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This paper analyses the particular role played by anarchism in early 20th century discussions concerning the Bolivian nation and citizenship. Based on a diverse corpus of documents and extended specialised literature, I will argue that between the 1920s and 1940s the local anarchist movement took part in these debates by rejecting the Creole oligarchy's definition of the nation and proposing one of its own. Ideologically, this intervention meant imagining a different, more inclusive national community made up of racialised and gendered identities. Practically, it implied fighting against internal colonialism, struggling for equal citizenship, and defending the ethnic and gender identity and human dignity of mestizos, cholas, and indigenous people. By reconstructing these debates and some anarchist "ethno‐classist" struggles of the period, I approach the anticolonial orientation of Bolivian anarchism, and more generally, examine a historical experience in which subaltern subjectivities intervened in nation‐building away from a statist, Western and patriarchal path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the minimum wage (MW) literature by providing new evidence on the gender effects of the MW in the context of weak compliance with labour regulations. We study Bolivia's case, the country with the highest informal employment share in Latin America according to the International Labour Organization, during a favourable macroeconomic context characterized by a commodities boom that should have eased compliance with an active MW legislation. From a pooled cross-section of household surveys from 2005 to 2013 and a generalized difference-in-difference specification, we find evidence that the MW widened the hourly wage gender gap, and had negative effects on the formalization likelihood. Our findings stress the importance of enforcing compliance with the minimum wage legislation to reduce the gender wage gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have not been very successful in gender mainstreaming. This article will show, with examples from the PRSPs of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, how gender issues have been largely ignored in the design, poverty analysis, and policy actions of PRSPs. It will be argued that the reason for this failure is only partially a lack of political will and gender expertise on the side of the governments and PRS teams. Rather, the main reason for the failure of integrating gender in PRSPs is the overall framework of PRSPs, which does not allow for gender mainstreaming in macroeconomic policies. The core of the framework consists of narrowly defined macroeconomic targets and policies, while giving less importance to broader socio-economic objectives and policies. This, in turn, tends to shift gender entirely to a secondary, social concern, rather than being part and parcel of the core of the poverty reduction framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are the experiences of running for political office affected by the candidate's gender? In order to address why there might be gender imbalances in the election of political representatives, it is imperative to study the process by which they are selected and elected. Latin America is an important region to study because women's representation increased significantly over the past decades due to quota laws. These laws have been introduced as a solution for women's political underrepresentation. However, despite improving women's descriptive representation by increasing the number of women candidates, it is not clear if quotas have an effect on the selection and campaign experiences of women running for office. Drawing from 36 interviews with women and men candidates for national (with quotas) and local (without quotas) elections in Bolivia, this paper offers evidence of gender's prevalence in defining how women and men candidates approach and experience the electoral process differently. Regarding candidates' selection, the presence of quotas increases the demand for women, enhancing the value of their particular background. Yet, parties still retain a gate-keeping role over women's candidacies. When they are not forced to nominate women, they tend to select men and prefer women with trajectories similar to their male counterparts. Moreover, quota laws do not reduce voters' gender bias. Women still walk a thin line between the negative and positive consequences of their gender. On the one hand, because they are women, candidates are perceived as transparent and capable of redistributing goods and administrating the economy. On the other hand, contrary to men, women's leadership is constantly questioned. And, as this paper reveals, they even face backlash that stems from other women's wrongdoings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the results of an ethnography study on the cross-border experiences of Bolivian Aymara women in the Chilean territories of the Andean Triple-border (between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia). Its objective is to test the assumptions of the international literature on the relationship between gender inequalities, care, and migration. Its analytical focus is on the relationship between (1) the constitution of inequalities in the gender division of labor in the women's families and ethnic communities, (2) their productive and reproductive overloads, and (3) the articulation of female care chains that sustain cross-border mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a shift in cultural and movement discourse in Bolivia, arguing that as neoliberalizing governments and organizations attempted to enforce ‘surgical’ austerity measures, indigenous movements and aligned intellectuals began to focus on internal rather than external threats, naming and attempting to expel the figure of the traitorous intermediary from the national body. By analyzing Jorge Sanjinés’ 1989 drama La Nación Clandestina alongside the writings of Bolivian movement intellectuals, this paper shows how Bolivian cultural representations and movement representatives in the neoliberal era animate the figure of the traitorous intermediary in an attempt to revive an indigenous nation. This discourse of the traitorous intermediary draws on the long history of mestizaje that frames the colonial rape and exploitation of indigenous women as an evidence of women’s betrayal and traitorousness. After demonstrating how, in neoliberalism, women and their demands for gender equality are seen once again as symptoms of selling out the nation, this paper moves to the more recent period, analyzing how Rodrigo Bellott’s 2007 film ¿Quien Mató a la Llamita Blanca? and government responses to lowland indigenous groups over the Villa Tunari – San Ignacio de Moxos Highway – playfully stage but ultimately reinforce this tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

RESUMEN Este artículo analiza la adopción informal como lente para observar discursos de parentesco y relaciones sociales y políticas más generales en Bolivia. Demuestro que los padres adoptivos (o “padres cotidianos”) usan ideologías de “relación” así como distinciones entre lo privado y lo público para reclamar niños que son adoptados clandestina e ilegalmente. A veces los Sullk'atas distinguen a sus familiares legítimos pero también enfatizan que la base ontológica de parentesco reside en la circulación de comida, sangre y energía por el universo. Aunque los Sullk'atas emigrantes basan su concepto de parentesco en discursos locales, acuden también a abogados para legitimizar sus adopciones. Los padres cotidianos expresan juicios morales al hablar sobre burocracia y sacrificios personales, incluso cuando no se reconocen jerarquías de género, etnicidad y clase socioeconómica. This paper explores informal adoption in Bolivia as a window onto broader social, emotional, political relationships and discourses. I focus on cases in which an adoptive parent raises a child who has not been officially declared abandoned by the state. Drawing on ethnographic research in the rural highland region of Sullk'ata, Bolivia and in the cities of Cochabamba and Sucre, Bolivia I demonstrate that Sullk'atas draw on local ideologies of relatedness as well as a distinction between public and private to maintain their claims to a child. In Sullk'ata the fosterage and informal adoption of children is generally accepted. Sulk'atas sometimes distinguish their parientes legítimos (Sp.), or “true kin,” from others, but they also emphasize the circulation of energy, food, and blood through bodies as the ground of relatedness. Although Sullk'ata migrants to Bolivian cities draw upon these local ideologies of relatedness, and voice resistance to state bureaucracy, they also turn to lawyers to further legitimate their adoptions. In their talk about these adoptions which are not “really legal” but have demanded personal sacrifices, adoptive mothers voice moral assessments of relationships that at once are embedded in systematic gender, ethnic, and class asymmetries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the wider impacts, or externalities, of microfinance in Bolivia, an environment in which the loss of confidence in the formal banking system and the proactive role of the Superintendencia de Bancos in converting NGOs into deposit-taking institutions have been positive factors. Our focus is on the group-lending technology of ProMujer, which practises a ‘credit plus’ technology in which training, health and advisory services for women only are linked with lending (and savings services through FIE). There is some preliminary evidence that such groups have achieved the externality of stimulating collective public action outside of the immediate microfinance context (for example by lobbying for better public services or changes in policy); such growth seems to happen most readily where the group has collective experience of adversity, and/or where intragroup equality is high. They also have exemplary repayment rates, which—unlike those of most other microfinance institutions—did not fall off during the recent recession. This creates a second externality for the economy as a whole—a contribution to macro-economic stability. We hypothesise that the chain of causation goes from ProMujer's ‘credit plus’ ancillary services, to client loyalty to the institution, to high repayment rates, to ability to expand lending and investment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change affects men and women differently, and pre‐existing gender disparities may worsen. We use a gendered computable general equilibrium model linked with microsimulations to assess the distributive effects of climate change in Bolivia. Two scenarios are evaluated. The first scenario addresses capital and land damages, while the second analyses the decrease in agricultural production yields. We find that both scenarios have negative impacts on the Bolivian economy. The scenarios drive down employment and increase the burden of domestic work, especially for women. Furthermore, both simulations reveal negative impacts on poverty, with women in rural areas being the most affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the role that public service announcements (PSAs) play in addressing violence against women (VAW) in Latin America. Using content analysis, the study examines 407 PSAs about VAW from 20 Latin American countries. The results show that 62.3% of the PSAs encourage bystanders to denounce violence while portraying women as victims in 48.8% of the PSAs. However, 71.7% of PSAs did not include a helpline or how to report the crime, only 11.8% of the PSAs have non-narrative, or factual information, about VAW, and just 6.4% engage in compelling narrative messaging or storytelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most low- and middle-income countries have implemented mass education reforms in the last few decades. Demographers and policymakers have posited that mass schooling would enhance women's autonomy and, there fore, accelerate pop u lation trans for ma tions in the Global South. However, gains in women's school ing may have unex pected impli ca tions for female autonomy in contexts where hypergamy norms--the ideal that men should marry down and women should marry up in education and other markers of status--are still dominant. This study addresses difficulties in evaluating the causal impact of additional education on women's autonomy by leveraging the timing of compulsory schooling reforms in three Latin American countries: Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. Using Demographic and Health Surveys, I implement an instrumental variable design using random exposure to compulsory schooling laws as an instrument for years of education. Results show that for women who entered the school system as a result of compulsory reforms, further schooling decreased their level of autonomy in all countries--especially among women from rural Bolivia and Peru. Additional analyses suggest these results are explained by changes in the selection into schooling and the formation of unions defying hypergamy norms.Together, these findings highlight the importance of examining there turns tomass schooling considering population heterogeneity and the contextual meaning of women's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID‐19) is threatening the well‐being of citizens in most countries of the world; however, women and men could be affected in different ways. This study uses a gender‐sensitive computable general equilibrium model linked to a micro model to assess the impacts of COVID‐19 in Bolivia. The results reveal negative effects for all economic agents. Female‐headed households in general and those headed by unskilled women in particular are the most affected, as they experience significant reductions in employment and the largest increases in household burdens. This increases poverty and inequality for more women than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some research suggests women are more likely to allocate additional resources to their children than are men. This perception has influenced policies such as in-kind food transfer programmes and cash transfer programmes, which often target women recipients. We assess whether targeting in-kind rice transfers to female versus male adult household members has a differential impact on children's short-run nutritional status. We estimate the impacts of transfers of edible rice and rice seeds, randomly allocated to female or male adults, on three anthropometric indicators: BMI-for-age, arm-muscle area, and triceps skinfold thickness. The trial includes 481 children aged 3–11 years in a horticultural-foraging society of native Amazonians in Bolivia. On average, the gender of the transfer recipient does not influence child anthropometric dimensions, possibly due to norms of cooperation and sharing within and between households. We find limited evidence of heterogeneity in impacts. Transfers to women help children who were growth stunted at baseline to partially catch-up to their better-nourished age-sex peers and help boys (but not girls) and children in higher-income households increase their BMI-for-age. The results of this research point to the importance of considering cultural context in determining if allocating food transfers according to gender are most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses a spectacle, a wrestling match, that brings out the problem of violence against women and the role of activist organisations such as the Centro de Información y Desarrollo de la Mujer (CIDEM) to raise awareness among people and to influence the Bolivian state to change the gender of the law. In effect, it considers CIDEM's vigilant role, by visualising cases of femicides in partnership with the press, is translated in wrestling matches. The article considers one such wrestling match I witnessed in El Alto, Bolivia, and argues that CIDEM's vigilant role extends to overlooking and complementing the vigilant roles of the state and customary legal systems in El Alto that are unable to prevent femicides: women being killed by men because of their gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article's aims are twofold: to consider the motivations for return migrations to Bolivia from Spain in a context of economic crisis and to explore the impact of recent Spanish migration policies using a transnational family perspective. Migrants' decisions to return home are embedded in the gendered allocation of economic and reproductive responsibilities and patriarchal ideology in Bolivian homes. Spain's tightened immigration regulations of 2007 limited circular migration between the two countries for the majority of Bolivians in Spain. In contrast, a window for citizenship acquisition opened for approximately one-third of Bolivians in Spain between 2012 and 2015. With dual Bolivian and Spanish citizenship, their freedom to travel between the two countries has afforded them far more scope for meeting transnational family care and provisioning responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although issues of health have been thoroughly analysed in the field of migration studies, there are still very few studies that seek to understand the reproductive health of women in migratory processes. This article analyses the reproductive health of Bolivian migrant women living in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, through an analysis focused on the community assets that migrants deploy in the health-disease-care process within restrictive contexts of access to the health system. The research consisted of an exploratory study using in-depth interviews with Bolivian migrant women and health professionals through the implementation of semi-structured guidelines. The work shows that, in an environment characterised by a health system that acts to exclude, migrant women develop a series of rational strategies where they draw on community assets embodied in forms of selfcare of the body and in community networks. Based on a process of reframing memories related to health practices in the Andean world, these women incorporate these assets and more easily confront the obstacles that they must overcome as migrants in different stages of their reproductive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lucha libre, a form of exhibition wrestling, has recently gained popularity in Bolivia, thanks to mixed-gender matches featuring traditionally-dressed women known as the cholitas luchadoras. Within their matches, the act of kissing is often used as a form of humiliating an opponent. This article explores the convergence of eroticism and humiliation in these kisses as an entry point for a broader understanding of the deployment of power in the Bolivian context. Taking both the symbolic language of bodies in the ring and audience discourses about that action, I explore how associations between humiliation and demasculinization may reinforce the potency of masculinity as a position of power. Further, seeing the chola as representative of the Bolivian nation helps us to understand the ways that humiliation works as a recognizable trope for Bolivian audiences, lending import to these seemingly superficial performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the differences in the use of primary care (PC), hospital, and emergency services between people born in Spain and immigrants. Data were obtained from the 2006 Spanish National Health Survey. The sample was composed of individuals aged 16-64 years from Spain and the seven countries with most immigrants in Spain (n = 22,224). Hierarchical multiple logistic regression models were fitted. Romanian men were less likely to use health care at all levels compared to men from other countries. Women from Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador reported a lower use of PC. Among women, there were no differences in emergency visits or hospitalizations between countries. Bolivian men reported more hospitalizations than Spanish men, whereas Argentinean men reported more emergency visits than their Spanish counterparts. In Spain, most immigrants made less than, or about the same use of health care services as the native Spanish population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyze the motivations for return migrations to Bolivia from Spain in a context of economic crisis. From the analysis of in-depth interviews with men and women in the areas of Cochabamba and La Paz, the decision to return home is proven to be embedded within relational gender dynamics. It is argued that the latter is the reflection of a patriarchal ideology that makes the difference when it comes to participation of both sexes in the economic and reproductive responsibilities taking place within the home in the societies of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines how Indigenous women who receive intercultural healthcare programs manage to develop cooperation networks, get involved in community affairs and improve their reproductive healthcare. It concentrates on the case of the Bolivian intercultural health program 'EXTENSA' and analyzes how this program is successful at activating greater community participation in health prevention and improving the reproductive healthcare of the Indigenous women who live in the Department of Beni, Bolivia. Through an ethnographic analysis, it argues that community participation and healthy behaviors are the result of tapping into bonding social capital and fostering women's empowerment. The analysis shows that the program gives women community leaders and women networks members (who predate EXTENSA) access to different types of resources, allowing women to transform their community assets into sources of collective empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses the gendered contradictions of microfinance's celebrated 'double bottom line' of social and financial impact. The example of microfinance is used to illustrate the gendered and colonial constructions of 'risk' and 'responsibility' that underpin neoliberalism and its gendered paradoxes. After revisiting the discursive critique of these terms, I draw on how indigenous women participating in a microfinance institution in Bolivia describe their experience to suggest how gendered ideas of risk and responsibility are framing their negotiation of and resistance to the market. While the gendered and colonial construction of risk creates dynamics that perpetuate indigenous women's exclusion from the market, the terms of the resistance and use of the intervention also challenge feminist critiques of neoliberal governmentality developed mostly with reference to advanced modernity and welfare regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a qualitative study exploring the effects of community-based human rights and pro-equality education on Bolivian adolescent boys. By privileging the boys' own voices, the study examines how the boys' sense of solidarity toward others, derived from the citizenship duties and collegiality emphasised in non-governmental workshops, impacted their commitment to gender equality. Research implications include the importance of educating young males on females' rights and listening to the boys' views on the resulting progress and remaining challenges regarding the attainment of sustainable gender equality in social spheres and public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditional cash transfer programmes provide extremely poor households with a cash subsidy, on condition that children attend school, and mothers and infants undergo health checks. These programmes are generally considered effective social protection mechanisms, and success in meeting children's nutrition, education, and health targets is reported. However, the impact of these programmes on women's empowerment and intra-household dynamics is under-explored. This article provides a summary of some key findings of recent research in Latin America, supported by CARE International UK. The research looked at the Juntos Programme in Peru, Bono de Desarrollo Humano in Ecuador, and Bono Juana Azurduy in Bolivia. Through qualitative and participatory research with women beneficiaries, and interviews with key informants, the study examined whether, and in what ways, conditional cash transfer programmes might promote gender equity and women's empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous arguments have been advanced in the academic and policy literature as concerns the democratizing potential of decentralization reforms in third-wave developing and transition countries; numerous also have been the case studies signalling the short-comings of these reforms. In addition, analysis of local political participation has become an important dimension of studies of democratization. Taking the case of Bolivia as an example, this article addresses an issue which has been generally overlooked in this literature, that is the process of constitution of local political agents. Where do political agents come from in the context of democratization of local politics? Additionally, this article raises questions regarding the relationship between greater inclusion and deepening democracy in the local political sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfinance seeks to create small communities of women borrowers who stand in solidarity with each other, providing the social capital necessary to create an economic safety net and to facilitate economic action among individual borrowers. However, because microfinance concurrently emphasizes the economic rationality of participants, it undermines the very sense of community it strives to create. Utilizing feminist geographic scholarship and drawing from examples of a women-only microfinance NGO in urban Bolivia, this article argues that within the practice of microfinance the reliance on romantic notions of community and the desire for organizational sustainability and efficiency weaken the social networks vital to the operation and sustainability of the practice and create an irreconcilable paradox. A feminist geographic approach to unpacking the practice of microfinance within my case study indicates how microfinance perpetuates systems of power and oppression, but also how a more nuanced understanding of solidarity has the potential to shift the institutional culture of microlending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grandparents play a critical role in the reorganisation of care brought about by the increasing migration of women. Yet, they are conspicuously absent from the migration literature. This article looks at the role of grandparents, particularly grandmothers, in caring for migrants' children. It draws on a case study of a rapidly urbanising neighbourhood in Bolivia, and identifies grandmothers as both givers and receivers of care. Through a typology of different types of living arrangements, the article seeks to identify the processes that lead to greater vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on case-study material from Bolivian migration to Argentina, this article analyses the ways in which gender and ethnicity influence niche formation by exploring the role of social networks. It starts by making the link between niche formation and social networks, before analysing the ways in which migrants' labour market insertion in Argentina is gendered. Migrants' life stories and a survey of a community of ex-miners show that a higher proportion of women than men work in the Argentine garment sector. The data also show that migrant women and men do not have equal access to social networks. However, this unequal access does not, in itself, fully explain women's greater clustering in garment work. Rather, the article suggests that labour market segregation and the articulation of gender, class and ethnicity, as well as migration status, provide women with few alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on breast-feeding as part of feminist theorizations. It asserts that breast-feeding practices are saturated with meaning, and examines the multiple, conflicting public health and folk discourses which shape breast-feeding practices in Bolivia. It discusses the reasons why women cease to breast-fed despite efforts by the healthcare system to promote it. Lastly, it explores the multiple state and local interests vested in mothers as biological and social reproducers of society.

The Law of Popular Participation (LPP) in Bolivia can be seen as the first significant attempt by policy makers in the region to mainstream gender into a national development initiative. The LPP seeks to devolve power and resources from the national to the local level. It is the first Bolivian law to be explicitly couched in gendered terms, and aims to increase the prominence of women in local political and development spheres. However, as I suggest in this article, in some respects the LPP has actually had the effect of displacing women from the very site of their traditional forms of political activism, at community level. As greater status, power, and resources have been devolved to politics at this level, men have become more prominent in this previously neglected, 'feminised' sphere. The article argues that, to some extent, the goal of mainstreaming gender into national development via the LPP was missed. Reasons include a lack of effective and systematic gendered analysis of the structural barriers to women's participation, and the failure to support gender mainstreaming, and women's participation, through capacity building at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE:: To describe the prevalence of overweight, obesity and being thin in adolescents of La Paz City, Bolivia. DESIGN:: Cross-sectional study, clustered sampling. SETTING:: La Paz, Bolivia, August-September 2003. SUBJECTS:: Height and weight of 525 adolescents (mean age 16?y; s.d.±1.3) attending public and private schools were measured; sociodemographic characteristics were assessed with a short questionnaire. RESULTS:: The present study reveals that 9.3%(±2.5) of the sample are thin adolescents; 19.8%(±3.4) is the overall prevalence of overweight and 2.3%(±1.3) the overall prevalence of obesity. The odds of being thin were higher among those working (P=0.03) and among those of higher age (P<0.001). The odds of being overweight were higher among female subjects (P<0.001). The odds of being obese were higher among younger adolescents (P=0.046) and among the more wealthy ones (P=0.044). CONCLUSIONS:: A large prevalence of 22%overweight/obesity in adolescents from La Paz City was observed. The findings support the need of enhanced nutritional surveillance and interventions particularly in female adolescents.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2005) 59, 82-87. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602040 Published online 11 August 2004 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social inequalities in obesity have been observed not only by gender but also between ethnic groups. Evidence on combined dimensions of inequality in health, and specifically including indigenous populations, is however scarce, and presents a particularly daunting challenge for successful prevention and control of obesity in Bolivia, as well as worldwide. Objective: The aims of this study were i) to examine intersectional inequalities in obesity and ii) to identify the factors underlying the observed intersectional inequalities. Methods: An intersectional approach study was employed, using the information collected in a cross-sectional community-based survey. The sample consisted of youth and adults with permanent residence in Cochabamba department (N = 5758), selected through a multistage sampling technique. An adapted version of the WHO-STEPS survey was used to collect information about Abdominal obesity and risk factors associated. Four intersectional positions were constructed from gender (woman vs. men) and ethnic group (indigenous vs. mestizo). Joint and excess intersectional disparities in obesity were estimated as absolute prevalence differences between binary groups, using binomial regression models. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was applied to estimate the contributions of explanatory factors underlying the observed intersectional disparities, using Oaxaca command in Stata software v15.1. Results: The prevalence of abdominal obesity had a higher prevalence in mestizos (men 35.01% and women 30.71%) as compared to indigenous (men 25.38% and women 27.75%). The joint disparity was estimated at 7.26 percentage points higher prevalence in the doubly advantaged mestizo men than in the doubly disadvantaged indigenous women. The gender referent disparity showed that mestizo-women had a higher prevalence than indigenous-women. The ethnic referent disparity showed that mestizo-men had a higher prevalence than indigenous men. The behavioural risk factors were the most important to explain the observed inequalities, while differences in socioeconomic and demographic factors played a less important role. Conclusion: Our study illustrates that abdominal obesity is not distributed according to expected patterns of structural disadvantage in the intersectional space of ethnicity and gender in Bolivia. In the Cochabamba case, a high social advantage was related to higher rates of abdominal obesity, as well as the behavioural risk factors associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]