Bolivia's Popular Participation Law of April 20, 1994 divided the country into 311 counties and defined the procedures by which county residents voted for and established their county government. The Law transferred nearly all governmental infrastructure -- hospitals, health centers, sports fields, irrigation systems, local roads, museums, libraries, and cultural centers -- to the newly established counties and gave them responsibility for most public services and development projects. The national government began distributing 20 % of national tax revenue to the counties.
The counties are responsible for maintaining all public infrastructure, supervising public education and health services, constructing and maintaining water and sewer lines in urban areas and potable water systems in rural communities, paving streets in urban areas and building access roads in rural ones, building irrigation systems in rural areas, and designing and carrying out agricultural development projects. The national government retains responsibility for paying and training teachers and maintaining a national curriculum, for paying doctors and nurses and coordinating nation-wide health programs, for constructing and maintaining trunk roads, and for rural electrification.
The Popular Participation Law also mandates that residents of each county
select the public services and development projects to be provided by their
county. The Law requires that residents of each county form a citizens'
vigilance or oversight committee and oversee the use of all public funds.
The vigilance committee must approve the annual program and financial report
of their county government, other financial reports, and the plan and budget
for the new year. They must also assure that no more than 15 % of all
resources are spent on administrative expenses and at least 85 % are spent
on public services and development projects. Revenue sharing is stopped if
they do not approve the annual report or the plan and budget for the new
year.
Technical Assistance to Citizens and Municipal Officials
SID has been working since July 1994 to help implement Bolivia's Popular Participation Law and program. In 1994 and 1995, SID helped implement the Law and program, in more than a dozen rural municipalities and the cities of El Alto and La Paz.
In February, 1996, SID and two other organizations, Chemonics International and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), began a five-year project to implement popular participation in 20 counties. Chemonics was responsible for the management of the project and fund that gave grants to Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) to implement popular participation in counties in which project staff do not work. SID was responsible for implementing popular participation in the 20 counties in which the project works and for training staff from other organizations to implement popular participation in counties in which they work. IFES helped increase voter registration and voting in municipal and national elections in the 20 counties.
SID helped residents of each county to analyze the needs and potential of their communities in a series of community meetings. The residents of each community then chose the public service or project that they believed will most develop their community. SID then worked with representatives of all the communities in the county to set goals for expanding services and increasing family income in their county. The representatives then used these goals, the estimated cost of the services and projects they selected, and the estimated county income for the new year to select the services and projects to be carried out during the year. County staff prepared the plan and budget for the new year, and once it was approved by the vigilance committee, it was distributed to all residents.
SID worked with members of the county council and staff to produce the services and projects in their annual plan and budget. SID helped county staff to establish good accounting and produce financial reports for the county council and vigilance committee. SID also helped members of the vigilance committee to analyze financial reports, make observations and recommendations, and inform county residents on use of all funds. SID also trained community leaders to supervise public services and development projects.
The 20 counties in which SID worked have populations that range from 5,000 to more than 30,000. They have as few as 15 rural communities or as many as 72. The population of the central town varied from a few hundred to a few thousand, and when the urban population is large, the budget must accommodate both urban services and rural development projects. The 20 counties are scattered throughout the country, and they represent a variety of problems and opportunities found throughout Bolivia. SID worked in each county for a period of three years and the 20 counties, taken together, serve as a laboratory for developing methods and materials that can be applied in all 311 counties.
Recently, SID has begun working in groups of several municipalities in the Northern Altiplano to help NGOs working in the municipalities and municipal officials to carry out development projects together.
