I am very grateful for the opportunity you have offered me to discuss and present the general guidelines of the Human Development Report we are currently elaborating in Bolivia. This second national report will be completed in January 2000.

When we talk and think about human development, what we are really talking and thinking about is people. Thus, when we focus our interest in citizens, we must necessarily see, analyze, understand, know and be able to project what citizens need and want in terms of human development.

Mahbub ul Haq said that the essence of the human development philosophy consists on the fulfillment of the aspirations of the people in the sense of achieving the development goals they wanted and needed. Therefore, our responsibility is to increase their opportunities and capacities in order for them to build the life that all men and women of the world want and have a right to.

To accomplish this objective, it is essential to know what kind of life citizens want and what are their aspirations. We could then say, that the spirit behind, and the reason for our research, are people. We want to find out what are the human development aspirations and perceptions of Bolivian's. Once we know this, by various means and different research techniques, we will confront these results with the real possibilities to fulfill these aspirations.

The report will explore three perspectives of development aspirations. The first is the reflexive capacity of the society, then social capital through relevant and adequate institutions and finally the changes in day-to-day life. We will evaluate the human development aspirations of the different groups in Bolivia as well as the ones of the elite. This way, the report will be able to compare the aspirations of both groups and their congruency With the objective capacities to comply with these aspirations in the socioeconomic reality of Bolivia On the base of the objective capacities to comply with these aspirations, the report will assess the possibility to elaborate a National Development Agenda. Finally, it will also analyze the possibilities for the Bolivian society to discuss, negotiate and realize this National Development Agenda through concerted social pacts.

We strongly believe that the future has to be built on what people really need and desire today. Today is important not only because of what we have at hand, but because it is the root of tomorrow.

The National Development Agenda that will be presented is meant to mobilize a deliberative movement based on a future that is possible and realistic.

We are convinced that the only way to achieve human development and therefore fulfill people's aspirations is through active participation and compromise. People must become a part of the construction of their own destiny and the best way to do it is through dialogue, consensus building and social pacts. The agreements reached with freedom, conviction, and solidarity are the only ones that will subsist.

In our research, we want to analyze the Bolivian's capacity to deliberate, agree and reach lasting social pacts. We see consensus building as a process that has to take place in order to create a common and solid public space where people feel a part of, and are able to become actors in the construction of their own future.

The Human Development Report, we are presently working in Bolivia, is a combination of empirical research, dialogue with the actors through mass and local media, and social intervention in specific situations. More than fifty percent of our total budget is devoted to communication strategies to socialize the report and receive permanent feedback.

Among the methodological tools we are using_in the research, I want to mention only the most important ones. It is clear to us that we need a combination of different tools in order to get an overall view of the Bolivian's aspirations. We are carrying out a national survey of aspirations, for the first time in the country. Five thousand households will answer questions regarding how they see themselves, what they want in the future, what kind of life they want for their children, and how they picture themselves in the next century.

We will also apply two Delphi surveys to local leaders in more than sixty municipalities. As a whole, during our research process, more than ten thousand persons will participate and discuss with us their future in terms of human development. We have also worked with several focal groups, especially with the elite, as well as a number of workshops with regional experts.

At this point, I want to describe a particular workshop we had with the Mayors of the one hundred poorest municipalities of the country. These Mayors represent the interests of more than one million Bolivians which have a human development index below zero point four. The Mayors identified three important areas of conflict: undefined territorial boarders; difficulties in governance and efficient management of the municipalities. It is interesting to note that the proposals of solutions presented by the Mayors could be develop and carried out with their community. Following the workshop we organized an encounter with six representatives of these one hundred Mayors and the Bolivian Parliament. The result of the meeting was that some of the demands of the local authorities were taken into consideration in the drafting of the new Law of Municipalities.

This is just an example of the work we are carrying out for the Bolivian Human Report. We know that the final-product will be important for our country, but we also realize that the elaboration process has become just as important.

I would like to finish my intervention with the words of Mrs. Mary de Guzman Mayor of Lagunillas, a town with a human development index of 0.387 and life expectancy at birth of 53.

"We must start looking inside ourselves in order to find the force to change things. We need o,,tside help, yes, but mainly we need ourselves".

Thank You very much!