UN-DESA • UNDP Bolivia • UDAPE Bolivia

Final Intensive Training workshop
La Paz, Bolivia
18–20 December 2012

DPAD, in close collaboration with UNDP's Office in Bolivia and the Government of Bolivia, provided the final intensive training workshop under the capacity development project "Strengthening Macroeconomic and Social Policy Coherence through Integrated Macro-Micro Modelling". The workshop was conducted in La Paz, Bolivia, on 18-20 December, 2012. Government experts associated with different line ministries and the Central Bank, participated in hands-on sessions to simulate, step by step, scenarios that these experts will analyze in detail in order to address policy questions of national interest and write policy notes.

During the workshop, the participants simulated scenarios covering a wide range of topics: for example, MDG achievement scenarios under different growth, public spending, and financing assumptions; and the impact of external shocks (i.e. hikes in food and oil prices, on one hand, and a reduction of workers' remittances, on the other) on the Bolivian economy and the MDGs. A microsimulation approach was also implemented to determine the impact on poverty and inequality of the simulated scenarios.

Following this workshop, members of the technical team will focus on elaborating policy notes in close consultation with UN-DESA. These notes are expected to be presented to high level policy decision makers in May 2013.

This workshop is the latest in a series of training activities under the project in Bolivia. On April 2011, DPAD conducted the inception workshop in La Paz. This was followed by technical coordination meetings in December 2011 and two hands-on workshops: one on April 2012 followed by another on July 2012.

The goals of the project are to strengthen the analytical capabilities of government staff in order for them to more autonomously: a) evaluate the impact of global external shocks on national development, specifically in terms of meeting the MDGs; b) formulate strategies to mitigate and compensate the adverse effects of the said shocks; and c) be better able to anticipate and prepare for crises events, to avoid setback on the path to human development.

Read more about the project "Strengthening Macroeconomic and Social Policy Coherence through Integrated Macro-Micro Modelling"

DPAD started implementing capacity development projects in Bolivia in 2006 with the project "Implications of Macroeconomic Policy, External Shocks and Social Protection Systems for Poverty, Inequality, and Social Vulnerability in Latin America and the Caribbean", which ended successfully in 2010.