To make visible the different actions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) carried out by the banks of the Bolivian system in relation to the 17 SDGs, an initiative framed in the commitment of the private sector to the contribution to global development and fight against poverty foreseen in the Global Compact. In Bolivia, the financial regulations establish that banks must " Fulfill the social function of contributing to the achievement of the objectives of integral development for living well, eliminate poverty and social and economic exclusion of the population”.

Systematize for the first time in Bolivia all the projects implemented by the ten member banks of the Association of Private Banks of Bolivia (ASOBAN) in order to have a baseline that allows banks to design new strategies so that, individually or collective with public or private partners, influence one or more of the SDGs.The purpose of the study has two generic objectives, one to raise awareness among the staff and senior executives of the bank about the importance of the social function and its added value in the development of the country, taking as reference the SDGs. The other objective is to provide to the banking system a tool that allows it to communicate and connect with key development actors, such as the public sector, civil society organizations, international cooperation agencies and academia. The methodology applied allowed knowing the following variables related to CSR projects: the number of current projects and their relationship with the SDGs, the type of approach applied (rural and / or urban), geographic coverage, beneficiary profiles, project time and type of allies with which the projects are executed. Additionally, the type of indicators used for monitoring and evaluation can be analyzed, as well as the degree of application of the gender approach in the actions. All this information also allows identifying strengths and weaknesses that must be reinforced through strategic decisions and improvement of the institutional capacities of the CSR areas of the banks. The main challenge faced was to achieve a collective commitment of all banks to contribute to the initiative, which was overcome thanks to the firm support of the Association of Banks of Bolivia, an entity that coordinates the interaction between banks and between these and other public and private actors. With regard to the relationship with the United Nations, the study is a contribution to the dialogue and debate in Bolivia over the SDGs, an exercise that is spearheaded by the Global Compact through its thematic tables established in 2018. It is also intended to that this study be consolidated as a "successful case" that can motivate other public and private actors to deepen and link their activities with the SDGs, for which the study will be socialized in national and international spaces where the private sector has a space to give their word, especially in those organized by ECLAC and the SDG Fund.

The main stakeholder is the associative space of the banking system in Bolivia, since it provides a different vision of demonstrating the social function of the private sector in development. At the same time, it enriches in an objective manner the social discourse of the private sector, represented by the Confederation of Private Companies of Bolivia. From a multi-stakeholder perspective, the United Nations values the effort made since it contributes to the global and national dynamics implemented for the follow-up of the SDGs, which, in the case of the private sector, is implemented through the Global Compact. From the contribution to development, it is the entities of the national government and subnational governments that have the direct responsibility of maximizing the efforts towards the implementation of public policies. From the vision of partnerships, are the NGOs and the Academy other parts that allow them to measure the value that you get if you enter into alliances with banks for common objectives linked to the SDGs.

Due to the innovative nature of this initiative and the different CSR actions carried out by banks, ASOBAN has designed a working approach that integrates three dimensions:
a) Induction and participation.
Considering that the capacities and knowledge of the banks on the SDGs is not homogeneous, workshops were carried out to approach the SDGs with key actors (UN, Global Compact and others), who shared their dynamics implemented in order to show that banking CSR actions are interdependent with those actions of other private and public actors, both national and international.
In order to interact with other private and public actors, ASOBAN was invited to participate in the dialogues and actions agreed upon within the five roundtables of the Local Network of the Global Compact in Bolivia.
b) Survey of CSR actions
For the survey of the CSR actions that are being implemented by the member banks of ASOBAN, a table was designed to collect specific information that contributes to the relationship of each project with one or several SDGs.
The key criteria’s for filling the table are described below:
Objective of the Table: To obtain information about all the external projects of the CSR areas of the banks associated with ASOBAN to relate them to any of the 17 SDGs.
Type of project to be selected: External projects whose purpose is to meet the social needs of beneficiaries who are not bank staff. (Do not consider internal policies of the environmental efficiency bank or others)
Stage of the Project: Projects that are in current implementation or have been in force until 2018.
It was required that banks only select those "external projects" that are those that have characteristics that allow the identification of results with greater social impact, since in most cases they are carried out with external allies and focus on vulnerable groups of the population, allowing also to demonstrate in a more objective way the contribution to the economic and social development of the country.

Required information
Name of the Project: Denomination or proper name assigned to the initiative
Description: Summary of the objectives to be achieved and the problem to be solved
Sector: Sector or main sectors to which the project action belongs (attached Codes Committee for Development Assistance of the OECD)
Indicators: measurement of results used to show the impact
Coverage: Describe the coverage of the intervention: National, Departmental or Municipal (departments or municipalities are identified)
Approach: Describe if it is Rural or Urban, or both
Beneficiaries: Describe the group of target beneficiaries (eg, population in general, families, mothers head of household, children, elderly, disabled, LGTBI, microentrepreneurs, etc.)
Gender Profile: Indicate the number of men and / or women beneficiaries.
Project start date: Indicate from which year the project started
Allies: Indicate with which other public and / or private actors the project is carried out (national or international)
c) Analysis and evaluation of the information on each variable.
It proceeds with the analysis of the data provided by each bank in order to have the most information available to identify the ODS or those on which the respective project affects, it also needs the predominant trend on each variable and categorize it.
Levels: High, Medium and Low

It is worth mentioning that the systematization considered a portfolio of 54 projects implemented by 201 banks, whose sectorial orientations and objectives were related to 15 SDGs of the 17 SDGs. The results showed that the main beneficiaries are the young people and the adult population, which dominates the urban focus of the projects over the rural ones, that most of the projects have a coverage that exceeds three departments, that the execution of the projects is carried out through alliances with NGOs or Foundations and direct interventions by the banks themselves and that most of the projects have a duration of execution that exceeds 3 years. Finally, we need the four main SDOs that predominate in the portfolio of CSR projects analyzed: SDG 1: End of poverty, SDG 4: Quality education, SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth, SDG 10: Reduction of inequalities and SDG 17: Partnerships to achieve the objectives. This tendency is explained mainly by the strategic sense of the banks to include the population of scarce resources, and in particular the young people, in the economic dynamism of the country, achieving in the first instance to break the cycle of poverty that is transmitted between generations, This is achieved through the training of adolescents and young entrepreneurs on financial concepts and practices that allow them to enter the labor market or generate their own business and access credit under flexible conditions, whose effect reduces the inequalities gap among other social groups, a result that would not be obtained if it were not for the alliances with actors that have technical knowledge and management that allow reaching territories and / or beneficiaries efficiently and effectively.

Enabling factors:
Solid associative mechanism (ASOBAN).
Current regulations that regulate social function.
CSR areas incorporated in the 10 banks.
Information available for the study.
Active participation of CSR delegates from the 10 banks in the activities organized for socialization and training.
Participation of the United Nations and the Global Compact.
Availability of ASOBAN's own resources to finance the study.
Technical and logistical support from ASOBAN.

Restrictions:
Specific knowledge of ODS.
Interaction between banks on CSR.
Participation in the spaces of the Global Compact.
Availability of data on gender in projects.
CSR projects published on the web.
Absence of a public policy in Bolivia that fully promotes public-private partnerships.

Commitment to monitor ASOBAN.
Financial commitment of the 10 banks and ASOBAN.
Involvement of the 10 banks.
Support of the Global Compact and the United Nations.
Options for social analysis of financial services provided by banking.
Apply in other financial associative spaces different from ASOBAN.
Be an example for other actors such as NGOs and Academia.

Systematize for the first time in Bolivia all the projects implemented by the member banks of the Association of Private Banks of Bolivia (ASOBAN), establishing a baseline that allows banks to design new strategies so that, individually or collectively with public or private partners, may affect one or more of the SDGs. Therefore, in this context, not only CSR projects must be considered, but also the percentage of the net profits of the shareholders of the banks that are annually destined to constitute Guarantee Funds that contribute with access to credit. , as a financial inclusion actions that materialize, concretizing and realizing the contribution to the proposed SDGs, achieving an integral impact on the economic and social development of the population. The contribution of the Guarantee Funds points to global goals such as access to financial services that make access to decent housing viable as well as to new ventures through microcredits and operations in favor of SMEs, which promotes formalization and growth of micro, small and medium enterprises, which together contribute to reduce inequalities and expand opportunities for economic and social growth of groups traditionally excluded from the financial dynamic. For banks associated with ASOBAN, this study is a source of information that establishes a database that enriches its institutional capacities for the design of tools that guide banks in the implementation of financial inclusion initiatives with a social approach through all services and / or CSR projects offered to financial consumers and the population in general. With regard to the relationship with the United Nations, the study is a contribution to the dialogue and debate in Bolivia on the SDGs, an exercise coordinated by the Global Compact through its thematic tables established in 2018. Likewise, this exercise it is consolidated as a "successful case" that can motivate other public and private actors to deepen and link their activities with the SDGs. Finally, this set of SDGs are framed in three of the five Areas of Action of the SDGs, which are: People, Prosperity and Association. This shows that banks have the person and their individuality as part of vulnerable groups, seeking their social and economic prosperity through access to financial services, a goal achieved through joint actions with other allies that pursue common objectives.

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