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Oxfam in Bolivia

People from Trinidad cross a bridge after clearing weeds from their 'camellones' - raised platforms of land surrounded by water. Oxfam has helped develop this ancient system, first used 3,000 years ago, which protects the crops from flooding. Photo: Jane Beesley

From our staff

Patricia Flores Palacios, Urban Equity and Gender Co-ordinator

 Oxfam is an important influence in Bolivia because it promotes the work of civil society organisations that work to fight poverty. As for me, I'm involved in making sure that the projects we support place women at their heart - particularly poor women from indigenous communities.

One way we've done this in recent years has been by ensuring women can play a key role in the camellones projects - which involve raising crop land above flood levels. This work is based on pre-Hispanic ideas about farming, and women have been fundamental in leading the work and encouraging others to join in.


Full details of what Oxfam is doing in Bolivia (PDF, 235KB)

In 2010-11 Oxfam helped:

90,000
people in
Bolivia

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Related reports and papers

Snapshot of Oxfam in Bolivia

Photo 1/10 photo by: Renato Guimaraes

Women in traditional dress gather for the May Day marches in La Paz. Despite recent advances, many women and indigenous people in Bolivia face widespread discrimination. Oxfam works with local partners to help ensure marginalised communities are able to make their voices heard and influence the policies that affect them.

  • Women in traditional dress gather for the May Day marches in La Paz. Despite recent advances, many women and indigenous people in Bolivia face widespread discrimination. Oxfam works with local partners to help ensure marginalised communities are able to make their voices heard and influence the policies that affect them.
  • Thousands of Quechua and Aymara families in the Bolivian Andes rely on glaciers as their source of water both for drinking and for agriculture. Here, locals fear that the Mount Illimani is melting so rapidly that in decades to come they will have no water for their farms. Oxfam is working to help communities adapt by diversifying their crops and developing water storage techniques during the dry season.
  • Coryna Ybernegaray tends a yucca plant on her ‘camellone’ – an ancestral farming technique supported by Oxfam using raised platforms of land surrounded by water channels. This system protects crops from regular flooding and helps communities increase the amount they are able to grow. “This project is very important to us… we’ve shown and proved what we already knew – that it’s not only men we can work – [women] can do it too!”

The impact of our work

Participating in these workshops [run by Oxfam] is good. Here we learn about our rights and we demand our voices to be heard in the Murillo Plaza, the Parliament and everywhere."


Rita Cachiacatari, participant in training on women's leadership