ICT Strategy for the Agriculture Sector - Bolivia

This project initiates the development of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy for the Agriculture sector in Bolivia with a focus on small-scale farmers and indigenous groups. The project seeks active participation of policy makers through awareness and capacity development of top-level policy makers in the ministry of agriculture. In addition, other stakeholders in the government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private sector and grass root organizations provide input through a series of workshops. The project is the first ICT policy project in Bolivia, providing the newly appointed policy makers in the ministry with a possibility of additional media and political attention.

Two support programmes formulated on request of the Ministry of Agriculture as part of its ICT strategy for the agriculture sector have been put on hold by the Government. These programmes include the set up of a national land-use information system and a plan for renewal of the national agriculture portal www.agrobolivia.gov.bo.

The Ministry of Agriculture has developed an ICT strategy for the agricultural sector with the following objective: ‘To coordinate and promote the introduction, access, uses and application of ICT in order to improve rural development in a more sustainable and participative way, with particular attention to impoverished sectors’.

As in many developing countries, the agricultural sector in Bolivia employs a large proportion of the active workforce (45%). Bolivia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper claims that poverty is due largely to low productivity and low prices. NGOs and producer organisations suggest that improvements in these areas are severely hampered by the inadequacy of the infrastructure, inefficient distribution methods and a lack of information. Although small farmers lack access to information, they are not isolated from markets and are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in prices and production volumes, as well as to diseases that affect production.

Read more about IICD's approach towards Livelihoods.

Many relevant lessons have been learned since the ICT strategy was launched in 2002.

• Participation at sector level. The government does not operate in isolation. Particularly in agriculture, NGOs and grass-roots organisations are highly active in supplying producers with information. A range of organisations helped to identify ICT problem areas and priorities, and participated in information exchange in the sector. To ensure that they played a focused and constructive role, a committee was set up to coordinate organisations with experience in ICT. These included partner organisations of the TiCBolivia programme (the ICT Network programme in Bolivia), other information programmes initiated by the government and the linked ministries of Economic Affairs and Communications. The committee developed a draft strategy paper which was discussed at a series of validation workshops at national and regional levels. In this way, the Ministry increased ownership and support for the ICT strategy in the sector.
• Ownership within the Ministry. The Ministry’s awareness of and skills in information management ICT was very limited. To allow the Ministry to take on a coordinating role, an extensive capacity development programme was required, involving training of directors and information officers at the Ministry. This training programme centred on information analysis and management rather than on technical skills. Although this has taken time, two years later there is now both widespread interest in and a clear understanding of the role the Ministry is to play in relation to information and ICT in the agricultural sector.
• External support. The strategy formulation and implementation process requires long-term support from advisors from outside the Ministry. To secure acceptance at the Ministry, it has been important to work with local Bolivian consultants who possess knowledge of the sector and an extensive network of contacts at the Ministry. These advisors have played a vital role in continuously guiding the policy process and raising awareness among decision-makers and technical staff at the Ministry. To create ownership at the Ministry, the advisors are to be based permanently at the Ministry for a period of at least 9-12 months. A foreign organisation such as IICD also has a key role to play, in terms of strategic advice on both process (i.e. facilitation) and content (i.e. technical advice). To ensure that the Ministry takes the foreign organisation on board as a strategic partner, it is essential that it possesses expertise in both processes and content and is clearly aware of the priorities set by both the Ministry and the sector.
• A development-oriented ICT strategy. ICT strategies often have a built-in lean towards relatively complex information that is particularly relevant to big business. The direct link made with overall sector policy and the participation of organisations working directly with small farmers has enabled the Ministry to pursue a strategy that identifies small farmers as the key target group. This group has a clear need for basic agricultural information, including information on markets and production.
• Coordination versus implementation. Governments generally aspire to centralise information using complex databases and information systems. As a result, the focus is often on the development of software and large-scale systems rather than on understanding information processes at the Ministry and in the sector as a whole. In many cases, basic ICT can be very effective, too. It has taken a long time to persuade Ministry staff to coordinate information that has already been collected, analysed and disseminated by experienced government-related institutions, producer organisations and NGOs.
• Sustainability. The focus on coordinating existing information sources and the exploitation of existing communication channels in the sector is conducive to the implementation of a viable and cost-effective ICT strategy at sector level. Collaboration with civil society and the private sector ensures that the government will reach producers effectively, as all parties have a direct interest in maintaining information flows. Collaboration also allows for the costs of ICT to be shared among the various stakeholders in the sector.
• Example for other sectors. The successful strategy for agriculture serves as an example for other sectors such as education, for which a similar process was launched in 2004. It also provides important input for a national ICT for development strategy, also launched this year. Yet, although the case of the agricultural sector has inspired policy-makers in other sectors, the experience in education suggests that each sector requires its own, tailor-made processes and approaches to ICT policy development.

A Technical Cooperation Agreement has been signed between VAGPE-MACA and IICD. A National Coordination Committee has been created under the presidency of the VAGPE (Vice-Ministry of Agricultural Affairs). Also a document was prepared referring to general aspects of the project, and a strategic plan was drawn up for its execution. This was done with the participation of ADSIB, of the Vice-Ministry of Communications and Transport, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons (with the ERTIC project) and the Centro de Promoción Bolivia (CEPROBOL). Other participating organisations are the Asociación de Organizaciones Productoras Ecológicas de Bolivia (AOPEB), the Comité Integrador de Organizaciones Económicas Campesinas de Bolivia (CIOEC) and the Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB).

The organisational structure of the ICT project was also established. Finally, in order to guarantee the development and sustainability of the project, a layout plan and a working schedule were prepared in accordance with the technical team and the National Coordination Committee. Enbolivia.com provided several workshops on introduction to the use of ICTs. These workshops were intended for the project team, for the fifteen Managing Directors and Directors of the MACIA and for the senior staff members of the Ministry. The MACIA in-house workshop for senior and technical staff was carried out with the participation of the IICD. Also, seven regional workshops were organized for the local governments, prefectures, NGOs and grass-root organizations in the four macro-regions of the country (Altiplano, Valles, Trópico and Chaco). A Strategic Plan for the Implementation of computer-aided systems (PESI) was drawn up with the objective of creating an ICT Department in the MACA. Enbolivia.com is using Captic to implement its training programme. An agreement was signed with Enbolivia.com and with SIFORBOL for the design of the Agricultural Portal of the MACA. The members of the senior and technical staff of the MACA have their own e-mail accounts. Financial resources are being used according with what had previously been scheduled.