565 new leaders graduated in the fifth CAF Leadership for the Transformation Program

(La Paz, November 16, 2009).- CAF, in alliance with the IDEA Foundation, closed the Leadership for the Transformation 2009 Program with the graduation of 575 leaders from around the country, whose capacities were strengthened through training in areas such as negotiation, conflict management and resolution; human rights and democracy; governance, citizen participation, public management and environment, in the context of knowledge and awareness of Bolivian reality.

 

Of the total number of graduates, 29% were from rural and 71% from urban areas. The program was held in 12 cities: La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, El Alto, Oruro, Llallagua, Sucre, Tarija, Trinidad, Cobija, Challapata, and Potosí. The selection criteria used to define the localities were demographic concentration, territorial issues, cultural identity and accessibility by road.

 

CAF and the IDEA Foundation - its local partner - have been organizing the training program since 2004; in these four years 3,175 Bolivian leaders have graduated in the country's nine departments.

 

During the graduation ceremony, the CAF director of governance and technical cooperation (DGCT), Elvira Lupo, said the objective of the program was to identify and empower natural leaders in the exercise of transforming leadership, "capable of identifying the needs of communities and formulating actions which contribute to better exercise of their citizenship."

 

Leadership for the Transformation is a program which CAF promotes in the five Andean countries. Until 2009, the program had trained a total of 14,411 leaders from 2,186 municipalities in the region. The training, which takes six months, is based on three aspects: individual, collective and public; aiming for a balance between State and community under the principles of interculturality, social and gender equity, and environment.

 

The IDEA Foundation trains and educates leaders, professionals, technicians and citizens, who can respond to the new challenges of transformation of the State, the market and society.