On October 5, 2016, the Plurinational State of Bolivia signed a $60 million loan agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the Rural Land Regularization and Titling Program. The project was planned "to increase the legal security of rural property, improve the sustainability of land resources, and increase agricultural productivity and the income of the beneficiaries." It also sought to complete the titling and remediation of 100 percent of the area susceptible to remediation in Bolivia.
BIC worked with our Bolivian partner Fundación Tierra (FT) to assess the project’s performance. We identified the following concerns:
The total cost of the project is US $100 million to be financed as follows: $51 million from the IDB’s ordinary capital resources, $9 million from the Fund for Special Operations (FSO) of the IDB, and $40 million from the National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA), the local counterpart.
While the IDB recognizes some of these shortcomings, it remains to be seen how the IDB will rectify the situation. The project, while officially still open, has been inactive since December 2018. The monitoring report of August 2020, recognizes that the Executing agency has not implemented the ESMP. Currently, FT is discussing with affected communities whether to bring a case to the IDB’s Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism.
