training and experience they need to land a permanent job. This program is expected to benefit potentially some 20,000 job seekers and more than 5,00O employers.  The program will target the cities where the Mi Primer Empleo Digno (MPED), an on-going youth job training program, was implemented.

The third component of the project of $1 million will finance the development of monitoring systems, operational assessment studies, and the impact evaluation of the job placement program for adults and other related activities.

The Employment Division (DGE) of the MTEPS will carry out the program. The IDB loan consists of $14 million from the Bank´s ordinary capital with a 30-year term, a six-year grace period and an interest rate based on SCF, plus $6 million loan from the Fund of Special Operations with a 40-year term, a 40-year grace period and 0.25 percent interest rate.