Title: Bolivia

Author: UNIFEM 

Date: 2001-2005 

This report highlights the progress of Bolivia in gender budgeting at the local level. In Bolivia, the Law of Popular Participation, approved in 1994, established the development of participatory local development plans and vigilance committees as two main citizenship participation mechanisms at the local level. At the national level, participation was concretised, leading to the formulation of a public policy on poverty reduction. For UNIFEM, Bolivia presented a unique opportunity to work on local planning, budgeting and reporting, where people’s demands could be better reflected and citizens could become active in policy-making. Identifying and addressing gender inequalities and women’s specific needs and interests, are critical to ensure democratic and equitable development. Additionally, Bolivia was one of the countries chosen by the UNIFEM Andean Region office because it had a combination of experts, such as the IFFI, with knowledge on public finance and/or gender and a strong women’s movement that could get involved in the process of understanding and using the information provided by the Gender Sensitive Budgets analysis.

Implementing Partners:
Coordinadora de la Mujer de Bolivia, Municipality of Cochabamba, Instituto de Formación Femenina Integral (IFFI), Gregoria Apaza

Starting Date: August 2001
End Date of Report: February 2005

Background:

In Bolivia, the Law of Popular Participation, approved in 1994, established the development of participatory local development plans and vigilance committees as two main citizenship participation mechanisms at the local level. At the national level, participation was concretised in the National Dialogues of 1997 and 2000, which led to the formulation of a public policy on poverty reduction.

Justification:

For UNIFEM, the Bolivia context presented a unique opportunity to work on new forms of local planning, budgeting and reporting where people’s demands could be better reflected and citizens could become active subjects of policy-making. Identifying and addressing gender inequalities and women’s specific needs and interests are critical to ensure democratic and equitable development.

Additionally, Bolivia was one of the countries chosen by the UNIFEM Andean Region office because it had a combination of experts with knowledge on public finance and/or gender and a strong women’s movement that could get involved in the process of understanding and using the information provided by the Gender Sensitive Budgets analysis.

Expected outcomes:

• Increased availability of methodologies and tools to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level
• Increased and sustained capacity of a wide range of stakeholders to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level
• Knowledge shared on practices and processes towards gender budget analysis used and acknowledged as effective means of tracking gender mainstreaming and supporting gender equality

What has been realized:

• Strengthened links around GRB between the government (through the Women’s Vice-Ministry) and civil society through the Women transforming Economy Network
• Leading advocacy role by the Coordinadora de la Mujer de Bolivia using the findings of the gender budget analysis
• A national level advocacy campaign that led to initiatives at the local level in El Alto and Cochabamba
• The network of women’s groups active in budget policy advocacy was expanded to include the Organization Gregoria Apaza (which is part of the Women’s Network transforming Economy in Bolivia), Instituto de Formación Femenina Integral and the Inter-District Women’s Committee
• Advocacy focused on the implementation of the legislation on violence against women using the findings of the analysis tracking budgetary allocations at national and local level through the “Critical Route of Violence” i.e. all institutions that are relevant in addressing VAW such as judicial isntitution, education, Police, health, etc. The analysis identified the existing gaps and the elements that need to be included in advocacy action for increased national spending policies to fullfill legal commitments stated in the law to prevent and eradicate VAW in Bolivia. Consequently, three Municipal legal services were opened to provide legal advice to victims of violence against women and specific programmes, such as women’s literacy and laundries for women
• Development of indicators on the impact of budget policies on the status of women and budget

Increased availability of methodologies and tools to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at the local level

An expert on GRB developed Local Governments and Gender-Sensitive Budgets to define possible entry points for gender budget initiatives at the local level in Bolivia. A former Undersecretary of Economy and Finance, carried out a gender budget analysis of Bolivia’s national budget and the Municipality of La Paz. The analysis was carried out without any institutional arrangements with the government, thus differing from other experiences in the Andean Region, such as the Cuenca or Villa El Salvador. It was based on information available to the public, as a capacity-building exercise to interpret public budgetary figures. The Bolivian experience also fed into the development of the methodological approach developed for gender budget analysis. The book was launched in Bolivia in partnership with the Women’s Vice Ministry.

Increased and sustained capacity of a wide range of stakeholders to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level

Taking advantage of the lessons learned during the initial research, the previous phase investigations and the development of the document Local Governments and Gender-Sensitive Budgets, UNIFEM signed an agreement with the Instituto de Formación Femenina Integral –IFFI- (Integral Feminine Training Institute) and the Municipality of Cochabamba to implement a gender budget initiative at local level. The proposal included an initial gender analysis of the municipal budget followed by an advocacy campaign using the results of the investigation. Analysis of the Cochabamba municipal budget was completed in 2004. At the national level links were established with the government through the Women’s Vice-Ministry and civil society through the Women transforming Economy Network. This has been a key element that will certainly be reflected in the results of the advocacy campaing aiming to achieve charges in national directives for local expenditure.

Knowledge shared on practices and processes towards gender budget analysis used and acknowledged as effective means of tracking gender mainstreaming and supporting gender equality

The Coordinadora de la Mujer (an umbrella organization which includes women’s organizations throughout the country) disseminated results of the GRB analysis, through a series of workshops with the participation of women’s organizations, women authorities in local governments, and civil servants from the Public Finance Ministry in a series of workshops. The results were also presented in different national and international fora such the International Seminar on the Gender Perspective in Budgets organized by the Chilean National Service for Women –SERNAM- for finance and women’s machineries Latin American authorities and the Third Forum of the World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty (WACAP) Cities-Women Partnerships against Poverty.

This dissemination strategy resulted in an increased interest of different actors to initiate gender budgets work. During the Gender Budgets regional course organized by UNIFEM in Lima in September 2004, three new specialists from Bolivia (one from the Women’s Vice Ministry, two from the civil society) were trained on applying the GRB tools to mainstream gender in budgets. As a result, one of them is currently working in the Municipality of El Alto initiative and the other has presented a proposal to initiate work with the Bolivian Women Councilors Association.

Cochabamba was a good example case in which gender was successfully mainstreamed throughout the local participatory development plan. Nevertheless, through analyzing the institutional framework, certain gaps were identified. One of the main findings was that short-term planning, as carried out in the formulation of the Annual Operating Plans, and represented the basis for the budget allocations, is usually determined by the municipal civil servants following directives from the Ministry of Finance. This is usually carried out without necessarily ensuring any conformity with the long-term participatory plans. Therefore, due to this disconnect, all efforts put into mainstreaming gender in the participatory processes did not necessarily mean allocation of resources for gender equity actions. This led to the identification of an advocacy campaign in 2004 targeting not only the local government of Cochabamba, but also the national institutions in charge of defining such norms and directives on local expenditure. The goal of the campaign is to align gender equity legislation and regulations with national planning and budgeting processes. At present, gender advocates apply such new elements to influence national policy through contributing to the participatory process and ensuring links between local development plans and budget allocations towards actions to promote gender equity.

One of the main difficulties confronted by the initial gender budget analysis of the National Budget was the lack of information available for this kind of research. Even in the case of the public investment tracking –for which a complete data base of projects does exist - it was not possible to identify the possible implications of public investment trends on gender inequalities. To address this issue, the Cochabamba initiative developed a baseline diagnosis on the status of women and men in the region in 2004. A set of indicators was also introducted which will allow measurement of changes in budget allocations impact on women’s lives and in the reduction of gender inequalities in the following years.

The findings of the Cochabamba analysis were directly presented by the Mayor and were widely shared with local authorities and women’s organizations at local level, including the Inter-District Neighborhood Women’s Committee, and at national level including the Women’s Network transforming Economy. As a result of the program, the Municipality of Cochabamba has access to more information that enables it to develop gender indicators for measuring the way gender budgets contribute to overcoming gender inequalities.

Success Indicators:

• Tools produced for gender analysis of budget formulation process and budgeting methodologies
• Reports produced on gender budget analysis at local level
• Number of individuals, institutions, networks engaged in gender budget initiatives
• Number of gender budget experts actively working in the region
• Number of requests for gender budget experts’ participation in Economic and Social Rights training workshops, courses, seminars and publications on gender and economics and/or participatory budgets
• Improve allocation on more gender equitable activities
• Networks created around gender responsive budgets
• Requests received for technical assistance
• Exchange of experts
• Use and adaptation of materials by new actors
  

Sustainability strategy:

To ensure sustainability of the work on gender budgets beyond the project, UNIFEM has placed special efforts in strengthening and broadening of alliances. Partnership with the IFFI, (a NGO with a long experience of advocacy work in Cochabamba) will ensure a certain degree of sustainability since this organization will continue to work beyond their agreement with UNIFEM. UNIFEM’s support to IFFI and Gregoria Apaza comprised of the design of advocacy campaigns that will be carried out during 2005. Even though this will no longer be part of UNIFEM’s initiatives, both organizations have agreed to report on results achieved at the end of the process.

Due to changes in the coordination of the Women’s Network transforming Economy in Bolivia the exchange of experience workshop on gender budget that aimed at strengthening the network was finally cancelled. Instead, UNIFEM is providing seed- funds to support the formulaion of a proposal for the Bolivian Women Councilors Association aiming at establishing their strategy to engender local budgets through out the country. This activity will take place in February 2005.

Last updated: 21 March 2005