Cornelia Richter, Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), begins a four-day visit to Bolivia to meet with government officials and development partners to discuss ways to strengthen alliances and have a greater impact on the lives of rural poor people in the country.
“While Bolivia continues to make progress in health, education and productive infrastructure in rural areas, poverty continues to be severe,” said Richter. “Experience has shown that with political will and technical expertise we can effectively reduce poverty. IFAD will continue to partner with Bolivia in its efforts to support rural families get out of poverty.”
According to recent National Statistics data, poverty decreased by 21 points in Bolivia between 2005 and 2015 (from 59.6 percent to 38.6 percent). Even so, there is a large gap in living conditions between urban and rural areas. While extreme poverty impacts only 9.3 percent of the urban population, it affects 33 percent of rural people.
IFAD’s strategy in Bolivia focuses on supporting pro-family-farming policies and programmes that aim to ensure national food security and inclusive, sustainable rural transformation in the context of climate change, which deeply affects the country. Bolivia is one of the world’s 10 most affected countries and it is predicted that the negative impact on the economy will decrease the country’s GDP by an estimated 10 percent in 2020.
The projects supported by IFAD aim to strengthen the capacities of rural organizations, such as cooperatives and producers’ associations, to help smallholder farmers set up profitable and sustainable rural businesses. IFAD pays special attention to the needs of disadvantaged groups such as women, youth and indigenous peoples. It also aims at giving family farmers tools to counter the negative effects of climate change on rural people’s livelihoods.
Original source: IFAD
Published on 26 November 2018
