Outcome BOL_D_2.1

Women, boys, girls and young people, giving special attention to the native indigenous rural population, Afro-descendants and the population facing human mobility, fully exercise their rights as economic agents for the inclusive development of the country

In 2025, women in Bolivia—particularly Indigenous, rural and low-income women—advanced their economic autonomy and strengthened their role as active economic agents, supported by a progressively more enabling institutional and policy environment. Results demonstrate measurable improvements in women’s productive capacity, income generation, market participation and institutional support systems, reflecting UN Women’s contribution to strengthening both demand- and supply-side conditions for women’s economic empowerment. At the individual and productive-unit level, women consolidated their participation in economic life despite a challenging macroeconomic context of unstable currency exchange and rising inflation. A total of 204 women-led productive units effectively increased their participation in markets. Field evidence confirms that 76% of productive units increased their production levels, demonstrating enhanced operational efficiency, stronger business organization, and improved capacity to respond to market demand. Where production increases were not yet observed, women identified structural constraints—such as pending full installation of machinery and rising input costs—rather than capacity limitations, indicating strong readiness for further economic advancement as enabling conditions improve. These productivity gains translated directly into improvements in income and economic resilience. Income monitoring revealed a 95% increase in average earnings among the women entrepreneurs mostly in small and micro businesses supported by UN Women, rising from 4,236 BOB (USD 609) to 8,273 BOB (USD 1,189). Impact has been particularly transformative in rural territories traditionally excluded from economic opportunity. In Achacachi, women reported an average 101% increase in income, moving from 1,240 BOB (USD 178) to 2,495 BOB (USD 359), highlighting strengthened livelihoods, reduced vulnerability and greater stability in rural economies. Enhanced market participation was a critical driver of these results. Participation in national and international fairs in Sucre, Cochabamba (FEXCO) and Santa Cruz (Expocruz) enabled women to access new buyers, negotiate improved prices and secure sustained market linkages. In 2025, women generated average earnings of 4,000 BOB (USD 583) in Sucre and Cochabamba and between 1,500 BOB (USD 218) and 50,000 BOB (USD 7,288) at Expocruz—demonstrating the profitability and scalability of women-led businesses when provided equitable access to commercial spaces. In several cases, women surpassed the national minimum monthly wage ( 2.750 BOB in 20 25 ) within just three days of participation. Progress at the institutional level created stronger public policy foundations for women’s economic empowerment. A key achievement was the institutional strengthening of the Vice-Ministry of Micro and Small Enterprise, which formally adopted a gender-responsive and intersectional framework for allocating productive support. Through this, the vice-ministry shifted from gender-neutral allocation practices toward gender-sensitive and equity-based decision-making, systematically incorporating analysis of structural barriers faced by women—such as care responsibilities, ethnicity, disability, age and exposure to violence—into resource allocation processes. This ensures that women facing the greatest inequality are prioritized in access to productive assets, financing and social services. Furthermore, at the national level, evidence generated through UN Women–supported analytical work continued to inform the advancement of Bolivia’s first Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP), while political shifts delayed its formal approval. In parallel, three care policy proposals—two municipal and one national—were developed using gender analysis and gender statistics on unpaid care and domestic work, strengthening institutional practice in evidence-based policymaking. Although the electoral context and resulting institutional transitions prevented final adoption, these processes significantly advanced the integration of gender data into policy design, positioning all four frameworks for continued progress and potential approval under the new administration in 2026. Collectively, 2025 marked a decisive shift toward more inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic development in Bolivia. Women not only increased their incomes and productivity but also strengthened their leadership, visibility and bargaining power in economic life. At the same time, institutional systems became more gender-responsive and accountable, creating the structural conditions needed to sustain progress. These achievements directly advance Bolivia’s commitments to gender equality, poverty reduction and inclusive growth, reinforcing women’s rightful position as central drivers of national development.

Women, boys, girls and young people, giving special attention to the native indigenous rural population, Afro-descendants and the population facing human mobility, fully exercise their rights as economic agents for the inclusive development of the country

In 2024, significant progress has been made to generating the conditions for women and girls to fully exercise their economic rights, through various strategies . 2024 marked a major milestone in financial inclusion for women with the official launch of the Alliance of Financial Inclusion of Women in Bolivia . As a result, now there is a gender-responsive agenda, where financial institutions have committed to a series of actions aimed at designing financial products and services tailored to the specific needs and challenges of Bolivian women. The Alliance fosters a long-term vision of developing financial products and services that cater for specific needs and challenges of Bolivian Women and to enable their greater financial autonomy and empowerment. Furthermore, as a result of adopting the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and participating in the WEPs Accelerator 2.0, BancoSol now is fully committed to gender, positioning itself as a leader in gender-responsive finance within Bolivia’s financial sector. The preliminary evaluation result demonstrated BancoSol´s progress in its contribution to gender equality. The whole of organization approach of BancoSol prompted it to solidify its position as a pioneer of gender equality in the financial sector in Bolivia, leading various gender initiatives and products including the successful issuance of the social gender bond in the amount of 30 million US dollars in the Bolivian market to finance women-owned and/or led micro and small-sized enterprises. To promote women-led businesses' productivity, 6 institutions now have access to 83 machines and pieces of equipment including four Women’s Associations, and two Alternative Education Centers (CEA), which will continue to offer training and machinery. These institutions will avail machinery and trainings for small and micro businesses led by women. A total of 4,104 persons increased their capacities to lead their businesses through business management and technical skills training, reaching 3,851 women (94%). Business management skills trainings reached 2,095 women and Technical Skills Training, 1,756 women. Among these women, 130 women-led businesses received machinery in the textile, wood, food-processing, and other sectors that led to improved productivity. One of the persistent underlying structural barriers to women´s economic empowerment is attributable to the unequal distribution of care work as studies indicate that women still carry double the time than men in care and domestic activities at the expense of their right to education, decent work and self-care. UN Women´s support to care economy was carried out through various interventions: UN Women supported the development of normative frameworks on care in close coordination with national and local governments and by engaging civil society organizations. Two policy proposals are in development at the national level and two at the municipal level. At the municipal level, a policy proposal is available for Santa Cruz de la Sierra and El Alto municipalities respectively. 200 public officials of government institutions have been sensitized on the importance of having public policy for the co-responsibility of care and how to implement them through programs and projects UN WOMEN supported the Municipality of La Paz with a business management training strategy, specifically designed to scale small businesses owned by women (80% of the target group). UN WOMEN´s efforts in strengthening the capacities of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in La Paz were acknowledged by the Secretary of Economic Development of La Paz where UN WOMEN received an award in December 2024. Moreover, 11 key national government institutions in Bolivia are now fully committed to finalizing and approving the country’s first Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP), marking a major institutional shift toward gender-responsive climate policy and fulfilling Bolivia’s gender commitment under the UNFCCC. This progress was made possible through UN Women’s support in co-facilitating a national participatory process, led by the Plurinational Authority of Mother Earth (APMT). APMT and national institutions are advancing gender-responsive climate action as a coordinated effort across government, communities, and the private sector. The national participatory process engaged 600 individuals, including 441 women in all their diversity, and stakeholders from all nine departments ?including departmental governments, municipalities, civil society, academia, and international partners?, securing broad-based commitment to integrating gender perspectives into climate governance at all levels. ( Details of all stakeholders engaged: departmental governments?and?19 municipalities; international cooperation entities?and?5 universities; 100 civil society organizations , 11 key government institutions, including multiple ministries and national agencies) Also, given that UN Women Bolivia became the host of the Regional Hub for Gender, Environment and Climate Change at the end of 2023, the area made a substantial contribution to organizing three onsite strategic meetings at the regional level in 2024. One with 50 Indigenous women —representing more than 20 organizations and networks—, and another with 34 women human rights defenders in environmental matters —representing 28 grassroots organizations from 14 countries—, both of which aimed to develop consensus-based proposals from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) that were presented to national governments, with the goal of influencing negotiations at COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and COP29 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The third meeting focused on providing technical support to the intergovernmental meeting between gender and climate change negotiators from nine LAC countries, which aimed to develop a regional strategy to ensure that gender considerations are sustained during and beyond UNFCCC COP29.

Women, boys, girls and young people, giving special attention to the native indigenous rural population, Afro-descendants and the population facing human mobility, fully exercise their rights as economic agents for the inclusive development of the country

Significant progress has been made to generating the conditions for women and girls to fully exercise their economic rights, through various strategies. UNW´s support on evidence-based advocacy for financial inclusion of women, the care economy, the importance of private sector as a main actor to reach equality, and the inclusion of the gender perspective in the climate change analysis have resulted in more decision-making institutions in the financial sector, the private sector, and the public sector to be more aware of the importance of including women´s perspective and the barriers that women confront to reach the same opportunities of men with an intersectional analysis taking into considerations the multiple factors that increase those barriers. As a result, these institutions are now proactively designing policies and programmes that beneficiate women including rural and indigenous women under that analysis. Furthermore, supporting the efforts to demolish one of the main pillars of subordination of women such as the unequal distribution of care work has been vital for its recognition in the public agenda as a main structural barrier that prevents women from accessing the full exercise of their rights as they still carry double the time than men in care and domestic activities at the expense of their right to education, decent work and self-care. The shift in perceptions and capacities of government officials on care issues can be attributed to UNW´s continuous support to activist organizations and platforms across the country and to the government in understanding the opportunity for economic growth and social justice, where the care work is recognized, reduced, and redistributed among families, public sector, private sector, and the market. Additionally, communication strategies to deconstruct the gender stereotypes in care labor were developed through messages and data in social media. Finally, a pivotal strategy on climate change from a gender perspective has been developed through the technical assistance to the APMT to accomplish the international commitments to include more women especially indigenous and rural women in decision-making spaces about climate change actions.