SNV, as member of the Education Working Group, took part in the Conference on the Quality of Bolivian Education last 18-19 August.  Participants included authorities from the Ministry of Education, research institutes, NGOs and representatives of education centers. 

The key note speaker was Dr. Vernor Muñoz, former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, who focused his presentation on the problems of education worldwide and the current tendencies for its analysis and discussion. Also, he analyzed the link between education, economy and development. 

The Education Working Group (Mesa de Trabajo en Educación -MTE) is an entity focused on the coordination in the education field. Some of its members are: The Netherlands Embassy in Bolivia, SNV, Plan International Inc., Terre des Hommes, CEBIAE, Autapo Foundation, CNC-CEPOS and ICCO. Its main objectives are to create knowledge for mutual learning and support to the education sector of Bolivia.

In few days CNN in Spanish will start filming a story on the Inclusive Business of Delizia, a leading company in the dairy industry of Bolivia. We will inform you of the broadcast date and time shortly.

SNV's  "Accountability Initiative" is a pilot developed in three Departments of Bolivia. In Santa Cruz, for example, SNV worked with the Productive Development Secretariat and SEDAG (Department's Service of Agricultural Development). The implementation of the pilot used tools to collect information on baselines, define impact goals and make sure the data was available and transparent. This data collection permitted to achieve accountability targets and enabled the initiative's beneficiaries to compare the goals which had been set to the results obtained. 

This pilot improved the relationship between the Departments' authorities and the beneficiaries and opened more interactive channels of communication which in turn improved the positive impact of public investment.  Thanks to the success of this initiative SEDAG and SNV will carry on working together in other projects to support the Department's authorities and will continue to improve the living conditions of small producers. 

The Forestry Council of the Municipality of Concepción participates in EXPOFOREST 2010 with SNV's support.
This Council comprises the main actors from the forestry value chain, public institutions and NGOs and benefits SNV's advisory services.  
The main objective of the Council was to show the potential of the forestry sector of Bolivia and offer their products to the Fair visitors and to the participants of the Business Matching session. 
Thanks to the visibility of the event the Council could sign several contracts and present their products to a large audience. 
In addition to these positive outcomes, SNV in Bolivia won the "Best Stand" award. 

 

SNV, the Council on Competitiveness, the Private Sector Federation, San Francisco Xavier University and the Chuquisaca Prefecture are about to launch the "Department's Plan for Production Development and Economic Inclusion 2010-2015" to guide the development of the Agriculture, Tourism, Industry and Handicrafts sectors.