Barrios de Verdad — Participatory Neighbourhood Upgrading in La Paz

La Paz's steep, informal peri-urban neighbourhoods (laderas) historically lacked paved access, stairways, retaining walls, lighting and public space, leaving residents — many of them low-income, Indigenous Aymara migrant families — exposed to landslide risk and social exclusion from the wealthier city centre below.

Upgrade one selected neighbourhood at a time through resident-designed infrastructure that reduces landslide risk and connects poor peri-urban neighbourhoods to city services.

GAMLP launched Barrios de Verdad, formalised in 2005, following a fixed sequence: a neighbourhood assembly identifies priority works, a joint technical-resident committee co-designs the intervention using a standard Neighbourhood Improvement Guide, the municipality builds it with World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank co-financing, and a resident committee oversees execution and maintenance afterward.

By the early 2020s the programme had intervened in over 100 urban neighbourhoods (with a parallel "Comunidades de Verdad" track for rural areas), reaching more than 50,000 residents with paved streets, stairways, retaining walls, sports courts, community centres and public lighting; one documented tranche of four neighbourhoods cost 26.7 million bolivianos and benefited 2,338 families. The programme won the Barcelona FAD "City to City" award in 2013 and was highlighted by the World Bank as a reference model for participatory upgrading.

La Paz has hosted peer exchanges with Guatemalan municipal officials seeking to adapt the model, and the World Bank has backed a follow-on effort to scale the approach to other Bolivian cities; programme evaluations note that quality and pace of delivery vary by neighbourhood and administration, and long-term maintenance after handover still depends on continued resident-committee engagement rather than guaranteed municipal upkeep.