Overall targets
The overall objective is to improve the livelihood of environmentally challenged and poor rural communities in the Bolivian Amazon. These communities are threatened by a high occurrence of serious and emerging infectious diseases, which are commonly zoonotic (i.e. they spread between humans and animals including wildlife) and/or are vector-borne (i.e. they spread via insects such as ticks and mosquitoes).
Immediate targets
Based on the achievements and experiences gained by the NETCAP-DIB intervention, we propose to continue our One Health approach with efforts to strengthen civil society while promoting collaborative cross-sectorial cooperation and making health information accessible and shared with a broad group of stakeholders to improve living conditions among inhabitants of rural communities from the Bolivian Amazon region. Institutional memory will be developed in the NEXTCAP intervention by basing the initiative on a foundation of learning and knowledge sharing activities, hence building capacities in the school, university, local and regional health institutions and the local partner for sustainable change. We propose to do this through a balanced intervention building on: 1) Strategic deliveries which in this intervention will be provided by research and learning activities; 2) Organisational capacity building which in this intervention will target capacity building in and between local health centres while connecting these with local and regional laboratories for improved disease surveillance, as well as within indigenous and non-indigenous organisations, mother’s clubs, parents’ committees and livestock producer’s associations with direct contact to the house holds of the target villages of Tumupasa, Flor de Mayo and Villa Yara, health and school system. Importantly, capacity building within the main partner organisation, TK, will through learning-while-doing be in focus to become a partner of choice for developing future One Health interventions in other areas; 3) Advocacy for lasting change using the One Health approach to engage all the essential stakeholders in the working areas as well as at relevant regional health authorities.
Target groups
The primary target groups of the NEXTCAP intervention include women, men, school children and teachers from indigenous and non-indigenous communities in three municipalities of the North of La Paz department (San Buenaventura, Caranavi and La Asunta). In the San Buenaventura municipality, the Tumupasa community constitutes the primary target group with 1827 inhabitants (969 men and 858 women, thereof 1520 indigenous Tacana people). We expect to involve at least 25% of the Tacana population (380 persons) directly as actors and advocates of the project activities. In the Caranavi and La Asunta municipalities, non-indigenous (“colono”) people – some of them Aymara and Quechua descendants (highland indigenous people) – originally from different regions of the country (mainly the Andean regions of La Paz and the Chuquisaca and Cochabamba departments) will be targeted. In La Asunta municipality, the primary target group – the Flor de Mayo community – is a small village with approximately 300 inhabitants (141 women and 159). In the Caranavi municipality the NEXTCAP activities will focus on the Villa Yara zone with approximately 900 inhabitants (468 men and 432 women).
Resume
NEXTCAP er en udviklingsintervention, der vil udbygge og styrke de lokale og regionale netværk af aktører og interessenter, der blev dannet under et nyligt pilotprojekt i San Buenaventura kommune i Bolivias Amazonas-område. Hovedfokus er kapacitetsopbygning og fortalervirksomhed til at forebygge sygdom forårsaget af en bekymrende høj forekomst af farlige bakterier og virus (zoonoser), som rammer både dyr og mennesker og spredes via miljøet. Sygdommene udgør en stor byrde for den fattige, sårbare lokalbefolkning i landsbyer, der er udfordret af klima- og miljøforandringer samt mangel på adgang til sundhedsfaciliteter- og personale med viden og ressourcer til at hjælpe dem, når de bliver syge af smitten. Interventionen baseres på læring og koordineres af den lokale NGO, Teko Kavi, i samarbejde med DIB og Københavns Universitet ved hjælp af en såkaldt ’One Health’-tilgang karakteriseret ved tværsektorielt samarbejde, tværfaglig forskning og en høj grad af involvering af lokalbefolkningen inkl. skolebørn og kvinder.