UNICEF: Helping Children in Bolivia

UNICEF's programs for children in Bolivia: addressing climate and other challenges

Bolivia has made significant progress in reducing poverty, increasing access to education and improving health outcomes for the nation’s children. The rate of stunting among children under age 5, for instance, was nearly halved between 2008 and 2016, dropping from 27 percent to 16 percent respectively. Infant mortality fell by almost two thirds between 1990 and 2017.  

Climate crises, social conflict intensifying children's needs

But the country continues to face many challenges. Across the nation, violence against children and women is an issue of grave concern. The nation has also weathered a series of crises that shuttered schools and health services and otherwise impacted the well-being of hundreds of thousands of children. Many were exposed to violence and social conflict following political demonstrations and violent clashes in 20219 related to a disputed presidential election, then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

In the years since, a series of extreme weather events wrought widespread damage. With large swaths of the nation located in the Amazon rainforest, Bolivia remains on the front lines of the climate crisis. Rural indigenous communities, where the poverty rate far surpasses that of urban areas, are disproportionately affected by climate impacts. 

UNICEF is on the ground in Bolivia working with partners to support vulnerable children and adolescents and to improve their lives and futures. Here are a few examples of how.

Extreme weather, wildfires, droughts compound problems for Bolivia

An important component of UNICEF's mission in Bolivia is to deliver emergency assistance to those adversely and disproportionately affected by extreme weather and other climate-driven disasters, while also helping communities strengthen systems and build resilience to future shocks.

In 2023, wildfires fires destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of land, affecting the livelihoods of around 80,000 families, including 185,000 children. In early 2024, during the rainy season, floods triggered landslides, displacing more than 80,000 families. A few months later, the region faced one of its worst droughts in recent years as water levels along the Amazon river dropped to record lows. Main supply routes to remote communities were disrupted, causing shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel and undermining the delivery of essential services such as health and education. Wildfires fueled by the drought devastated 9.8 million hectares, heightening health and other risks.

Responding to emergencies, reducing disaster risks

UNICEF emergency response teams provided direct support to response efforts during and after each of these emergencies, providing both technical assistance and direct humanitarian aid, including safe water and sanitation and child protection services. Hundreds of hygiene kits were delivered to affected families, along with backpacks and school supplies to help kids get back to learning.

At the same time, UNICEF has been helping the nation reduce its disaster risks as impacts related to the El Niño phenomenon and other climate events are expected to only get worse in the years ahead.

This work includes collaborating with government agencies to develop comprehensive regional emergency preparedness and response plans for addressing future floods and droughts; organizing emergency drills and developing contingency plans and other long-term agreements; and strategically pre-positioning essential supplies such as educational materials, hygiene kits and play kits.

Helping communities build resilience to climate impacts 

UNICEF has also made significant investments in Bolivia's infrastructure to address water scarcity and rising temperatures, drive adoption of renewable energy sources and otherwise build the capacity of local communities to endure climate emergencies.

UNICEF-supported school gardens are cultivated by students and teachers to supplement local diets. To integrate traditional wisdom with innovative approaches, UNICEF works with indigenous leaders and community members. 

Supporting vaccination and strengthening the health system 

Improving immunization rates among children, particularly in isolated indigenous communities vulnerable to common pathogens, continues to be another top priority for UNICEF Bolivia. To that end, UNICEF supports national vaccination campaigns, by training health workers to disseminate information above vaccines and supporting other community engagement efforts.

With UNICEF support, Bolivia has seen immunization coverage increase by 5 percent. In collaboration with female community leaders, UNICEF has also helped promote the HPV vaccine.

Other efforts are focused on reaching remote communities and zero-dose children (children who have never been vaccinated) and strengthening health system infrastructure to ensure safe and effective vaccine delivery. UNICEF has delivered hundreds of refrigerators to communities nationwide, including dozens of solar-powered fridges to areas that lack access to the national power grid. UNICEF also helped implement digitalized information systems for secure vaccine storage and distribution.

Reaching Bolivia's hardest-to-reach populations with health care

To reach the nation’s most remote populations, UNICEF has dispatched some vaccination workers deep in the Bolivian Amazon on journeys that can take 36 hours and require multiple means of transport from trucks to canoes.

One team reached a a remote community in eastern Bolivia where an indigenous Yuqui population has lived since ancestral times. Discovered just 40 years ago, some members of the tribe are still believed to live in isolation, having had no contact with modernity. Disease remains an existential threat, with tuberculosis killing roughly 10 percent of the contacted population every year. The UNICEF-supported team's aim was to vaccinate the entire known population against COVID-19.

Protecting children from violence 

In other program work, UNICEF helps address domestic violence and provide mental health support to adolescents and teens through a wide array of efforts.

In partnership with families, community leaders and local officials working in child protection, UNICEF launched a number of violence prevention initiatives. One involved training hundreds of indigenous community members to identify cases of family and community violence and help those impacted access local violence prevention services. Another provided childcare training to fathers and male leaders in indigenous communities.

A Safe Family Helpline established by UNICEF and staffed by 200 volunteers and specialists has received tens of thousands of calls since its inception. Innovations such as podcasts, teen boot camps and social media campaigns were introduced to make the service more accessible, thus encouraging its use by a greater proportion of the population.

UNICEF also helped implement a Safe Schools program in partnership with the Ministry of Education that is geared toward gender-based and sexual violence prevention and also emphasizes peacebuilding. UNICEF’s Child and Adolescent Friendly Market Model provides a safe space for marketplace workers’ children, blending education and play with lessons on inclusion and tolerance.

Services provided to migrant families incorporate violence prevention and conflict resolution training for parents and caregivers.

Improving access to quality education

To improve children's education, UNICEF has helped strengthen processes for conducting learning assessments, extending them to secondary school students, and has worked to improve and expand curricula content in collaboration with local school boards, student and parent focal groups and education authorities.

UNICEF is also helping to narrow the gender gap in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). When Bolivia’s Agency for Electronic Information and Communication Technologies built robotics and innovation laboratories in underprivileged areas across the country, UNICEF supported the project, then helped ensure equal opportunities for girls to participate.

Supporting children and families on the move through Bolivia

Bolivia remains a transit point for migrant children and families. In Bolivian communities with higher numbers of permanent Venezuelan residents, a cash transfer program was developed and implemented with partners to help families cover the cost of groceries. Other cash assistance programs support Bolivian families facing economic hardship and the effects of climate disasters.

UNICEF has supported integration activities with Bolivian community members, helping to reduce incidents of xenophobia and discrimination. Humanitarian assistance programs provide migrants and refugees with child protection, health, nutrition, education and other services.

Improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)

Sanitation improvement efforts continue in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Water. UNICEF has helped install dry toilets, showers and sinks in some family homes and schools and has provided technical support to local water companies. Another program supported the installation of solar panels to power water distribution systems in schools.

UNICEF is also committed to helping Bolivia end the practice of open defecation in indigenous communities, by supporting educational public service campaigns highlighting the health benefits of doing so, among other measures. Dry fecal sludge collection services are offered by providers who treat and repurpose the waste as fertilizer for municipal green areas.

Learn more about how UNICEF works around the world to support and protect children and families in need.

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