BiblioWorks: Advocating For The Creation Of Libraries For Children In Chuquisaca, Bolivia

63 Pages·2017·2.14 MB·English

by  Jhasmany Saavedra

SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad
SIT Digital Collections
Capstone Collection SIT Graduate Institute
5-2016
BiblioWorks: Advocating For The Creation Of
Libraries For Children In Chuquisaca, Bolivia
Jhasmany Saavedra
SIT Graduate Institute
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Recommended Citation
Saavedra, Jhasmany, "BiblioWorks: Advocating For The Creation Of Libraries For Children In Chuquisaca, Bolivia" (2016).Capstone
Collection. 2871.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/2871
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BiblioWorks: Advocating for the Creation of Libraries for Children in Chuquisaca,
Bolivia

Jhasmany Saavedra
PIM 74

A capstone Paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master
of Arts in Sustainable Development at the School for International Training in
Brattleboro, Vermont, USA
Capstone Seminar: May 2016
Advisor: Jeff Unsicker, Ph.D.

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CONSENT TO USE OF CAPSTONE

I hereby grant permission for World Learning to publish my Capstone on its websites
and in any of its digital/electronic collections, and to reproduce and transmit my
CAPSTONE ELECTRONICALLY. I understand that World Learning’s websites and
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access it on the Internet or otherwise.

Student name: ____Jhasmany Saavedra___ Date: ___May 19, 2016______

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Contents
Glossary of terms and abbreviations: ............................................................................................................ i
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Context .................................................................................................................................................. 4
2.1. An overview of Bolivia: ................................................................................................................. 4
2.1.1. Chuquisaca. ........................................................................................................................... 6
2.2. An overview of the legislation in Bolivia ....................................................................................... 7
2.2.1. CNNA ..................................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Departmental Children Law (DPPNNA) ................................................................................. 9
2.2.3. Book and Reading Law ........................................................................................................ 11
2.2.4. Departmental Development Plan ....................................................................................... 12
3. The advocates. .................................................................................................................................... 13
3.1. BiblioWorks ................................................................................................................................. 13
3.2. The Interagency Team ................................................................................................................ 16
4. The politics. ......................................................................................................................................... 17
4.1. Allies and opponents................................................................................................................... 20
4.1.1. The Human Rights Watch Coalition (HRWC) ........................................................................... 21
4.1.2. UNICEF ................................................................................................................................ 23
5. The policy. ........................................................................................................................................... 25
5.1. The Problem ................................................................................................................................ 25
5.2. The proposed solution ................................................................................................................ 26
5.2.1. Advocacy background ......................................................................................................... 26
5.3. The Children’s Plan...................................................................................................................... 27
6. The strategy. ....................................................................................................................................... 28
6.1. Social vision. ................................................................................................................................ 29
6.2. Goals. .......................................................................................................................................... 29
6.3. Challenges ................................................................................................................................... 30
6.3.1. Internal challenges: ............................................................................................................. 30
6.3.2. External challenges: ............................................................................................................ 31
6.4. Tactics. ........................................................................................................................................ 32
6.4.1. Creating our message. ........................................................................................................ 32
6.4.2. Direct persuasion to consultant, and to chief of the OSD. ................................................. 33
6.4.3. Participation in the Interagency team ................................................................................ 35
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6.4.4. Participation of the HRWC .................................................................................................. 36
7. Implementation (timeline) .................................................................................................................. 37
8. Evaluation and learning ...................................................................................................................... 39
8.1. Formative evaluation of the strategy ......................................................................................... 40
8.1.1. Goals and accomplishments ............................................................................................... 40
8.1.2. Tactics execution ................................................................................................................. 41
8.1.3. Evaluation of the timeline following ................................................................................... 41
8.2. Evaluation according to Purposes. .............................................................................................. 42
8.2.1. To achieve rational distribution of financial and human resources ................................... 42
8.2.2. To pave the way for decisions on the reshaping of a policy ............................................... 43
8.2.3. To help in educating and motivating public agents ............................................................ 43
9. Learnings ............................................................................................................................................. 44

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Glossary of terms and abbreviations:

Children’s Plan: Chuquisaca’s Departmental Plan for Infants, Children, and
Adolescents.
CNNA: Bolivian National Law of Children Affairs. Código, Niña, Niño y Adolescente in
Spanish.
DIGES: Office of Social Management. Dirección de Gestión Social in Spanish.
Department: Administrative division of Bolivia.
Departmental Government: Legislative body in each department. In this paper is used
to refer to Chuquisaca’s Departmental Government.
DPPNNA: Chuquisaca’s Departmental Law of Public Policies for Children. Ley
Departamental de Políticas Públicas para la Niña, Niño y Adolescente in Spanish.
HRWC: Human Rights Watch Coalition. In Spanish Observatorio de Derechos
Humanos.
HRWC-CC: Human Rights Watch Coalition Children Commission. Comisión de la Niñez
del Observatorio de Derechos Humanos in Spanish.
Legal Team: A unit in the Departmental Government in charge of reviewing the legal
bases of bills or plans, programs and projects.
OSD: Office of Social Development. Secretaría de Desarrollo Social in Spanish.
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1. Introduction
During 2015-16, I completed my SIT professional practicum as an intern with
BiblioWorks based in the Asheville, North Carolina office. Founded in 2005, the focus
of this very small organization has been to provide funding and support for libraries and
other educational programs in one part of Bolivia. I am from Bolivia and, prior to my
scholarship to study at SIT, had worked with local NGOs. During my on-campus phase,
I took a sequence of courses in policy advocacy and thus, along with other
assignments, I became BiblioWorks’ US-based resource person working with the
Bolivia-based director as the organization began to expand its mission to include
advocating for more Bolivian government funding for those libraries and projects. The
advocacy process is being implemented in Sucre, Bolivia. This case study documents
what we have done and learned in the process.
The opportunity to advocate on the Chuquisaca’s departmental Plan of Policies
for Children (Children’s Plan) presented itself to BiblioWorks in 2015. Chuquisaca is one
of the nine departments that Bolivia is divide into. The Chuquisaca’s Departmental
Government has been working in the creation of new public policies focused on children
for the past five years. One of these policies is the Children’s Plan which encompasses
different actions focused on improving children’s situation in the department.
In November 2015, the departmental Law of Public Policies for Children
(DPPNNA for its initials in Spanish) was approved. The new law, as well as the national
Law for Children Affairs (CNNA for its initials in Spanish), required an implementation
plan. Nonprofit organizations working on issues related to children were invited to
present proposals at public meetings. At that point I started working on a team with the
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director of the BiblioWorks, Maritza Valdez, on defining our advocacy goals. We
designed the strategy at the same time that Maritza participated and made proposals for
the plan. Our main approach was to advocate as members of the Human Rights Watch
Coalition.
Maritza and I chose the goal for the campaign after the campaign had started.
We used the public meetings to learn about the processes that the departmental
government would follow on writing the Children’s Plan and organized the campaign at
the same time. Our goal changed more than once, because of the new information that
we collected. Jim Shultz (2007) discuses advocacy processes that the advocate cannot
choose and are chosen for them. This was the case for BiblioWorks and the Children’s
Plan.
To create our strategy, we used the Advocacy Circles designed by Jeff Unsicker
(2013). Unsicker organizes the advocacy data in five circles that represent different
aspects to take into consideration in the advocacy process. The circles include the
context, politics, policy, strategy and advocates.
Our context included the macro-context of Bolivia and then the micro-context of
Chuquisaca; The politics included three offices of the Chuquisaca departmental
government: the governor’s office, the Office of Social Development, and the Unit of
Social Management; The policy, is the Chuquisaca’s Children’s Plan; The strategy
includes our goal, and tactics to influence the politics; and BiblioWorks is the primary
advocate of this process.
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We used other tools to develops our strategy such as the advocacy map
developed by Covey and Miller (explained in Unsicker, pp14, 2013); the Theory of
Change developed by Inigo Retolazan (2011); and the Table for Collection of Proposals
for the Departmental Plan for Children developed by Tahi Abrego (2016).
BiblioWorks’ membership in the Human Rights Watch Coalition (HRWC) was
finally what allowed us to influence local politics. To strengthen the coalition, we used
some of Jim Shultz (2007) suggestions about coalition building.
The information that I had access to, was secondary. My main source of
information was Maritza Valdez. I communicated with her through phone calls, email
and weekly skype meetings. Most of this communication was to develop the advocacy’s
strategy together.
I also interview, Mateo Baeza, the advocacy supervisor of UNICEF in
Chuquisaca and Tahi Abrego, the UNICEF consultant. I maintained communication with
local authorities including Analy Pantoja, a superintendent of education in Chuquisaca.
With her knowledge of the local education policies, she guided us during the process of
creation of our strategy.
I was never able to participate of the Interagency Team or the HRWC meetings,
so I never witnesses the dynamics in both coalitions. That makes my perspective about
the process incomplete. I am aware of the limitations on the information and how this
influenced my perspective on the process of the campaign.
I did had access to written information during the advocacy process. I did
research about the Bolivian literacy’s current situation, the departmental and national
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regulation around literacy promotion, and departmental and municipal budgets for
education and access to information. Working in the campaign from the U.S. my main
role was to do research and train Maritza in the use of policy tools learned at the Policy
advocacy class at SIT.

2. Context

2.1. An overview of Bolivia:
Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America, divided in nine departments.
Two thirds of its territory are on the plains called llanos, and one-third in the Andes
Mountain chain known as altiplano. The geographical division has contributed to the
cultural evolution of both regions. The altiplano has been populated for centuries by
indigenous cultures and the current inhabitants identify themselves with these cultures,
the largest groups are Quechua and Aymara. The llanos in the east on the other hand,
has been recently occupied, and is an area that is growing faster in population than any
other region (Antelo, 2013). The area has developed larger urban centers that have
formed a more modern and westernized perspective on its inhabitants.
Politically the altiplano has a more socialist perspective and the llanos have a
more capitalist standpoint. The altiplano has institutions developed through the
centuries that are the base of current social movements. The llanos developed thanks
to settlers looking for economic opportunities and has grown around industrialization in
the 20th century. (INE, 2001; INE, 2012)
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