Noticias

In Bolivia, recent legal and policy developments represent a critical step toward building more robust responses to gender-based violence (GBV). At Save the Children, our role as a technical partner has been to support and strengthen these processes—promoting frameworks that go beyond recognizing rights on paper and ensure their effective implementation in practice.

One of the most significant milestones is the adoption of a departmental law in Santa Cruz establishing the Interinstitutional Response Pathway (RAI). This mechanism moves beyond a declarative approach, enabling effective coordination across the health, education, and child protection sectors. By clearly defining institutional roles and responsibilities, it helps reduce re-victimization and ensures a more coherent and timely response. Its key added value lies in transforming coordination from an optional practice into a formal obligation.

At the municipal level, the case of Montero represents equally important progress. The revision and regulation of its municipal law—developed through participatory processes involving youth-led and community-based organizations—has enabled the adaptation of responses to local patterns of violence. In addition, the municipality’s first Public Accountability Exercise on GBV has helped make both progress and persistent challenges visible, fostering a culture of transparency and shared responsibility that strengthens local protection systems.

These processes are aligned with global standards and with Save the Children’s regional framework for Latin America and the Caribbean, which emphasizes the need for integrated systems, a rights-based and intersectional approach, and survivor-centered responses. Our technical contribution has been instrumental in shaping legal frameworks, generating evidence, strengthening coordination across levels of government, and building institutional capacity—consistently grounded in a child-focused approach.

While these legal and policy advances provide a strong foundation, their impact ultimately depends on political will, adequate financing, institutional capacity, and accountability mechanisms. Save the Children will continue to support this process to ensure that these frameworks translate into meaningful protection outcomes. Because the real measure of progress is not the number of laws adopted, but the extent to which they expand protection and opportunities for children to live free from violence.