Release number IFAD/49/07

Rome, 22 November 2007 – A project to realize the market potential of Bolivia’s millions of llamas, alpacas and undomesticated vicuñas will present poor rural families with the opportunity to start small businesses for products like meat, hides and wool-based handicrafts, as well as eco-tourism.
The US$14.38 million Enhancement of the Peasant Camelid Economy Support Project will be partially funded by an IFAD loan of US$7.2 million. The loan was signed in Rome by IFAD’s President Lennart Båge and Bolivia’s Ambassador to Italy, Esteban Elmer Catarina Mamani.

The European Commission-financed Food Security Support Programme will contribute US$1.54 million to the project and the Government of Bolivia will provide US$2.76 million. The balance of the funding will come from other public entities ($US220,000) and from the project participants (US$2.62 million).

The goal of the project is to boost the incomes and improve the living conditions of poor camelid producers and microentrepreneurs, especially women and young people. About 14,000 families will benefit.

“The project will give poor rural people better access to financial services and provide them with technical assistance, knowledge and information, so that they can start small businesses,” said Roberto Haudry de Soucy, IFAD’s country programme manager for Bolivia.

“There are about three million animals belonging to 53,000 peasant families in Bolivia,” he said. “This translates into real market opportunities for fibre, meat, hides, handicrafts and eco-tourism. This project will tap the potential of the sector to create new markets and more jobs for poor rural people in the country.”

Dried camelid meat, known in Bolivia as charque, is in high demand in urban markets and nearly 6000 rural women are already producing it. But with technical assistance to improve the processing, packaging, marketing, and market access, the production could easily be doubled, said Haudry de Soucy, as could production of the handmade textiles of the region.

The project participants will be chosen from poor and food-insecure households with unmet basic needs. They include poor camelid producers, those who manage undomesticated vicuñas, and artisans and small-scale traders. In the remote and fragile high plains of the Andes, natural resources are scarce and of poor quality. Poor communication technologies in the area further exacerbate the group’s vulnerability.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. Although GDP per capita grew during the 1990s, it was insufficient to reduce poverty, inequality and social exclusion, particularly in the rural sector. Poverty in rural areas is almost double the rate it is in capital cities, and extreme poverty is nearly triple.

In nearly 24 years of operations in Bolivia, IFAD has carried out a significant portfolio of projects to reduce rural poverty. It has funded 10 projects for a total of about $US152 million.

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IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD develops and finances programmes and projects that enable poor rural people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 191 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, worth a total of US$6.6 billion. IFAD has invested US$3.1 billion, with cofinancing provided by partners including governments, project participants, multilateral and bilateral donors. These initiatives will help about 82 million poor rural women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.8 billion in 751 programmes and projects that have reached more than 310 million poor rural women and men. Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries, including project participants, contributed US$9.2 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors provided another US$7.2 billion in cofinancing.