Plan VIDA-PEEP to Eradicate Extreme Poverty - Phase I

This project is designed within the framework of the government's Plan to Eradicate Extreme Poverty (PEEP), which harmonizes the actions of various groups involved in reducing poverty and is part of Bolivia's Plan Vida, a comprehensive anti-poverty effort. It targets 18,000 poor rural households of Quechua and Aymara origin living in the country's northern Potosí and southern Cochabamba regions.

The Vida-PEEP project aims to strengthen food security for rural people living in extreme poverty and provide opportunities for them to increase their incomes. The project supports communal development activities with full respect for cultural identity and social structures. Community members, authorities and project administrators all participate in the decision-making process.

In the course of the project, 600 producers' groups are expected to be legally recognized and some 9,000 families should get identity cards and birth certificates. This legal status will allow indigenous communities to benefit from various types of financial services.

Key project goals include:

• Promoting and strengthening potential productive activities for extremely poor rural households in northern Potosí and southern Cochabamba
• Building the organizational capacities of beneficiary communities in ways that respect their cultural identities, maintain local institutions and coordinate efforts among all stakeholders
• Developing mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation to assess project results and impacts.

The Bolivian Ministry of Development Planning – which operated the now completed Management of Natural Resources in the Chaco and High Valley Regions Project – is executing this initiative.