Cooperation or Contestation in Food Security Governance in Bolivia : mapping analysis of public and private actors regarding food security governance in Bolivia

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Cooperation or Contestation in Food Security

Governance in Bolivia

Mapping analysis of public and private actors regarding

food security governance in Bolivia

NAOMI STERK

Student Number: 10590277

E-mail: naomisterk@msn.com

Word Count: 20,311

University of Amsterdam

Master Thesis Political Science (International Relations)

Transnational Sustainability Governance

Supervisor: Philip Schleifer

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_{Reader: Conny Roggeband}

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Abstract

Food security governance is a pressing topic in global politics. World hunger is becoming more of a threat due to two effects: 1) the world population is growing in a rapid pace; and 2) climate change have adverse implications on agriculture. Resources on this planet will become increasingly more constrained. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is being coined as a solution to feed the world in the future because the LAC have the greatest agricultural land and water availability per capita in the world. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015; Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017) Regarding food security governance, comprehensive research on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been lacking. The LAC often gets overlooked by scholars. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017; Smith, Kassa, & Winters, 2017).

However, increasing the quantity of food produced, would not eliminate hunger. (Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012; Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017). There are more structural problems with food security governance than just agricultural yields. The problem is rooted in a social, political and economic dimension (Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012). To enhance food and nutrition security, interaction and communication between the state and local and communal actors are vital. This interaction is something that has not been researched adequately. (McKay, Nehring, & Walsh-Dilley, 2014). This research focuses on Bolivia for several reasons, next to the reasons that the LAC has not been researched carefully regarding food security and governance. Firstly, Bolivia is considered as one of the poorest countries in LAC. Next to that, more than the half of the population in Bolivia is considered food insecure. Furthermore, Bolivia has a high risk for climate change adverse effects. And Bolivia is highly dependable on agricultural as a commodity. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016; WFP, 2018; Oxfam International in Bolivia, 2009)

The research question of this research is ‘how are private and public actors interacting with each other within food and nutrition security governance in Bolivia?’ Within this research I look at three levels: transnational, regional and national. The regime complex and the governance triangle are used as theoretical frameworks. It is important to look at actor interaction because when various actors come together, they can create a knowledge pool. These actors can assist the national government with technical assistance and advice to enhance food security governance. The government can create partnerships and it can create the environment in which actor interplay can be created. (Wegener, Raine, & Hanning, 2012; Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2011) For these reasons the government is always a central actor within food security governance.

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This research investigates what other actors play a role in food security governance in Bolivia. The regime of Evo Morales implemented strict policies and as a result a lot of NGOs are not allowed to be active in the country anymore. NGOs are getting shut down because they interfere too much with state business. (Achtenberg & Currents, 2018) The interactions between the Bolivian and domestic NGOs are very constrained under Morales’ rule. I interviewed an expert on business in Bolivia and he explained me that there are not many interactions between the Bolivian government and the private sector. A research of Herbas Torrico et al. Outlined that experts agreed that there are not many CSR practices in Bolivia. These practices usually only focus on the environmental dimensions, such as sustainability and eco-friendly, whereas they overlook social dimensions. CSR practices are not that popular among firms and there is no appeal in creating private food and nutrition security programs by firms yet. (Torrico et al., 2018)

IGOs such as the FAO, IFAD and WFP have had successful outcomes with certain projects. These IGOs, especially the FAO and ECLAC, have the ability to provide technical assistance to the Bolivian government. The Bolivian government has incorporated national legislation on protecting food security governance. For fruitful food security governance, the Bolivian government should create an environment in which public and private actors and stakeholders can have a dialogue and share knowledge with each other. If the Bolivian government allows help from the FAO, ECLAC and other organizations, they can assist the Bolivian government in changing the food security system to a multi-sectoral framework.

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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

AA Agreement on Agriculture

ALADI Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración BRICS Brazil, Russia, India, China, South-Africa

CAF Corporación Andina de Fomento

CECI Centro Canadiense de Estudios y Cooperación Internacional CEDIB Center for Documentation and Information

CEDLA Center for the Study of Labor and Agrarian Development CELAC Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños CONAN The Consejo Nacional de Alimentacion y Nutricion

COP Conference of the Parties

CSO Civil Society Organization

ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean EMAPA Empresa de Apoyo a la Produccion de Alimentos

EU European Union

FAC Food Aid Convention

FAO Food and Agricultural Organization

FNS CELAC’s Plan Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication 2025

GHG Greenhouse Gases

GMO Genetically Modified Organism

GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

IGO Intergovernmental Organization

IMF International Monetary Fund

INRA Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

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MAS Movimiento al Socialismo

MDRyT Ministerio de Desarrollo Rural y Tierras

MPP Marco de Programación de País

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development PBJA Programa Nacional Bono Juana Azurduy de Padilla

PDES Plan de Desarrollo Económico y Social

RSS Regulatory Standard-Setting

SDG Sustainable Development Goals

SPS Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

UN United Nations

UNDAF United Nations Development Frameworks

UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

US United States of America

WFP World Food Program

WTO World Trade Organization

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1. Introduction

The skyrocketing rise of the global grain prices at the beginning of 2008 prompted a series of events that resulted in an increase of the global undernourishment by 100 million people. From 2008 to 2009 this catastrophe was described notoriously as the ‘global food crisis’. As a result of this crisis, food riots broke out across the world and food aid became critical. Countries such as Russia banned export of food commodities due to grave wheat shortage. In February 2011, the World Bank Group made an estimation that in the prior ten months’ time alone, there were over 44 million people impoverished due to the continuing rapidly rising food prices. (Lambek & C.S., 2014) The question whether the world is able to feed itself in an increasingly populated world started to reach the attention of

academics, politicians and civil society. This notion was strengthened when the world’s population hit the 7 billion mark in October 2011. The answers to whether the world can meet food demands in the future – the topic of food security – were, on the one hand, focused on agricultural yields and genetically modified food commodities. On the other hand, it was also acknowledged as a structural problem that was rooted in a social, political and economic dimension (Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012). In fact, the world already produces more food than necessary in order to feed the entire global population. However, still, more people than ever are suffering from malnutrition and deprivation. At the same time, this surplus of food goes to waste. So, increasing the quantity of food produced, would not eliminate hunger (Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012; Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017).

Adding to these challenges, the arrival of new issues on the global agenda, such as climate change makes the topic of food security a more pressing topic of research. Climate change will have serious effects on the world’s food security. One of the major challenges of the near future will be meeting food demands on an increasing resource constrained-planet. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015). In 2015 the international community adopted the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDG) to end extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030. Goal 2 – Zero Hunger – pledges to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. (World Food Programme, 2018) Therefore, adaptation strategies and policy responses to global climate change regarding food security are urgently needed. Strategies such as handling water allocation, land use patterns, food trade, but also more local strategies are necessary. These kind of policy responses are essential to improve the living conditions of both farmers and the rural population across the world. (Lambek & C.S., 2014; International Food Policy Research Institute, 2018)

To enhance food and nutrition security, interaction and communication between the state and local and communal actors are vital. This interaction is something that has not been researched adequately. (McKay, Nehring, & Walsh-Dilley, 2014). There is no sufficient empirical research on

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existing food security governance arrangements, practices, and outcomes. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017) Furthermore, other authors have asked for more attention to the bottom-up approach in this field. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016; Smith, Kassa, & Winters, 2017; Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017). Lastly, food security governance practices can contribute to achieving globally sustainable development goals. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017)

There have been significantly more studies concerning the Sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia on food security governance. For now, comprehensive research on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been lacking. The LAC often gets overlooked by scholars. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017; Smith, Kassa, & Winters, 2017). The LAC form a very important region for meeting future food demands. LAC have the greatest agricultural land and water availability per capita in the world and is, therefore, essential to focus on with regards to food and nutrition security and resilience to climate change. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015; Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017) Within the LAC region, I am aiming to look at Bolivia. The crops and livestock in Bolivia are especially vulnerable to the weather and to climate change. As well, Bolivia remains as one of the poorest countries in LAC with a high level of food insecurity. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016) Furthermore, Bolivia has a high risk for climate change adverse effects and Bolivia is highly dependable on agricultural as a commodity. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016; WFP, 2018; Oxfam International in Bolivia, 2009) However, Bolivia has made success in enhancing food security and reducing poverty. For example, the FAO stated that malnutrition and extreme poverty have declined since the 1990s. The FAO stated in their flagship publication in 2014 that “a strong focus on pro-poor and food security policies resulted in the prevalence of undernourishment decreasing by 7.4 percentage points between 2009–11 and 2012–14” (FAO, 2014)

Within this research I look at three levels: transnational, regional and national. The regime complex and the governance triangle are used as theoretical frameworks. When various actors come together, they can create a knowledge pool. These actors can assist the national government with technical assistance and advice to enhance food security governance. The government can create partnerships and it can create the environment in which actor interplay can be created. (Wegener, Raine, & Hanning, 2012; Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2011) For these reasons the government is always a central actor within food security governance. How all the transnational, regional and national actors interact with each other can be complicated but can give insights on how Bolivia is heading with their food security system structure. Mapping the actors involved in the process and institutions regarding food security can provide important lessons for the rest of the LAC region. (FAO, 2014)

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1.1 Research Question

A stakeholder mapping analysis can be fruitful for researching actor involvement in food security programs. Conducting research on the interaction between public and private actors can give insights on the impact actors can have within the food security system. For this research, I will therefore ask the following question: ‘How are private and public actors interacting with each other within food and nutrition security governance in Bolivia?’ In the light of this question, I want to examine what the level of interaction is between various public and private actors and whether they are cooperating or contesting. I will use the regime complex theory and the governance triangle as my theoretical framework in order to answer this question. I researched how different institutions and policies can solve food security and nutrition issues in the region. I would like to contribute to the puzzle regarding assessing the best approach in solving food security issues in Latin America in relation to problems that arise from climate change. The research question will be subdivided into two sub questions.

1. How did the role of private and public actors develop regarding climate-resilient food security policies in Bolivia?

2. How can the interactions between actors explain a state dominant food security governance in Bolivia?

The first sub-question will describe the history of institutions and policies that focus on building resilience for food security systems. The second sub-question will show the interaction between private and public actors and has a policy-oriented notion. Its aim is to research the role of the different private and public actors and the interaction between them regarding building climate-resilient food systems. My objective is to conduct a mapping analysis of the different actors and to research the interaction between the various actors; to see whether there are any differences/similarities between the approaches of the actors; and to see which actors are the most involved in food and nutrition security programs in Bolivia.

I will begin by outlining the background of global food security and climate change. This part does not only provide background information on the topic, it simultaneously, highlights the social relevance of the research. Then, a literature review will be presented to outline the academic relevance of the topic. The literature review discusses food security governance and the case study Bolivia. In the following chapter the theoretical framework and methodology are delineated. The theoretical framework will involve the regime complex theory and the governance triangle. The limitations of the research will be discussed within the methodology section. Subsequently, chapter four includes the case study of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, which consists out of three sections. The first section provides background information on Bolivia and the effects of climate change on the country. The second section looks into the role of private and public actors regarding climate-resilient food security policies on both on a transnational level and at the level of Bolivia. This chapter describes the relevance of the development

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of transnational food security systems. The third section investigates the involvement and the interaction of various public and private actors in food security governance in Bolivia. This section can be dissented into three parts. The first part focuses on the transnational level of food security governance and looks closely into the policies and programs of Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) within Bolivia. Specifically, the activities of the Food an Agricultural Organization (FAO), International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program (WFP) with the Bolivian government will be researched through policy reports and documents. The second part will focus on the regional level and will outline the importance of ECLAC on food security governance within the region and within Bolivia. The third part include the domestic level and it outlines the relationship and interaction of the Bolivian state with Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) and firms. By looking at these interactions, it can be pointed out what schemes the Bolivian state is using within the government triangle and whether this technique of food security governance can be improved in Bolivia in the future. In the next chapter, I will go more in-depth regarding introducing the topic of food security and introducing the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

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2. Background and Literature Review

2.1 Background to food security and effects of Climate Change

The history of food security governance and modern agriculture started after the Second World War in 1945. Following the Second World War, countries switched to a peacetime economy and the

remaining colonies, particularly located in Africa and Asia, became independent from their colonial rulers. Both post-war countries and post-colonialism countries sought to take control over their agricultural practices. The main objectives of most of these countries were self-sufficiency of the food production and expanding agricultural production in order to avoid hunger or inflation. From 1945 up until the 1970s, there was an increase of yields in industrialized nations, especially in developing countries. This increase in agricultural production in the post-war era is referred to as the second agricultural revolution or the ‘Green Revolution’. (Global Food Security, 2018; Shaw, 2007)

Furthermore, the population rate increased across the world. One of the reasons for this great increase was the ‘baby-boom’ that most post-war countries in Europe experienced following the first decades after the war. Between 1950 and 1987 the world population doubled from 2.5 billion to 5 billion people. This increase of the world population in just one generation – of 37 years – is the fastest doubling of the world’s population in history. Additionally, modern medicine was vastly improved, and, for example, antibiotics were made and distributed on a mass-scale, which prolonged the lifespans of people. (Global Food Security, 2018; Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2018)

Eradicating hunger became one of the objectives of the postwar international system. The United Nations (UN) organization FAO was found on the 1st_{of November 1945. The primary goal of} the newly launched international organization was to raise levels of nutrition and to improve the standards of living of people in the developing word. (Shaw, 2007) The first time that the concept of food security was incorporated into international policy was in the 1970s. The early 1970s is

characterized by the world’s first food crisis due to a shortage of wheat which caused high grain prices on the international food market. This ‘global food crisis’ led to starvation and malnutrition of many people across the world. (Margulis, 2013; Shaw, 2007) In order to eradicate hunger, the FAO installed new multilateral forums for financial corporations and institutions, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), during the 1974 FAO World Food Conference. During this conference, there was a consensus by the international community to address and achieve global food security. From this moment on the concept of ‘food security’ continued to evolve. For example, Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen, an economist, demonstrated that food supply availability was not the only important factor to avert a famine. In addition, access to food in terms of affordability of households play a crucial role too. Furthermore, Sen demonstrated that the utilization of food could also cause hunger. Full utilization of food is reached when people have an adequate diet, clean water, sanitation

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and healthcare to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met.

(Margulis, 2013; Shaw, 2007) Moreover, there is evidence that there is sufficient production of food to feed the entire world. These new ideas of food security helped shape a new understanding of

international food politics that looks beyond the traditional supply issues of food production. The multifaceted definition of food security to eradicate hunger and malnutrition became internationally accepted by states during the 1996 World Food Summit. (Margulis, 2013; Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012) Food security can be described as following:

“Food security is the condition in which all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security)

This definition remains the accepted basis for international and national food security policymaking. From this definition, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization uses four dimensions to assess food security. These four dimensions are: 1) physical availability of food; 2) economic and physical access to food, or affordability on a household level; 3) food utilization (quality, nutritional value and safety of the food); and 4) stability of the other three dimensions over time. Food security objectives are only realized when these four dimensions are achieved simultaneously. (FAO, 2018; Koc, MacRae, Mougeot, & Welsh, 1999)

Next to these dimensions, the FAO describes three key concepts to food security: hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Hunger is usually understood as food deprivation or as “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food”. (National Research Council, 2006) People who suffer from hunger are as well food insecure. However, food insecurity does not only mean hunger, but it

also includes those who lack various nutrients. Malnutrition means that people do not consume enough micronutrients – vitamins and minerals – and/or macronutrients (e.g. fat, protein, carbohydrate) for a healthy active lifestyle. (FAO, 2018) Haiti and Bolivia present the most problematic situation in this nutritional aspect: anemia affects more than 50% of the children in these countries. (Bárcena, Prado, Yáñez, & Pérez, 2016) Poverty is undoubtedly a cause of hunger and malnutrition, but both hunger and malnutrition also have an impact on poverty as figure 1 suggests. (FAO, 2018) Poverty is both a cause and an outcome of poor human development in many ways. Firstly, a child without hunger or a lack of nutrients will have better cognition which improves their academic results. Furthermore, food deprivation and malnutrition cause a lean body mass and a shorter height which decreases levels of productivity in a manual labor skilled job. Moreover, a better health and higher levels of energy will improve the ability to learn and work and therefore decreases poverty. Food insecurity slows down the

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process of development in developing countries in the field of education and employment. (Victora, et al., 2008; World Hunger, 2016; FAO, 2018) For this reason, poverty reduction is an important part of food security and will be taken into account in this research.

815 million people across the globe, which is one out of nine people suffer from chronic hunger. Even more people -one in three – are malnourished. Over the coming decades, a changing climate, growing global population, rising food prices, and environmental stressors will have significant impacts on food security. (World Hunger, 2016) Food security is an issue that has an international regime build around it. There is an international desire to collectively eradicate hunger and malnutrition which is reflected in international institutional arrangements and practices. The institutionalization of the food security regime lies predominately in international organizations such as FAO, WFP and IFAD. Institutions outside of the UN system were also embedded in the regime. Such as the Food Aid Convention (FAC) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a network of international agriculture and food research centers nominally under the World Bank. The latter institutions have variegated connections with the mentioned UN institutions. Food security became even a more pressing topic after the ‘global food crisis’ of 2008. The notion of future obstacles for food security became clear. Moreover, on 25 September 2015, the internationally

accepted principle of eradicating hunger and malnutrition got consolidated as the second goal of the new Sustainable Development Agenda. The goals were set up to end poverty, to protect the planet and to ensure prosperity for all. (Margulis, 2013; Lambek & C.S., 2014; UN, 2018)

Meeting food demands is increasingly more problematic due to the adverse effects of climate change. The levels of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have never been higher in history according to the 2014 assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The GHGs have been doubled over the past 50 years and prediction is that these numbers will further increase by 2050. The emissions are mainly caused by land use and livestock production, especially the cultivation of rice and ruminant animals produce a large share of global methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Forest degradation also contributes to the high number of GHG emissions, which happens particularly in the Amazon. (FAO, 2017) These GHG emissions have critical effects on land use and agricultural production. The effects will have the most impact in low- and middle-income countries. Millions of people depend heavily on agricultural in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and LAC. The people there experience more food insecurity and they will expect to be most adverse impacted by climate change. Developing sustainable agricultural frameworks must be adjusted to the effects of a changing climate. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), world leaders have addressed this threat and with the Paris Agreement in 2015, food security and eradicating hunger in combination with the adverse effect of climate change have been stated as a fundamental priority. (FAO, 2017) A study of the FAO on yields found that climate change can reduce yields in the future. This is proven to be so on crops such as wheat, maize, rice and

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soybeans. These are all crops that are heavily cultivated in Bolivia. Lowland middle-income countries in tropical areas will experience harsh consequences. It is therefore necessary to build resilience and adaptation in these ecosystems in order to reduce food insecurity. However, there remains knowledge gaps on the exact impacts of climate change. There are various climate scenarios which depends on various factors, such as change in temperature, rainfall and humidity. (FAO, 2017) Resilience and adaption to climate change is necessary to safeguard food and nutrition security. There is still no sufficient research on the impacts of climate change on other stages of the food supply chain, other than food production, such as food processing, transporting and trade. Climate change resilient measure should be applied to the whole food supply chain, but because there is a lack of information available, this thesis will therefore focus on the food production side of smallholder farmers. (FAO, 2017)

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2.2 Literature Review

Climate change will have serious effects on global food security. Meeting future food demands on an increasing resource constrained-planet is one of the key challenges of this time. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015) Due to the importance of these food security challenges, various scholars from different fields have researched the implications of climate change on food and nutrition security and some have also investigated the response of institutions and policies on this issue. In this literature review, I aim to focus on three key topics: food security governance, climate change and Bolivia. These topics are intertwined with each other and it forms the body of this literature review. Firstly, I will describe existing literature on food security governance. Secondly, I will discuss climate change on the impact of food security in academic literature. Lastly, I will describe the gaps in the academic literature regarding Latin America and more specifically Bolivia. This literature review has two main objectives. Firstly, the aim is to present the written literature on sustainability and food security in Latin America and the Caribbean in an organized and in a synthesized way. The second aim is to critical analyze the literature. Gaps can be identified in current knowledge by presenting limitations of certain theories or points of views; or by identifying areas of controversy that can lead to future research. (Royal Literary Fund, 2018) There are several conclusions that can be made. First, food security is a structural problem. Second, food security governance includes different interactions of various actors that work towards a communal goal. Third, the interaction between various actors have not been researched enough in the field of food security governance. Four, the LAC as a region has been overlooked by many scholars.

The first topic that will be discusses is food security governance. The topic of food security is a pressing matter in today’s world. There are discourses that display a picture that rising economic wealth in the world reduces poverty and hunger. However, that picture is not an accurate one. The world may produce more than the global food demand, more people than ever suffer from malnutrition and deprivation. (Shepherd, 2012; Lambek & C.S., 2014) At the same time, this surplus of food goes to waste. Hunger is a structural problem and the issues of this problem lies often within institutional structure. In a global perspective, the world’s food trade is controlled by big corporations who sell food for profit to relatively wealthy consumers. This goes to the expense of both smallholder farmers and the impoverished population. It goes without saying that global food-supply chains are more complex than this. (Shepherd, 2012) Besides corporations and the market, many other factors play an important role, such as governments that subsidize agriculture, trade rules and agreements and technical capacities. There are scholars who have demonstrated that major 20th_{-century famines were} far more the product of social, political and economic relations than they were of exogenous trigger events such as drought. (Shepherd, 2012; Lambek & C.S., 2014; Candel, 2014) Food security has received more attention in the last two decades by academics and non-academics. Especially the global food price crises of 2008 brought an increase of attention to food security issues and it called for greater notice to enhancing agriculture in developing countries. Despite decades of efforts to eradicate

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hunger and malnutrition, the global food price crises demonstrated that food security remains to be one of the biggest global issues.

Additionally, other global issues such as climate change is strongly interlinked with food insecurity. (Candel, 2014) So, due to climate change, food security issues are a growing pressing concern to policymakers across the world. With this insight, food security governance linked with environmental politics received more attention. The role of the government played an important role within food security debates. This fits the notion that has been stated before, namely that the solution of food security puzzle does not only lie in the technical and environmental dimension of the problem, but the political, economic and social dimensions of the issue should be addressed in food security solutions and approaches as well. Various scholars have addressed that food security should include strategies that involve different actors, such as governments, companies, NGOs and the population. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017; Candel, 2014; Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012; Margulis, 2013) I will follow the definition that Candel where the concept of governance has been broadly explained as “the interactions between public and/or private entities ultimately aiming at the realization of collective goals.” (Candel, 2014) As well in the context of food security governance it covers broad interactions within and outside food systems. For example, the definition of food security used by the FAO covers four different dimensions, such as food availability, food affordability, food utilization and stability over time. Factors like food prices, agricultural trade, poverty reduction, infrastructure, education, and crisis management influence these four dimensions. Food security governance involve managing various actors that interact with each other in order to improve development and food security. (Candel, 2014) Scholars who wrote about food security governance, stated that improving food security governance is a challenge given the multiple actors, governing levels and policy domains involved.

Food security practices can contribute to achieving SDGs. However, there must be more knowledge of how food security governance works and how to improve it. This context of interactions is something that has not been researched enough. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017; Candel, 2014) By doing a mapping analysis of different actors and stakeholders in Bolivia, the structural patterns of food security within this country is being researched. Many scholars overlook LAC and they are more focused on the Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Although LAC has the world’s agricultural land and many natural resources, poor families still lack access to enough food and nutrition. Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levyb and Candel suggest in their article some future research avenues and policy recommendations. Their policy recommendation is a more bottom-up approach to improve coordination across sectors such as agriculture, social protection, health, nutrition and civil society. The authors also suggest that there should be more empirical research on existing food security governance arrangements, practices, and outcomes. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017)

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For my research, I would build upon the food security governance literature and I research how various actors such as the government, non-governmental organizations and the private sector are involved in food security and nutrition systems in LAC and how coordination between these actors are facilitated. As McKay et al.; Saxena et al.; and Smith et al. suggested, policies and programs regarding building food and nutrition security systems should be targeted to individuals. However, at the same time, state-level coordination is very importance to achieve the food and nutrition security objectives. McKay, Nehring and Walsh-Dilley argue that the state is one of the most significant actors for food sovereignty efforts. The authors also suggest that structural transformation regarding food security and sovereignty should be pursued on a state-level. However, they do agree that the state cannot take all the responsibility to facilitate food sovereignty. Local and even community levels pay an important role since food sovereignty entails multiple sovereignties – from a local to a national level. They advise that interaction between the state and societal actors are a necessary condition for enhancing food security. However, this interaction has not been researched enough (McKay, Nehring, & Walsh-Dilley, 2014)

Especially regarding the implications of climate change, the LAC is an interesting region to study. Not only does the LAC has the greatest agricultural land and water availability per capita but the region’s agriculture is also developing in a great pace. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015). Investing in food security issues in LAC could also be beneficial for future global food insecurity. Flachsbarth et al. discusses the role that LAC could play in resolving the global shortage of food and water. The authors propose that Latin America could be a pivotal region to supply the rest of the world with food commodities. Firstly, Latin America and the Caribbean have the greatest agricultural land and water availability per capita. Secondly, LAC dedicates a large section of the agricultural land to the production of livestock and biofuel crops. The authors suggest that investing in the agriculture in LAC could solve global food security issues. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015) As many articles presented, there is a lack of food security governance literature on LAC and my work could contribute to this knowledge. (Smith, Kassa, & Winters, 2017) There has been research by Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas and Humphries that outlines how the crops and livestock in Bolivia are especially vulnerable to the weather and to climate change. The article focuses on indigenous food systems in Bolivia. These crops are primarily utilized for consumption by the farmers and their families. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016) Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in LAC and one-third of the population is involved in agriculture. (The World Bank, 2018; FAO, 2014) When the cultivation of these crops is threatened it will have severe consequences on the food and nutrition security of these farmers. So, “smallholder farmers are likely to directly experience the impacts of climate change, their production conditions and cropping systems are very different from those of industrial agriculture and may be far more challenging to model.” (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016) The authors stress the importance of the cultivation of crops for the food and nutrition security of the cultivating farmers. Furthermore, the authors ask for urgent attention on the impact of climate change on indigenous food

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and foodways. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016) This is one of the reasons for conducting research on food security in Bolivia.

From this literature review there are a number of important gaps that have been discovered. Firstly, the interaction between public and private actors have not been sufficient researched in the field of food security governance. There was a believe, for a very long period of time, that the solution of food security governance laid in a technical and agricultural dimension. The last two decades offered more research and a new notion emerged which included that there should be an important focus on the economic, political and societal dimension in food security. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017; Candel, 2014; Lambek & C.S., 2014; Shepherd, 2012; Margulis, 2013) Furthermore, the LAC as a region has been overlooked by many scholars and there should be more attention to this region. Especially, because the LAC have the greatest land and water capita in the world. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015) (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017) Research on this issue contributes to more knowledge on food security governance on a more economic, political and societal dimension. In the next chapter, the theoretical framework and research design will be outlined.

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3. Theoretical Framework and Methodology

3.1 Theoretical Framework

For the definition of food security governance, I will use the definition used by Candel. He describes the governance aspect of food security as “the interactions between public and/or private entities ultimately aiming at the realization of collective goals.” (Candel, 2014) In this research project I will focus on the food security governance in Bolivia and more specifically I will answer the

question ‘how are private and public actors interacting with each other within food and nutrition security governance in Bolivia?’ Within this research I look at three levels: transnational, regional and national. The regime complex and the governance triangle are used as theoretical frameworks. It is important to look at actor interaction because when various actors come together, they can create a knowledge pool. (Wegener, Raine, & Hanning, 2012; Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2011)

Firstly, I want to discuss the regime complex within food security systems. I examined how the regime of food security influence domestic food security policies and practices in Bolivia. Secondly, I examined the domestic food security governance in Bolivia. I researched how various private and public actors are involved in food security in Bolivia and how their interaction is with each other. I will use the governance triangle and the model of “New Governance. (Abbott K.W., 2012; Abbott K.W., 2009) For the case of food security programs in Bolivia, I will look at the Bolivian government, private actors such as firms and NGOs. Their interaction with each other will be examined in the context of food security governance. The different private and public actors will be mapped out in my research. Important is to look at which of the actors is seen as a leading ‘actor’. (Abbott K.W., 2012; Abbott K.W., 2009) The state will be one of the crucial actors regarding food security governance due to its ability to create a open environment where actors can offer assistance and share knowledge. (Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2011)

The Concept of a ‘Regime Complex’

This concept explains that states construct an international regime with institutions that reflect the interest of the states. These regimes are visible when looking at international cooperation on various topics, such as security, human rights, climate change, and food security. Within these regimes there are interdependence institutions created that even exert influence over state leaders. (Keohane & Victor, 2010) Krasner defines a regime as “principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actor expectations converge in a given issue-area”. (Krasner, 1982) These regimes are composed

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by states. The weighing of these interests depends on various factors, such as power to impact one’s own views on others, but knowledge and beliefs are also important. Beliefs, and therefore, interests of states can change over time. The frames of the international regime can also change correlating to the interests of the states. (Keohane & Victor, 2010) Krasner adds that regimes must be understand more than ‘temporary arrangements’ that shift after every change of power or interest. Even though regimes reflect states’ interests and ideas, regimes are often longer standing. Usually there is a change in procedure or rules, but the core of norms of a particular regime stays the same. When norms or principles are abandoned within a regime, the regime of the given issue-area disappears, or a new regime gets created. (Krasner, 1982) There can also be cases of forum-shifting, which entails moving a regulatory agenda from one organization to another; abandoning an organization; or pursuing the same agenda in multiple organizations. States often link issues to each other in order to have a greater chance to achieve their objectives. Forum-shifting does cause fragmentation and then results in a regime complex. In this research, it will be explored how much influence the food security regime has on domestic practices. (Keohane & Victor, 2010)

‘Regime Complex’ of Food Security

After the Second World War, eradicating hunger became one of the prime objectives of the international community. A global desire for peace and prosperity arose. The United States became a global hegemon and they believed to have the responsibility of the international community to lead in hunger eradication and nutrition promotion. This lead to the creation of the Food and Agricultural Organization as part of the United Nations in 1945. This was the first special agency that was specifically created to foc us on freeing the world from hunger. Next to that, the FAO focuses on improving global nutrition levels and improving food production and distribution. The early efforts of the FAO addressed the international coordination of grain production and they tried to redistribute the surplus of food that was produced in the West. However, the main grain producing countries, such as the United States, had a unique agricultural position and they did not fully supported the coordinated efforts of the FAO on this topic . They steered the focus of the FAO to strengthening food supply management within developing countries. (Margulis, 2013) In the 1960s, there was a rapid increase of the population due to the ‘baby boomers’. Within one generation the world population doubled. (Global Food Security, 2018; Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2018) Simultaneously, the food production in developing countries were not as successful. There was fear for a world food shortage. Within this context, the UN developed the World Food Program (WFP) to provide food assistance to developing countries. The main donors for the WFP were the US, the European Community, Canada and Australia. There were also the major grain-producing countries. The countries then quickly agreed to a new international food aid burden-sharing system under the FAC. Not only food aid become one of the assistance tools, but bilateral and multilateral assistance to foster food production in developing countries was added in addition to food aid. The

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events of the global food crisis in the 1970s revealed to policymakers that the prices of food supply on international markets were highly unreliable. It led to a consensus within the international community that there should be new instruments and more international cooperation to eradicate hunger. Again, new institutions were created, such as IFAD. Now the norms changed to focus more on food security than just on the food supply. Nutrition, human health and the human right for food and nutrition become important frames in creating food security policies and instruments. The concept of food security become to evolved and formed in this time to what we know understand what food security is. (Margulis, 2013) The focus of this research is how these integrated institutions of the regime can impose regulations on other countries. One of the objective of this research is to find how the regime of food security influences food security efforts on a domestic level.

Norms, ideas and identities play an important role in structuring international relations and to construct governance. Margulis discusses how norms shape actors and how ideas and identities construct principles of actors. Constructivism plays an important role in shaping food security governance. (Margulis, 2013) In chapter 5.2 I will give a historical narrative in understanding how food security governance takes up a critical part of global governance and in Bolivia and how this narrative continuous evolves through time.

Governance Triangle

In order to make promising improvements of food security there should be alternative forms of governance. Forms that rise above the traditional state level of governance. One of these forms are international institutions and regulations. This creates a global ‘regime’ around this area of issue, as described above. Other forms are nongovernmental organization and businesses who efforts are to challenge state regulation. These rise of non-state actors started mainly in the 1980s, in this era a plethora of NGOs and public-private governance started to emerge. These non-state actors focused on to improve various issues, such as labor rights, the environment, human rights and food security. These actors have a substantive nature of their norms, which focuses on addressing social and environmental challenges. In other words what they do is voluntary and novel. For this reason, these non-state actors are viewed as institutions that engage in ‘regulatory standard-setting’ (RSS). This essentially is a new form of ‘regulation’. (Abbott & Snidal, The Governance Triangle: Regulatory Standards Institutions and the Shadow of the State, 2008) So, these new regulatory systems offer a role for private actors. This is a change from traditional inter-state treaties and IGOs. Most of these arranged RSS schemes are governed by (1) firms and industry groups and (2) NGOs and other civil society groups, such as unions. However, RSS are formed by all non-state actors such as IGOs, NGOs and public-private initiatives. RSS exists often to create a new transnational regulatory system that demands a broader and nuanced view than just the state as the only regulator. Regulation can also be a combination between various actors. These

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private actors can have various reasons to get involved in the topic of issue. These reasons could be, because the actor is a target of certain regulations or developments, this is often the case for firms, or an actor can act out of social responsibility. New domestic innovative regulation practices are incorporated in a New Governance Model in order to characterize their features. (Abbott K.W., 2009) Abbott identifies four elements of New Governance to reassess the state’s traditional role. This model is still predominantly applied in domestic contexts. In New Governance, the state:

I. Incorporates a decentralized range of actors and institutions, both public and private, into the regulatory system, as by negotiating standards with firms, encouraging and supervising self-regulation, or sponsoring voluntary management systems;

II. Relies on this range of actors for regulatory expertise;

III. Modifies its regulatory responsibilities to emphasize orchestration of public and private actors and institutions rather than direct promulgation and enforcement of rules; and

IV. Utilizes “soft law” to complement or substitute for mandatory “hard law”. (Abbott K.W., 2009)

New Governance can be valuable for developing countries that do not have traditional forms of state regulations. Private actors can play an important role for creating regulations. It can result in further development of these developing countries. Academic research on this topic has not been researched enough. (Abbott K.W., 2009) In this research, the model of New Government is used to see if it offers a solution to food security issues in Bolivia. By doing a mapping analysis, it can be assessed which actors are vital in food security governance in Bolivia and how these actors interact with each other. For this research on a domestic level I will look at the state, NGOs and firms (see figure 2). Furthermore, by mapping out which actors are the most important for food security governance, it can be determined to what extent the Bolivian state can be described as a ‘New Governance’ state. The last question that will Figure 2. “Abbott and Snidal’s regulatory triangle visualizes the involvement of state, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and firm actors in regulatory standard-setting within regulatory space. The closer a regulatory scheme is to any corner of the triangle (zones 1–3) the more one type of actor dominated the regulatory standard-setting process. The spaces between triangles (zones 4–6) represent co-regulation between two actor types and the triangle in the middle (zone 7) represents a collaborative scheme involving all three types of actors.” (MacGregor, Ramasar, &

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be researched is whether this ‘New Governance’ is indeed helpful or necessary model for developing states to use in order to improve food security.

In addition, figure 3 is used to formulate my hypothesis. My hypothesis is that the government in this research will be a very important actor within the arena of food and nutrition security. In the words of Wegner, Rine, & Hanning “government actors have an important role to play in creating healthy public policies and supportive environments to facilitate access to safe, affordable, nutritious food.” (Wegener, Raine, & Hanning, 2012) Legislation and the attitude of the government can have a great impact on its relationship with other actors. The government can create a political climate but can also welcome NGOs or work together with IGOs. Furthermore, the government can choose to collaborate with other countries within a regional framework. Following the criteria of Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention regarding statehood, the government has jurisdiction over its land, its people and it has the capacity to enter into relations with other states and IGOs. For these reasons, it is important to look closely at the national legislation of the government. Secondly, the interactions with IGOs, NGOs and firms will be addressed. Lastly, their interactions will lead to answer the question whether Bolivia has adopted New Governance as a strategy to promote food and nutrition security. According to scholars, government actors play a crucial role in 1) creating healthy public policies and 2) creating an environment which can facilitate safe, affordable and nutritious food.

Figure 3. A conceptual framework for multi-sectoral participation and action in food system change

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The government has the ability to engage multi-sectoral stakeholders in plans and actions to facilitate access to nutritious food. (Wegener, Raine, & Hanning, 2012; Dorosha, Dradrib, & Haggbladec, 2009) For these reasons, my hypotheses would be that the food security governance zone will be close towards the State at the top of the triangle (zone 1/4/5/7). In addition, Wegner, Rine, & Hanning argue that multiple actors involved in the food security governance process is crucial for enhancing food security. As they depicted in figure 3, various stakeholders are important for the knowledge transfer part of the process. Stakeholders from various backgrounds can share, for example, technical knowledge with the Bolivian government. This interaction of transferring knowledge can result in partnerships between the government and other actors. Together, they have a better chance in identifying the issue and to make policies that are targeted to multiple aspects within food security, such as environmental protection, agricultural protection, urban intensification, healthy communities, farmer viability and public health. In joint ventures they can address food security concerns in a systematic pattern. In sum, a joint interaction between the government and various actors can have great beneficial effect on promoting food security. In the case study, there is a close look to what extent the Bolivian government has realized the need for multi-sectoral participation and action in food systems operations and policy developments. (Wegener, Raine, & Hanning, 2012)

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3.2 Case Selection

Bolivia

The unit of analysis in my research project will be food security governance in Bolivia. I will look at various private and public actors that are involved in these food and nutrition security programs and projects. The universe of cases in this situation will be the different programs of private and public actors regarding climate-resilient food and nutrition systems across the world. Other food and nutrition security programs are mainly focused in the Sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. (Pérez-Escamilla, Shamah-Levy, & Candel, 2017)

Bolivia will serve as an example case. This research focuses on Bolivia for several reasons, next to the reasons that the LAC has not been researched adequately regarding food security and

governance, Bolivia is considered as one of the poorest countries in LAC; more than the half of the population in Bolivia is considered food insecure; Bolivia has a high risk for climate change adverse effects; and Bolivia is highly dependable on agricultural as a commodity. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016; WFP, 2018; Oxfam International in Bolivia, 2009) However, the FAO stated that malnutrition and extreme poverty have declined in Bolivia since the 1990s. The FAO stated in their flagship publication in 2014 that “a strong focus on pro-poor and food security policies resulted in the prevalence of undernourishment decreasing by 7.4 percentage points between 2009–11 and 2012–14” (FAO, 2014) For this reason, lessons can be drawn from a mapping analysis of Bolivia that can be applied to other countries in the LAC region. (FAO, 2014) The involvement of non-state actors is an aspect of ‘New Governance’. However, the direct success of these non-state actors, together with the government influence and actor interaction is something that must be further researched in order to determine if there is truly a case of ‘New Governance’. If Bolivia truly involves all actors in their food security governance, then Bolivia should be in zone 7 in the Governance Triangle (see figure 2). This research is a qualitative case study. I looked deeply in to the various actors involved in food and nutrition security programs in Bolivia. I will not try to draw broad conclusions in my universe of cases, simply because there can be many variations between what ends up in being successful in different regions. These differences can arise due to agricultural, economic and cultural disparities. Perhaps, there are lessons that can be drawn from LAC for food and nutrition security programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. However, the research will focus solely on the implications in Bolivia and the Andean Region.

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3.3 Data Collection

Data that I will be using are food security reports from the FAO, IFAD, WFP and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). I also found some fact-finding reports from the Dutch Government, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Peperkamp, 2017) These reports will provide primary literature and quantitative data.

This research looks at the interaction of how different actors are involved in the field of food and nutrition security in Bolivia. I am aiming to interview a few actors. First. I interviewed an expert on Latin American food security and agroforestry. Another actor that I interviewed is the Dutch embassy who work together with the Bolivian government, businesses and NGOs. They will provide insight on the interaction between actors. Other actors that I will interview are people knowledgeable on Bolivian state affairs. In addition, I talked with some Bolivian locals and NGOs to provide me insight on the political and societal situation in the country. These interviews serve to gain empirical information on this topic. The interviews can be described as explanatory interviews as I aim to gather as much information possible to learn about food security governance and actor interactions within Bolivia. The effectiveness of various food security projects and the communication between these actors will be addressed. The mapping analysis will show, first of all, which actors are the most involved in food and nutrition security programs in Bolivia; secondly, the interaction between the various actors is displayed; and lastly harmonization between the approaches of the actors are highlighted. Furthermore, the implementation of international regulations of institutions, such as the FAO, IFAD and the WFP, on the actors of the domestic level is researched. In chapter 5.2 I will give a historical narrative in understanding how food security governance takes up a critical part in global governance and how food security governance rooted in Bolivia. Showing how this narrative evolved through time is necessary because then the importance of IGOs are shown. (Margulis, 2013)

Limitations

Due to this research being a qualitative study, it is hard to determine a strong causality. The nature of the data available does not allow for a quantitative analysis. The findings of this study draw heavily on qualitative and quantitative evidence presented by FAO. Most of the, qualitative research is open-ended. This means that results cannot always be verified, and interviewees have control over the content of the collected data. (Sudeshna & Datt, 2018) However, I trust my interviewees on their expertise on food security governance in Bolivia. By including various actors, in the interviews, multiple views on this topic is shared. I also try to move constant back and forth between the design and the implementation. I check the literature, data collection strategies and analysis as I move forward. The process of doing qualitative research is iterative. (Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson, & Spiers, 2002) However, it is still hard to make conclusions on the Bolivian state as there are a lot of differences in the regions in Bolivia. The

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differences in the geographical regions in Bolivia are further explained in chapter 5.1. These regions have different climates and agricultural products; therefore, there can be differences in food security approaches. By discussing the differences between geographical regions regarding agriculture and food security, generalization for the country as a whole still can be made.

In addition, the plan was to interview many actors and stakeholders involved in the food security governance in Bolivia. I tried to gather as much interviews as possible, but I ended up with only a few. For this reason, I resorted to reports online. Gathering more interviews with various actors would have provided me a more complete image. I will recommend the next person that is willing to conduct research on this topic to do extensive fieldwork within the country itself that eliminates the problem of time differences and limited accessibility.

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4. Case Study: Plurinational State of Bolivia

The case study for this research is Bolivia. Both malnutrition and extreme poverty have declined in Bolivia since the 1990s. (FAO, 2014) And the development index has grown since the 1975-1995. (Oxfam International in Bolivia, 2009) Especially regarding the implications of climate change, the LAC is an interesting region to study. Not only does the LAC has the greatest agricultural land and water availability per capita but the region’s agriculture is also developing in a great pace.

(Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015). Investing in food security issues in LAC could also be beneficial for future global food insecurity. Some authors suggest that investing in the agriculture in LAC could solve global food security issues. (Flachsbarth, Willaarts, Xie, & Pitois, 2015) Up until now, there is a lack of food security governance literature on LAC. (Smith, Kassa, & Winters, 2017) For these reason, lessons can be drawn from a mapping analysis of Bolivia that can be applied to other countries in the LAC region. (FAO, 2014) This research focuses on Bolivia for several reasons, next to the reasons that the LAC has not been researched carefully regarding food security and governance. Firstly, Bolivia is considered as one of the poorest countries in LAC. Next to that, more than the half of the population in Bolivia is considered food insecure. Furthermore, Bolivia has a high risk for climate change adverse effects. And Bolivia is highly dependable on agricultural as a commodity. (Saxena, Fuentes, Herbas, & Humphries, 2016; WFP, 2018; Oxfam International in Bolivia, 2009)

4.1 Food security in Bolivia

Background of Bolivia

The Plurinational State of Bolivia, or short Bolivia, is a country located in the western-central of South America. Bolivia is completely landlocked and shares its boundaries with Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru. The constitutional capital of the country is the historical city of Sucre, located in southern-central of Bolivia. The administrative capital is La Paz, located in the west. Following the independence, like most liberated countries in Latin America, Bolivia experienced many coups and countercoups. The country became a democracy in 1982. The current president, Evo Figure 2. Map of Bolivia All rights to Ezilon.com

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Morales, has been the leader of the country since he got elected as the first indigenous president of Bolivia in December 2005. Morales is the leader of the Movement Toward Socialism (Moviemento al Socialismo). The country has a territorial extension of 1,098,000 km2 _{and has a total of approximately} 11,1 million inhabitants (July 2017 est.). The majority of the population, around 68 percent, are from indigenous descent. The two biggest indigenous groups being the Quechua and the Aymara. There are around thirty-two different indigenous groups present in Bolivia. Those culturally diverse groups also have their own language. Although, the three official languages of Bolivia are Spanish, Quechua and Aymara.1_{The main religion in Bolivia is Roman Catholic and its practiced by approximately 77 percent} of the population. (CIA, 2018; Gale, 2018)

Next to introducing the country Bolivia, I will foremostly focus on the climate of the country and the agricultural stats. Bolivia has three geographic zones: 1) the Andean highlands, or the Altiplano, covers the western and southern part of the country; 2) the Sub-Andean region, formed by valleys or Yungas are seen alongside the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. These Yungas are located northeast from the cities La Paz and Cochabamba and stretches south towards the Argentinian border; and 3) the tropical lowlands plains, or Oriente, that stretch towards Brazil in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Due to the different geographic zones and the difference in altitude and rainfall, the climate varies greatly between these regions. The climate varies between humid and tropical in Eastern Bolivia to cold and semiarid in the Andean highlands. One-third of the country’s territories lies in the Andean Highlands and most of the Bolivian cities are in this region as well. The average altitude in the highlands is around 3,750 meters above sea level and the average annual temperature is 13 degrees Celsius. The Yungas cover around 13 percent of the Bolivian territory. This region enjoys a warm and moderate climate, depending on the altitude. Furthermore, this region is highly fertile. The tropical and hot climate of the Oriente is the lowest part of the country and occupies almost two thirds the country. As the climate differs per regions, so does the agricultural commodities. In the Highlands the main crops are potatoes, quinoa and oats. In the fertile Yungas the main product that is cultivated is maize, next to wheat, oats and a variety of fruits and vegetables. As well coffee and coca leaves form important agricultural produce that is cultivated this region. The crops that are cultivated in the lowlands varies between cotton, soya, sugar cane and tobacco. (CIA, 2018; Gale, 2018; Unicef, 2018) One-third of the Bolivians part of the rural population. (The World Bank, 2018) Cultural diversity is also present in these different regions. The indigenous groups such as the Quechua and the Aymara have occupied the Andean highland and the sub-Andean areas. Smaller indigenous groups, such as the Guarani, are present in the lowlands. (Unicef, 2018)

According to the World Bank group, Bolivia is one of the poorest countries within the LAC. Two-thirds of Bolivians are considered poor and one out four are indigent. Almost forty percent of the

1_{Bolivia's new constitution in 2009 designates Spanish and all indigenous languages as official; 36 indigenous}

Cooperation or Contestation in Food Security Governance in Bolivia : mapping analysis of public and private actors regarding food security governance in Bolivia