The project raised from the will to promote the socio-economic development of the local population and safety of the environment in Apopaya Province. The specific objective was to improve the living conditions of 30 rural communities thorough the support of the sustainable development of the following income generating activities: agriculture, fish breeding and livestock.

Within the framework of an integrated development approach, the project has foreseen activities in the following sectors: primary health care, infrastructure territory services and reforestation. The project targeted 30 rural communities, belonging to quechua and aymara ethnic groups whose main income comes from agriculture and livestock activities. 52 rural communities  in the south district of Apopaya Municipality benefitted the results of the project

The Department of Chuquisaca, Bolivia, is a predominantly rural area where there is no diversification of employment, access to credit and technical assistance is limited and the average per capita income is 50% less than in all urban area. The production is unorganized and it doesn’t generate economies of scale, a planned production is struggling to start and individual skills aren’t enough strong to boost local economy.

Both the public and private sector haven’t assumed important roles to promote an integrated development system: economic, social, administrative and environmental institutions don’t work in synergy with the various ongoing micro-development programs, both governmental and non-governmental, undermining the overall result.

The project ” Promotion of the Productive Municipality in Chuquisaca” aims at contributing to the socio-economic development of Chuquisaca through the model of “Productive Municipality”: a model of endogenous development where private economic agents, institutions and local civil society become the real drivers of development in their own land.

Through the development of this model, in line with the Bolivian Poverty Reduction National Strategy, the Productive Municipality recovers the role of prime mover of the economic development and expresses its full potential in local actors’ economic and productive initiatives.

Introducing the coordination between 8 different municipalities – managed by Municipality of Chuquisaca Center – and strengthening the Economic Organizations of Farmers (Organizaciones Economicas campesinas – OECAS), strategic planning actions are consolidates, disseminates and made sustainable; the economic development supported; methodological innovations systematized and spread; and entrepreneurship promoted and supported.