Overview
Bolivia is a landlocked country affected by the growing effects of climate change and recurring extreme climate-related events, food insecurity and malnutrition, compounded with socioeconomic inequality. Nationally, 52 percent of the population lives in food insecurity [1], predominantly affecting those in rural areas, where the Gini coefficient is 0.48 [2].
Additionally, Bolivia scored 0.734 in the gender gap index, showing that women are 27 percent less likely than men to have equal opportunities [3]. Forty-two percent of the population is Indigenous, with 36 Indigenous-recognized nations and 36 official languages. In 2022, Bolivia experienced volatile food prices mainly due to the Ukraine crisis and related increases in energy prices, inflation costs, the pandemic's residual effects and political disturbances, including roadblocks that impacted food production and distribution.
In 2022, WFP implemented the last year of its Country Strategic Plan (CSP), launched in 2019. Contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 (Zero Hunger) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), the CSP covered four strategic outcomes: food assistance for crisis-affected populations, nutrition-sensitive interventions, support to smallholder farmers facing climate shocks, and capacity strengthening of national and subnational institutions.
WFP reached 31,325 food-insecure people (50 percent women) through activities implemented in rural and urban areas, responding to immediate and protected crises and strengthening resilience, especially in climate change adaptation and access to water for human consumption and agriculture. WFP fully resourced the 2022 requirements.
However, the capacity-strengthening strategic outcomes on nutrition, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation did not receive funds in 2022 and were mainstreamed in emergency and resilience activities.
To contribute to SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), WFP provided emergency assistance to 3,814 people. The Indigenous Guaraní people affected by floods in the department of Tarija received unconditional and conditional cash-based transfers to rehabilitate assets and improve resilience, linking crisis response to livelihood rehabilitation and income generation.
Furthermore, WFP provided food assistance and training to 61 people living with HIV, increasing their knowledge of nutrition and health practices.
WFP, jointly with the departmental government of Oruro, continued strengthening the resilience of Indigenous communities in the highlands and assisted 4,000 Aymara, Quechua and Uru subsistence smallholder farmers by rehabilitating and building more than 3,000 small water infrastructures, providing training and strengthening the link between producers and the markets in the closest cities. WFP partnered with the local gastronomic non-governmental organization (NGO) M'anqa.
Contributing to SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), WFP collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Sports, the Ministry of Rural Development and Land and the Ministry of Planning, local governments, and local NGOs. As a result, in 2022, WFP engaged with the Government in capacity needs mapping exercises of food supply chains [4], conducted the Double Burden of Malnutrition study [5] and the Integrated Context Analysis [6], supporting evidence-based policymaking and programme design.
WFP integrated a gender approach across the interventions, contributing to SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and complying with WFP's Gender Policy. WFP prioritized women as the recipients of cash-based transfers, mainstreamed nutrition messages to shift unequal gender norms and practices and implemented activities for women and girls in rural areas to diversify household incomes and promote economic independence, e.g., through training on associative mechanisms and handcraft production and selling.
Partnerships were crucial throughout the year. WFP worked closely with national, local and Indigenous governments, donors, NGOs, and academia. Immediate and multiyear funding and partners' local expertise enabled WFP to continue changing lives and saving lives in Bolivia. In 2023, WFP will strengthen existing partnerships and build new ones, pursuing the goal of leaving no one behind. In 2023, WFP will begin Bolivia's new Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027, approved by the Executive Board in November 2022. In continuity and building on gains, WFP’s actions will focus on crisis response, resilience building, linkages with food systems for smallholders, particularly rural women, and institutional capacity strengthening.