The development of a sustainable production system (life systems) was also set as a priority, to ensure the “complementary rights of individuals, societies and Mother Earth” and to reduce environmental pollution in the context of a changing climate. The Constitution recognises the ‘Autonomy of Indigenous, Native and Farmer Peoples’ (AIOC), guaranteeing these communities the right to self-determination within the unity of the State.7 Implementation of the AIOC process has made slow progress since 2009. By 2022, more than 30 native indigenous communities had opted in, but only five had been formally recognized as legal entities: Charagua Iyambae in Santa Cruz (2015), Uru Chipaya in Oruro (2016), Raqaypampa in Cochabamba (2017), Salinas de Garci Mendoza in Oruro (2019) and most recently Kereimba Iyaambae in Santa Cruz (2021). A lower-middle income economy, naturally constrained in its access to trade by its landlocked nature, Bolivia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew cumulatively by 51.16 percent between 2010 and 2019, propelled by a favourable external environment with high commodity prices, prudent macroeconomic management and public investment in support of gas exports.8 In 2019, Bolivia reached high human development country status (with a Human Development Index value of 0.718), positioning it at 107 of 189 countries and territories (see figure 1).9 While still below the average for Latin America and the Caribbean (0.766), this reflected a decade of gains in terms of per capita income, life expectancy and education. Between 2009 and 2019, poverty fell from 51.3 percent to 37.2 percent of the population, and extreme poverty from 26.1 percent to 12.9 percent (using the national poverty line measure). This improvement was accompanied by decreasing inequality, with the GINI coefficient falling from 0.50 to 0.42 over the same period.10
FIGURE 1. Human development and inequality in Bolivia 2010-2019 HDI
I-HDI
0,8 0,7 24%
0,6 38%
0,5 0,4
2010
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Source: IEO. Data from UNDP Human Development Report
7
8 9 10
48 percent of the population of Bolivia is considered indigenous (INE 2017). The Bolivian Constitution recognises the existence of four types of autonomy in the territorial organization of the State: departmental, municipal, regional and indigenous, native, farmer autonomy. GDP, PPP (constant 2017 international $) Source: The World Bank, 2022. https://data.worldbank.org/country/bolivia. See https://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/Country-Profiles/BOL.pdf. INE: https://www.ine.gob.bo/index.php/estadisticas-economicas/encuestas-de-hogares/.
Chapter 1. BACKGROUND AND introduction
9
