The Bank has joined with the country to help improve living conditions in rural and urban areas
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has worked Bolivia since 1960, the year the IDB approved the first operation in its history: a technical cooperation grant for US$51,500 dollars for the Mining Corporation of Bolivia and the country's development plan.The greatest part of IDB lending to Bolivia since 1961―US$2.1 billion―has been extended from the Fund for Special Operations.
Total Bank lending to the country totals US$3,367 million. Bank-funded grants, technical cooperation, and guarantees brings overall IDB financing for Bolivia to US$4.1 billion in more than 650 operations over the past 50 years.The Bank’s current loan portfolio for Bolivia totals US$846.2 million for 28 operations.
The portfolio of operations of the Multilateral Investment Fund and the Social Entrepreneurship Program totals US$34.1 million for 57 operations. The program of sovereign guarantee lending for 2011-2012 stands at US$252 million for each year, which represents a substantial increase over the US$200.8 million in Bank lending to the country in 2010, US$191 million in 2009, and US$74.3 million in 2008.
A quarter of the portfolio is for transportation projects, 19 percent for energy, 22 percent for water and sanitation, 15 percent for rural development and environment, 12 percent for municipal management and reform of the state, and 6 percent for social protection.
IDB-financed programs for Bolivia include the following:A multiphase program for neighborhood improvement received IDB financing for US$30 million approved in late 2008.
In La Paz, the program will benefit nearly 3,000 families in five of the city’s nine districts. The IDB in 2009 extended a loan for US$20 million for a multiphase program to support the eradication of extreme poverty that aims to improve the health and nutrition of mothers and children, especially in rural and indigenous communities. Part of this initiative consists of funding for the Bono Juana Azurduy conditional cash transfer program in 33 municipalities and improving health services responsible for the care stipulated by that program.
The Bono Juana Azurduy program for mothers and children was created by decree in May 2009 to help reduce high rates of post neonatal infant mortality (27 deaths per thousand live births in 2008) and chronic malnutrition in childrenthree months to two years of age (which affects 27 percent of this age group in rural areas). Programs that have improved water and sanitation services for more than 500,000 people in five cities have been carried out with funding provided by the IDB and a water and sanitation fund that the Bank administers for the government of Spain.
In its first year and a half, the peri-urban water and sanitation program is funding four projects to improve and expand water and sanitation coverage in the city of El Alto, carried out by the Public Enterprise for Water and Sanitation; and in Santa Cruz, carried out by the Cooperative of Water and Sewerage Public Utilities, which serves some 150,000 people.In the past four years, the Bank has provided US$70 million in funding for the urban basic sanitation program, which focuses on medium-size cities.
The Bank also approved a loan for US$40 million for a program of water and sanitation for small towns, and a loan of US$21 million for the small community water program, which includes a grant for €18 million from the German Development Bank (KfW).