In Bolivia, climate change is reshaping decisions about pregnancy, contraception and family
Ipas research with Indigenous communities in Bolivia shows how drought, floods and food insecurity are affecting reproductive health, livelihoods and gender dynamics.
July 28, 2026
Ipas
In rural Bolivia, the weather no longer follows the patterns the elders taught. “You can’t plan anymore. You wait for the rain, you plant, and it doesn’t rain again. The sun is extremely harsh. It’s become quite hard to talk about life in the countryside—it’s just not there anymore.”
Those words came from a Guaraní woman in Bolivia’s Chaco region, in one of eight Indigenous communities across four of the country’s ecological regions where Ipas researchers spent weeks documenting how climate change was impacting daily life. They learned about harvests that no longer come in, water sources that had dried up or been contaminated, and husbands and partners who left to find work in cities.
They spoke with women who shared that these impacts made them hesitate to have children at all. “Climate change affects a lot—you don’t want to have many children anymore because it’s already costly, sometimes there’s no work… There’s nothing to eat.” – Indigenous woman, Bolivia
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