Bolivia
International Development Project
The overview.
In partnership with Asociación Sendas (CEFIM & La Especiería)
In La Paz and El Alto, women are turning a talent for cooking into real income — and real independence. Together with our partner Asociación Sendas, we help low-income and indigenous women gain the culinary, business and digital skills to build a business, land a job, and believe in what they can do.
Women entrepreneurs at a Conexiones Gastronómicas session in La Paz.
The partners.
Asociación Sendas is a Bolivian non-profit working across the department of La Paz to open pathways out of poverty for women — especially those from disadvantaged and indigenous backgrounds. Reledev has walked alongside this team since 2017, first under the name CEFIM, and today Sendas runs one of the most innovative enterprise-based training models in Bolivia’s gastronomy sector.
Through its CEFIM technical institute and its teaching restaurant, La Especiería, Sendas blends nationally recognised culinary training with hands-on business experience. The approach is practical and inclusive: women learn to cook, to run a microenterprise, to use digital tools — and to lead. It is work Reledev is proud to support.
The project.
Rural producers and gastronomy students share knowledge during a food exchange.
At the heart of the project is Conexiones Gastronómicas — a program for women who run, or dream of running, a home-based food business. It pairs hands-on cooking with training in finance, marketing and digital skills, and gives each woman one-to-one mentoring from a Sendas graduate.
Around it sit five more streams: inclusive training for women with disabilities; a three-year dual-training gastronomy course that combines study with paid industry experience; an exchange that connects the teaching restaurant with rural farmers and native Bolivian ingredients; a system that follows graduates for a year after they finish; and — new this year — a literacy and life-skills program for secondary students in El Alto.
Even a 50-day national strike and road blockades across La Paz in mid-2026 could not stop the work: Sendas moved much of it online and still reached women of every age, across a wide stretch of the region.
“Overcoming my fear of producing and selling transformed not only my business, but my life and my family’s.”
Impact at a glance.
Results shown cover July 2025 – June 2026.
140
women trained through Conexiones Gastronómicas
31%
rise in La Especiería sales (target 10%)
128
completed the business & marketing course
23
alumni now ILO-certified facilitators
Voices from the project
“Overcoming my fear of producing and selling, accessing training and seizing opportunities transformed not only my business, but my life and my family’s.”
— María Cristina, 2025
María Cristina started baking healthy cookies for her son, then began selling — held back by tight finances and a lot of fear. Through Conexiones Gastronómicas she learned to standardise recipes, cost her products and grow her digital presence, and found a network of women who lift each other up. Her monthly sales rose 49% and she reinvested in her business.
A years on…
“It gave me the confidence to make my products. The training helped me work out my real costs — and I went out to sell them in a much more professional way.”
— Almy Anabel, 2024
6 years on…
“My mother’s small business is selling sweets from the doorstep of my house, now I can help her improve her business & our income.
I thank CEFIM for having trusted me and for having given me the opportunity to be a professional. Now I can consider a better future for myself and for my family.”
— Paola Quisbert, 2020