Government procurement policies in Bolivia: Creating a learning envt for smallholder value chains to serve more demanding mkts

The paper is based on the experiences of smallholder organisations1 in Bolivia.~Linked to National Dialogue 2000 around the Highly Indebted Poor Countries' (HIPC) debt reduction initiative, CIOEC©\Bolivia (part of the Liaison Committee of Small Producers - Comit¨¦ de Enlace) organized a participatory process to identify the most important legal obstacles limiting market access and economic development for the smallholder sector (CIOEC 2000). After a series of workshops a consultancy team assisted producer organisations in improving the consistency of the workshop outcomes and in re©\stating the problem using legal terminology. This research focuses on activities around one policy issue that was prioritised in the discussions and lobby strategy of the producer organisations and that effectively resulted in special legislation to facilitate increased smallholder access to markets: the Bolivian government procurement policies "Compro Boliviano" ("I Buy Bolivian").

This publication forms part of the Regoverning Markets project.