Canadian University Projects in International Development Database (CUPID)

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 (UASB), 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 CED training program was completed in 2008 and meets the norms and requirements established by the Bolivian Ministry of Education for Specialization and Certificate programs. The nine-module curriculum includes a train-the-trainer content, tools for effective citizen participation, participatory/action research, and multiculturalism. The shorter Certificate allows for the participation of marginalized community members that do not have the traditional preparation for graduate studies. The program has been delivered in five regions and six municipalities. To date, 258 people have participated in CED training programs. Of these people, 142 qualify for graduation: 61 for the Specialization and 81 for the Certificate. Participants come from NGOs (36%), indigenous organizations (39%), women's organizations 11%), academia (5%), municipal or regional government (12%) or other sources (7%). Participants are usually leaders of their organizations. They use the methods learned to benefit their communities. This distribution of participants shows how well the CED approach fits with and complements the national development strategy and emerging multi-stakeholder decision-making processes in Bolivia. Participant evaluations support continuous program improvement of the CED program. Participant feedback rates the program highly. A survey of 19 graduates from the Santa Cruz training showed that 90 percent use the training in their work on a regular basis. The project plans to run online training courses with participants in other parts of Latin America. This will increase the total number trained by the end of the project as well as the regional reach/impact of the training. Knowledge sharing also was done with the Stolo Nation in Canada.

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.) Approximately 16 USFX professors have taken one or more of seven courses and two new faculty contract positions have been created in hydrogeology. To date, 26 students (6F/20M) have been accepted in the program, 12 have completed the 18 courses developed and five have successfully graduated. Students' thesis research projects are distributed throughout much of Bolivia and are focused on a variety of groundwater-related topics of national priority. The first continuing education seminar was delivered by a Bolivian hydrogeology professor to 25 professionals working in the water resource sector. A Bolivian Groundwater Forum was conducted in 2008 with participation of about 60 Bolivian government and water specialists and concluded with the first national Groundwater Declaration. The Bolivian Water Resource Network (CARA), which includes researchers from throughout the country, was also established. The CARA model is being disseminated to other regions of the world through CARA's membership in the United Nations International Network for Capacity Building in Integrated Water Resources Management (Cap-Net Programme.) A film on Bolivian groundwater for high school students was completed and is raising awareness about the importance of groundwater in Bolivia. The program now has field equipment, updated software and literature. It is recognized as one of the few university programs whose research is based on real problems and whose research applications have social impact.