Project profile — Strengthening the Plurinational Electoral Bodies in Bolivia

• Bolivia (100.00%)

• Democratic participation and civil society:
Democratic participation and civil society (15150) (20.00%)
Elections (15151) (80.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (principal objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (significant objective)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)

This project aims to strengthen the Bolivian Electoral Body as a whole, in order to ensure that the new electoral processes work in a credible, transparent and inclusive manner despite the complex environment compounded by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Project activities include: (1) building the capacity of the staff of the electoral body at the national and departmental levels to improve the management of elections, as well as to deal with cases of abuse and political violence against women.; (2) producing transparent and inclusive electoral materials in Spanish and Indigenous languages; (3) restoring electoral infrastructure that are obsolete or damaged from the violent protests in October; (4) setting up strong Information Technology systems to prevent fraud; (5) creating dialogue spaces to give a voice to under-represented groups, particularly women, Indigenous populations and youth; and (6) strengthening the capacity of 500 women candidates at the national and local levels.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) electoral management and administration are more efficient, capable and transparent thanks to technical assistance; (2) the credibility of electoral processes is increased and mitigates the potential for violence thanks to the communication and awareness-raising strategy of the Plurinational Electoral Body; (3) the exercise of women's political rights is reinforced throughout the electoral process from a global and intersectional approach; (4) the Plurinational Electoral Body has the electoral equipment and materials necessary to carry out the electoral processes.

Results achieved at the end of project (March 2022) include: (1) deployed 30 national and international electoral experts to the 9 departments of the country and provided technical assistance to all the Departmental Electoral Courts. Also, contracted over 150 specialized consultancies to advise and reinforce the capacity of the National and Departmental Electoral Courts; (2) supported preparing the general communication strategy of the electoral body and monitored and analyzed information on the electoral process and on the perception of the electoral body’s image; (3) conducted over 350 electoral dialogues to restore institutional confidence in the electoral body and regain confidence in the 2020 general and 2021 subnational elections; (4) held 14 electoral political dialogues with a total of 354 candidates. These dialogues integrated and visualized the electoral agenda of the democratic perspective and the proposals of women with a gender and human rights approach, considering intersectionality and diversity in all aspects of the dialogue; and (5) included aspects of prevention and sanctions on acts of violence and political harassment against women in the Regulation of Offenses and Sanctions issued by the Electoral Court.

• Proactive disclosure