New award for contribution to ending hunger in Bolivia
Practical Action‘s work improving food security through sustainable agriculture and clean energy has been recognised this month.
The Bolivian Chamber of Private Businessmen, the United Nations System and the UN Global Compact gave an SDG 2 Zero Hunger award to our team in Bolivia.
The award marked their work with vulnerable rural communities struggling to cope with the effects of a changing climate and lack of access to markets and electricity.
More than 2 million farmers in Bolivia, many of whom are from indigenous cultures, rely on traditional farming methods and lack access to finance, water, land and energy.
Improving agriculture is crucial to increasing incomes and living conditions, and ultimately, improving food security and nutrition.
In the past year, more than 2,000 rural families working with Practical Action in Bolivia have improved their production capacity and income and reduced their working time through accessing modern renewable energy and new markets for their businesses.
Coffee, cacao, dairy, quinoa, honey, llama and alpaca farmers – particularly women, indigenous people and families – have all benefitted in the following ways:
- Average working time reduced by 72%
- Average production costs cut down by 66%
- Production capacity is up to 4 times more.
Country representative for Practical Action in Bolivia, Victor Yapu, said: “We would like to share this recognition with our partners and donors, but above all with the communities and organisations with whom we have been working since 2010.
“We believe that small actions can make big changes, and in particular, we believe in the transformative power of clean energy as an engine for improving the productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector, promoting decent work and economic growth.”
Through work in Bolivia with a range of partners, including Christian Aid, Green Empowerment, EKOEnergy, the European Union and GIZ, Practical Action has supported the achievement of a number of the SDGs.
In addition to tackling hunger, the team also contributed to two other sustainable development goals; achieving affordable and clean energy for all (SDG 7) and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8).
To find out more about our work with farmers in Bolivia (in Spanish), visit our Practical Action Bolivia website.