European Commission supports conflict prevention and dialogue in Bolivia

The European Commission is supporting, through its Rapid Reaction Mechanism, urgent conflict prevention measures in Bolivia. The measures, constituting the initial actions of the NEDD (NEgociación, Deliberación y Dialogo), are designed to tackle the underlying causes of social and political conflict in Bolivia. The programme covers a range of actions with civil society organisations and Government institutions in support of creating a social and economic dialogue leading to a more participatory political and social system. This decision of the Commission, worth € 1 million, will allow actions to start on the ground within the very near future. Implementation in Bolivia will be undertaken through the NEDD initiative, coordinated initially by the United Kingdom (through DFID).

After experiencing high levels of political instability and a series of military governments in the mid-twentieth century, Bolivia has had successive civilian, democratically elected governments for the past two decades. However, these governments have not been able fully to address the concerns of large portions of Bolivian society and recent developments have been alarming. Two major crises in 2003 saw Bolivia experience the most violent confrontations between state institutions and civil society since democracy was re-established in 1982. Both resulted in a large number of deaths and economic life was temporarily paralysed in the most affected areas. The October conflict also led to the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and most key ministers on 17 October.

The new government, led by President Carlos Mesa, faces major challenges in the short term and it has taken wide-ranging measures to create a new political scenario based on negotiation and dialogue between the political establishment and civil society. It should be noted however, that although the new Government retains very high levels of popular support, it has had to struggle to secure parliamentary support for its legislative proposals and is also under pressure from some Civil Society Organisations which threaten renewed social conflict unless some of these recently initiated processes of dialogue, such as the National Dialogue and the Constituent Assembly, produce tangible results very quickly.

Nevertheless, as Bolivian society traditionally has not been geared towards a profound political and social dialogue, there is now an important window of opportunity for international support to provide urgent assistance for these Dialogue and Conflict Prevention processes to avoid the re-emergence of violent conflict.

Thus, in response to a very fragile situation which could easily deteriorate once more, the international donor community has coordinated to design an umbrella programme NEDD (NEgociación, Deliberación y Dialogo) to assist with such processes and the European Commission has decided to make available, through the RRM, € 1 million to fund several actions during the six-month inception phase of the programme.

Actions to be supported by the Commission include provision of assistance to civil society organisations, Government and political institutions, enabling them to use dialogue and negotiations more efficiently and to provide support for the dissemination of information to traditionally excluded groups around the country's key conflict triggers.

This urgent action, expressing the Commission's support for non-violent and socially inclusive development in Bolivia, will be followed by longer-term actions within the NEDD umbrella programme funded by a number of bilateral and multilateral donors, including the Commission.


More information on the EU-Bolivia relations at

http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/bolivia/intro/index.htm

| Top |