The Inter-American Development Bank announced today the approval of a $10 million concessional loan to Bolivia for a program to support a social safety net and community development in three rural regions and one urban district.
Investments will be made in rural communities in the country’s 31 poorest municipalities, in the departments of Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Potosí, and in one urban district of the city of El Alto.
The program will improve living standards for the extremely poor by strengthening their community-based organization capacity and ensuring access to basic infrastructure and social services and more opportunities for individual and community development.
This operation will develop and test a new model to strengthen the self-management capacity of the communities in identifying, prioritizing, executing and monitoring projects for social protection and integral community development. It will also develop institutional framework for implementing social protection and community development policies.
The new model, conceived by the Government of Bolivia, was designed to strengthen self-management capacity through community mobilization and participation in defining and managing measures that will benefit local people. The program will transfer funds to the communities to finance productive, social and environmental investments in return for a community commitment to targets for improving human development indicators.
“Within a framework that fosters an integral approach to social development, the program will promote the coordination and articulation of governmental agencies at all levels (central, departmental and municipal), non-governmental organizations and the bilateral cooperation,” said IDB Team Leader Marcia Arieira. “This will promote synergies and complementary multisectoral action, maximizing existing resources to improve overall conditions in the social, economic and environmental areas and to bring services to these communities that had not been accessible so far.”
“This initiative will support improvements in environmental and sanitary conditions, the quality of schools and health facilities, and the productive capacity of these areas,” added Arieira. “Farming and small-scale livestock projects are expected to help improve nutrition for poor families. Access to social services will improve immunization, prenatal care, the monitoring of malnutrition in children under six and increase school attendance, particularly for girls, in those communities.”
It is estimated that the program will reach around 90,000 direct beneficiaries in 450 rural communities. In urban communities of El Alto, the pilot project is expected to benefit around 2,800 people.
This program is consistent with the IDB 2004-2007 strategy agreed with Bolivia to support the country in its efforts to reduce poverty in a sustainable manner. The Ministry of Development and Planning will carry out the project.
This loan from the IDB Fund for Special Operations is for a 40-year period, with a 10-year grace period with a variable interest rate. Local counterpart funds will total US$558,000.