PLAN VIDA-PEEP pilot project to benefit 18,000 families in the Cochabamba and Potosí Departments

Rome, 5 April 2011 – In an effort to eradicate rural poverty in the Bolivian departments of Cochabamba and Potosí, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Bolivia signed a loan this week for approximately US$8 million.

The US$15.2 million “Plan Vida-Peep Pilot Project to Strengthen the Capacity of Communities and Families Living in Extreme Poverty” will run for three years. The Bolivian government will contribute US$4.3 million to the project, with beneficiaries providing approximately US$2.9 million in co-financing.

The project will be executed by the Bolivian Ministry of Development Planning, the same body that operated the Management of Natural Resources in the Chaco and High Valley Regions Project (PROMARENA).

“The project is designed within the framework of the Bolivian government’s Plan to Eradicate Extreme Poverty (PEEP),” said Francisco Pichón, IFAD’s Country Programme Manager for Bolivia. “The project looks to strengthen food security for those living in extreme poverty at the same time ensuring these families are able to find opportunities to improve their income.”

The project focuses primarily on poor rural families of Quechua and Aymara origin living in the northern Potosí and southern Cochabamba regions of Bolivia.

“The activities will be conducted in full respect of the communities’ cultural identities and social structure,” said Pichón. “The authorities, administrators and project technicians will adopt participatory approaches thus ensuring all stakeholders are included in the decision-making process.”

More than 53 per cent of project funding will work to improve natural resource management and production systems, 16 per cent will go to community initiatives and 11 per cent is dedicated for strengthening productive infrastructure. The financing will also work toward strengthening organizations, improving citizens’ rights, monitoring and evaluation, and other operational costs. 

“The deterioration and fragmentation of traditional lands, coupled with lack of adequate technologies and natural resource management practices are some of the main causes of poverty among rural communities in these regions,” said Pichón.

“The joint work with the government of Bolivia to provide the communities involved with the tools and training they need will break the cycle of extreme poverty.”

With this new project IFAD will have financed 11 projects and programs in Bolivia with a total investment US$96.5 million. 

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Press release No.: IFAD/25/2011

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 166 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).