Watchdog organisation launched to safeguard health services for marginalised groups in Bolivia
25 November 2008
The Observatory, a new watchdog organisation, has been launched in Bolivia as part of the Alliance’s Andes Advocacy project. The Observatory will monitor government policy, ensure the observance of existing legislation, and report on the delivery of health services to key population groups including gay and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transsexuals, and people living with HIV.
As well as ensuring key populations have access to friendly, high quality and non-discriminatory public health services, the new Observatory, launched in La Paz on 10 September, will lobby for the dignity, privacy and confidentiality of all patients and act as an intermediary in cases of discrimination or other complaints.
The Observatory will be led by the National Working Group and made up of key populations with the support of the Alliance’s linking organisation in Bolivia, Instituto para el Desarrollo Humano. The National Working Group will operate from four offices across the country in La Paz, Cochabamba, Tarija and Santa Cruz.
The Bolivian health service currently lacks the infrastructure necessary to ensure consistent delivery of services to key populations, and those services that are in place tend to be concentrated in the main cities. A lack of trained health workers and a lack of experience in the implementation of care plans suitable for key populations also prevent consistent, effective service delivery. The Observatory aims to transform the experience of these key groups as users of health services.
Edson Hurtado, from the National Working Group, stated that an important element of the Observatory’s work would be to encourage participation: ”We want key populations to get involved in health policy, to expose problems and propose solutions,” he says. At the same time, the Observatory will seek to raise awareness among the general population, of the needs and difficulties faced by key populations.
The Observatory has set out the objectives it aims to achieve by 2010: that key populations enjoy an enhanced quality of life thanks to improved access to comprehensive, non-discriminatory health services; and that decision-makers and the wider population be aware of the needs of key populations and of the particular problems they face.
The Alliance’s Andes Advocacy project was set up in 2005 and is supported by the UK’s Department for International Development and encompasses capacity-building activities for projects in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.
