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IFES - Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia has achieved 20 years of uninterrupted democracy. However, it is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and there is widespread social misery among its population, two-thirds of whom are indigenous. In recent years, the country’s economic woes have shaped its political scene, as two presidents have been forced to resign by vocal street protests in as many years.

Central to the political conflict are the status of the country’s natural gas reserves and the representativeness of the political system. In 2005, then-President Carlos Mesa promised to increase taxes on foreign energy companies and convene a Constituent Assembly to review the Constitution in order to make Bolivia’s political system more inclusive, transparent, participatory and less vulnerable to corruption. Evo Morales, elected in December 2005 as Bolivia’s first indigenous president, has pledged to pursue both of these issues.

Past Projects

Democratic Development and Citizen Participation (1998-2001)

As a subcontractor to Chemonics International, IFES helped to implement the Democratic Development and Citizen Participation (DDCP) project. This project focused on promoting democratic practices and popular participation in governing in 20 municipalities sponsoring pilot programs. It also helped formulate a strategy for the development of Committees for Electoral Orientation and Participation (COPEs). This work included developing guidelines for the organization and operation of the COPEs in each pilot program municipality and proposing civic/electoral education activities for the COPEs. The DDCP project also proposed activities to encourage adult citizens to obtain the national identity document and participate in planning local coordination of activities with the National Identification Registry (RIN).

Money and Politics Program (2003-2005)

The case of Bolivia demonstrates that the capacity of electoral organizations to regulate political finance can be developed despite significant political and social unrest within a country. In 2003, IFES launched a comprehensive Money and Politics (MAP) project to encourage greater transparency in the political finance system in Bolivia. To this end, IFES signed an MOU with the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) to provide both the software and the technical assistance to implement the MAP program. The project continued over the next two years, and, despite political and judicial unrest with the resignation of a key magistrate and the democratically elected President of Bolivia, the MAP database was successfully installed and running effectively to monitor political finance via the CNE’s intranet. In addition, the CNE provided full cooperation with IFES at all points during the implementation process and plans to make the data widely available on the Internet.

In Bolivia, IFES’ focus was not only on installing the appropriate software but also in developing the technical capacity of the CNE’s personnel to utilize this vital tool. IFES’ efforts in this regard were so successful that two CNE staff traveled to Peru in 2005 to assist the Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales (ONPE) in adapting and implementing their software. In this sense, IFES was able to build not only national capacity but also regional capacity to monitor political finance.