Bolivia

May day marches in LaPaz. Photo: Renato Guimaraes

In Bolivia, Oxfam's focus is the rights of women and indigenous peoples, and on disaster preparedness and adaptation to climate change.

Intro

Development

Campaign

Emergencies

Adapting to climate change

Bolivia has been especially badly affected by climate change:

Water shortages caused by melting glaciers
Communities already vulnerable to natural disasters are finding themselves in even more precarious positions

How Oxfam is helping

By supporting the adaptation of an ancestral farming and water management technique called camellones (raised platforms of land, surrounded by water channels), Oxfam is helping disaster-prone communities in Beni adapt to climatic extremes and find new ways of making a living.

I hope that the camellones will bring a better future… The products we are producing are the same, but what has changed is that now the crops are growing on a raised platform, so we are no longer worried that floods will destroy them.

Yenny Nosa Mapatato, project participant

Photostory: Something old, something new

Learn more

Read more examples of our work in Bolivia:

ECHO (Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission) is a funding partner of Oxfam in Bolivia

Inequality in urban areas

While there have been advances in the protection of rights in Bolivia, there is still a culture of discrimination and exclusion against women and indigenous peoples in urban areas.

How Oxfam is helping

We support indigenous women's organisations in exercising their democratic rights and promoting inter-cultural exchanges among women in urban areas.

We learn about our rights and we are making our voices heard. Now we know that we have the right to participate in parliament and everywhere.

Consorcia Santos, member of Market Union from El Alto city

Other development work

Our 'Raising her voice' campaign focuses on gender equity and empowerment

Oxfam's work in Bolivia in depth

'Ready for power'

Under Bolivian law 50 per cent of political candidates must be women yet they remain badly under-represented in congress.

How Oxfam is helping

We are supporting the campaign 'Listas para las listas' (Women are ready for power) which pressurises political parties and different social and state institutions to respect the law and ensure equal representation of women.

There is some progress in terms of the participation of women, but we still need to be in the decision-making spaces.

Eneida Charupá, member of Coordinadora de Pueblos Étnicos de Santa Cruz

Other campaign work

We are also campaigning on climate change in Bolivia

Oxfam's work in Bolivia in depth

Natural disasters

In the past few years more than 80,000 Bolivian families have been affected by natural disasters ranging from floods to droughts and even raging fires.

How Oxfam is helping

Oxfam lobbies the government to improve their risk management and adaptation policies. We are also helping build the capacity of other organisations to repond, and be better prepared for, humanitarian disasters.

Change in Bolivia won’t be possible unless a focus on risk management and disaster risk reduction is fully integrated in the country’s development planning and practice.

Simon Ticehurst, Oxfam Country Director