USAID/OTI BOLIVIA HOT TOPICS
August 2006
Benefiting Rural Areas through Decentralization
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| Ruben Costas, Prefect of Santa Cruz, speaks to local mayors and assembly representatives at a planning session supported by OTI. |
Benefiting Rural Areas through Decentralization program is executed by USAID/OTI with its partner Casals and Associates.
The prefectura’s newly developed strategic agenda, designed with support from OTI, outlines a number of new mechanisms for local leaders to contribute to department policy. The department government initiated this process within the first month of assuming office when it selected sub-prefects who were nominated by local leaders. With OTI support, the sub-prefectures have worked with mayors to form youth councils that foster leadership and represent their community’s points of view.
Rural areas in the department of Santa Cruz celebrated an innovative new policy that will allow local leaders to make investment decisions for their regions. During a press conference on August 4 that received national media coverage, the Prefecture of Santa Cruz issued a resolution that will transfer income from taxes on natural resource extraction from the prefecture’s treasury to the department’s15 provinces. Provincial leaders will now have significant resources of their own to devote to economic development, a longstanding demand of area leaders who felt that centralized planning did not respond to their needs. This initiative is likely to become a model for further decentralization efforts in Bolivia as all departmental governments increasingly reach out to underrepresented populations and improve service delivery to rural areas.
This decentralized authority created by the transfer of funds and given to local municipalities will permit local leaders to respond directly to situations and to redress longstanding inequalities. In resource-rich Santa Cruz, the resources made available to rural communities will be significant.
USAID/OTI is working in 8 of Bolivia’s 9 regions to build the capacity of these newly elected departmental governments. In the department of Santa Cruz, OTI is supporting the prefecture’s outreach and transparency initiatives. With OTI support, sub-prefectures in Santa Cruz brought together 2000 local leaders resulting in inter-institutional accords on health and human services between the prefecture and leaders of the 15 provinces. Another OTI funded project helped the prefecture strengthen the department’s provincial councils to build consensus on local economic development issues. These provincial councils will now administer the funds the prefecture will transfer from its natural resource taxes and royalties.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Russell Porter, Regional Team Leader, 202-712-5455, rporter@usaid.gov
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