_ production in the countryside,
_ where traditional methods of
farming are still widely used. But
they assumed that large-scale

_ mountainsides far too steep fora

- organizations roll into Bolivia
_ withthemodelsand plansalready

tractors) that work wellin Europe
could just be flown into Bolivia.

 

September 1, 1991

provided a fine example of how to do everything
wrong in Bolivia with PAC, their Programa de
Autodesarrollo Campesino (Campesino Self-

Development Program). The program’s goal was to __

improvecommercialagricultural

agricultural technologies (i.e.

_ . Firstly, most plots of arable
land in the Andes are barely big
enough to turn a tractor around
in, and most plots are on

tractor to handle. Secondly, the
soil in the Altiplano is dry and
delicate — plowing with tractors
only speeds upanalready serious
erosion problem.

Thirdly, noone from the EEC
asked the campesinos, or Bolivian
organizations, if the campesinos
needed or wanted to take on the
projects. The culture and history
of Bolivia make it vital that the
campesinos are consulted and

 

the Other Press
to handle their reforestation projects. It’s needed, it’s
possible, Bolivian expertise is involved, the campesino
communities are involved — it works.

Accion Cultural Loyola (ACLO) is a Bolivian

5
provide generalsupport for populareducationaround
health and vaccinations, women’s issues, technical
ing, irrigation, and environmental education.
Their objectiveis to provide thetraining and education
of people to allow them to develop
fan alternative development plan to
the Bolivian government and to
outside aid agencies. Again,

2

   
  
   
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 

     
 

| working with the people who need
them. Canadian CUSO workersare
involved, but they are not the
directors. The idea is that Bolivians _
know theirownreality,and through
education can make a plan for their
Bown types of development.
It's fairly clear, then, that the
development organizations which
have a positive impact on the
ples’ livesarethe ones that work
directly with those people.
| Throughout the history ofNorthern
4 aid to Bolivia, there hasn’tbeena lot
| of positive impact, because outside
_ Lorganizations are generally hereon
eir own campaigns, They don’t
ealize that Bolivian culture and
traditions are deeply rooted, and
hange has to happen slowly.

 

involved in any project. Aid

drawn up, and expect the campesinos to just go along
with them. That sort of disenfranchisement has been
happening in Bolivia for five hundred years; first by
theSpanish colonizers, then by the tinbarons,and now

_ bytherichcountriesofthe North. And,notsurprisingly,

Bolivians hate it. They wanta voicein theirownaffairs,
but the EEC didn’t give them one. The projects didn’t
work, and now the EEC is leaving Bolivia.

The projects thatdo work, then,are thosedesigned
and implemented in consultation with the people

whom they are supposed to help.

_ After determining what's needed, the next step is
to determine what's possible. The climate and fragile
ecosystem ofthe Altiplanoseverely limit the possibility
of large-scale agriculture, as the EEC found out. After

spending time in the Andes, one sees what the

campesinos need most of all — water. Irrigation. But
it’s not possible to irrigate the whole Andes, especially
not with irrigation systems from the North, designed
forlarge, flatpastures. Newsystems formicro-irrigation
need to be designed for the pastures in Bolivia.

Methods to control soil erosion are possible,
controlling animal diseases is possible, providing basic
health services and health education is possible;
building hospitals in the countryside and filling them
with advanced medical technology isn’t, because
there's no electricity, no doctors or nurses, and most
campesinos couldn't use it because they couldn’t
affordto. —

Teaching people to read and write is possible —
most don’t need or want advanced university-level
education. But basic literacy permits a far greater level
of participation in the political process, and enhances
the possibility of political and social change. That

What does
development
mean for Bolivia?

5b Se EI!
could be why governments inthe developed countries
would rather give the Third World buildings and
tractors than education — illiteracy keeps the people
docile and malleable.

To determine what’s possible, outside aid
organizations need to ask the locals. Obviously they
know better. This is not hard to relate to; just like the
campesinos, we know what we need, and we don’t
need anyone to tell us what we need.

Reforestation to stop soil erosion is badly needed
in Bolivia, and an outside organization doing good
work is FAO, anarm of the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization. Also funded by the Dutch
government, FAO is working to reintroduce native
species of trees and plants to the Altiplano to help stop
soil erosion.

- The program is young, but have some
[ao actone umuienbouk :

 

In communities like Vila Vila, deep in the Bolivian Andes, the lite expectancy is 36.4 years. Basic health care
services do not exist, but basic health education could save many lives.

development organization funded by the German
Catholic Church. Their programs to improve quality
and quantity of harvests, to build micro-irrigation
systems, and to control animal diseases are designed
in consultation with leaders in the campesino
communities. The directors and project teams are

_ Bolivians; they understand and can work withcultural

differences, they speak the indigenous languages,and
they know whatis needed and what is possible. There
is an annual evaluation with the German directors,
who basically keep out of the way — and it works.
The Centros de Desarrollo Regional (Centres for
Regional Development) are found throughout Bolivia,
and are funded by CUSOand OXFAM Canada. They

TN? tek

Problems are vastly different from
Northernones,and soaresolutions.
It’s really a question of
independence: development projects should help
them when they seea need, not when foreigners see it,
because we're often wrong, and because they need
some dominion over their destiny.
Outside aid can change peoples’ lives in the Third
World —ifused toimprove and secure food supplies,
to provide basic health services and education, and to
break the cycleof poverty. Toso direct our aid is in our
best economic interest, in the long run, but the leaders.
of countries proud to call themselves capitalists suffer
from one of the many infirmities of capitalism; they
can’tsee past the next quarterly profit statement or the
next opinion poll. The question is of basic human
rights. We owe it to them because they need it.

 

Tree wee

SS BA Wy, 6 OEE Oe gl