Americas

Bolivia

• Water management in Bolivia
• Bolivian Specialization in Community Economic Development (CED) Project
• Éducation relative à l'environnement en région amazonienne
• Renforcement et diffusion de la géomatique en Bolivie

Bolivian Specialization in Community Economic Development (CED) Project

Project purpose: The purpose is to establish an applied, high quality, university-based training program with applied research, in Community Economic Development at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, adapting a proven curriculum from Mexico to the Bolivian context, with a complete strategy to sustain and expand the training in Bolivia and other Andean countries.

Key results to date: The design of the two new community economic development training programs is near completion. The process involved the collaboration of more than 60 people, including academics, representatives from local governance and local economic development projects, urban and rural producers and micro-credit organizations. The programs will be delivered with a certificate and a specialization designation. The curriculums reflect Bolivian realities (local history of development, legal and political frameworks, and local case studies) and incorporate tools for dialogue and effective citizen participation, participatory/action research and social inclusion. The pilot program is scheduled to run in La Paz from June to December 2008 and will train six instructors from the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar who, in turn, will be delivering the training.

Renforcement et diffusion de la géomatique en Bolivie

Project purpose: The objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of Bolivia's Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS) to respond in an ongoing, relevant manner to the training needs of development decision-makers, resource managers and geomatics students, thereby enabling them to meet sustainable development imperatives through proper land-use management in Bolivia.

Key results to date: The UMSS agronomy faculty is now able to offer a regular geomatics course, geographic information systems (GIS) courses are offered as required to groups of professionals of various disciplines; the skills of CISTEL staff have been strengthened and the Centre is now able to plan, carry out and use data collected in field work. As a result, CISTEL can expand the use of geomatics in public and private organizations in Bolivia.

Éducation relative à l'environnement en région amazonienne

Project purpose: In response to the gravity and magnitude of social and environmental problems in the Amazon region, the objective of the EDAMAZ (Educación ambiental en Amazonia) project was to promote the institutional strengthening of participating universities in the area of environmental education.

Key results to date: In each of the three participating countries, the partners set up a continuing education program for university teams, which trained 14 faculty and 13 students; a university program for teaching consultants specializing in leadership and facilitation at "school-community" locations, which trained 369 students in the Amazon region and in Canada; and a distance education program for primary school teachers in environmental education that trained 653 teachers, 11,457 students and 2,650 parents and members of the communities involved. In each of the three countries, a documentation centre was set up and teaching materials, both joint and specific to each, were produced. Approximately 60 articles have been published in journals or conference proceedings.

Water management in Bolivia

Project purpose: The overall objective of the project is to reduce ill health associated with the lack of access to clean and sufficient quantities of water. It will contribute to improved management of water resources and increased institutional and human resource capacity and stakeholder partnerships within a supportive policy framework.

Key results to date: The new Master's program in hydrogeology and water resource management was designed and approved by the Universidad San Francisco Xavier (USFX). The first two-year cycle began in 2008 with 12 students. They have also taken summer courses in hydrology, hydrogeology, geographic information systems, geology and research methods. The first continuing education seminar was delivered by a Bolivian hydrogeology professor to 25 professionals working in the water resource sector. The seminar was highly appreciated by participants as it opened their eyes to real problems related to aquifers and their management. The USFX students and professors participated in World Water Day events in Bolivia. For the occasion, the students built a demonstration model of an inexpensive water storage tank for use in rural and suburban communities that lack access to a central distribution system.