Peru
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Country context
Peru is regarded as a ‘medium human development’ country according to United Nations criteria and currently ranks 87 out of 177 countries in the UNDP Human Development Index. It boasts the fastest growing economy in Latin America today and is well on the way to meeting the global Millennium Development Goals which are primarily about children.
Peru’s strong overall economic performance has not however been matched in terms of poverty reduction and poverty and underemployment remain high for a middle income country. International targets and national indicators alike hide deep inequalities and a widening gap between geographical regions, urban and rural areas and between people whose first language is Spanish and people who speak indigenous languages as their mother tongue.
Recently the overall national poverty rate fell from approximately 44% to 39%. While this is the largest drop for a long time, poverty remains high for a middle income country and the proportion of children who live in poverty is much higher than figures for the population as a whole indicate.
Levels of poverty, infant mortality, maternal mortality and malnourishment among indigenous groups are twice as high as national averages. Peru now has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the region and the gap between rich and poor and town and countryside is widening. This pattern has been developing for several decades and has promoted migration to the cities, especially the capital Lima which according to the latest census is now is the home to approximately 28% of Peru’s population.
The capital, the coastal strip and most of the north of the country are all enjoying an economic boom. But the unwaged, subsistence farmers who make up most of the rural population are cut off from the formal market economy and the current economic gains. The majority of the extreme poor live the Andes highlands in the south and the Amazon jungle to the east, home to Peru’s indigenous peoples.
Socioeconomic policies
Peru underwent a ‘capitalist revolution’ during the 1990s when the Fujimori government oversaw a set of structural reforms to liberalise the economy. During this period social expenditure increased, healthcare and schooling expanded and social programmes were implemented to protect the vulnerable during the adjustment phase. However economic benefits were unevenly spread and improved access to public services such as health, sanitation and electricity was not inclusive of the poor, especially those living in extreme poverty.
Between 2001 - 2006 the Toledo government consolidated the return to democracy, paved the way to the Trade Promotion Agreement with the USA and succeeded in boosting GDP, primarily through private national and international investment in areas such as mining. However, several studies suggest that government investment in social programmes is not targeting the poor but is concentrated more in urban areas.
The government has recently implemented a conditional cash transfer programme, Juntos (‘Together’), and sought to bring different anti-poverty strategies and programmes together under an umbrella initiative called CRECER (‘To Grow’), the main goal of which is to reduce stunting in children under 5 years olds . These efforts need to be carefully monitored and evaluated to assess their impact in reducing inequalities.
The stated primary goal of the current government led by President Garcia is to cut poverty by 30% by the end of 2011. However half way through his five year term Garcia’s approval ratings have plummeted due to the government’s failure to promote social policies for tackling poverty and redistribute wealth from the economic boom.
A series of anti-government strikes and protests occurred during the summer of 2008 calling for redistribution of wealth from the economic boom. The government’s stated intention is to spend less in key social areas such as health and education in order to keep inflation down. This is an unpopular move with many Peruvians who are calling for social spending and wages to be raised immediately and widely given consistent GDP growth in recent times.
Children’s situation
The pressing problems for Peruvian children today are poverty, chronic malnutrition and low education attainment.
According to the latest UNICEF estimates, three out of five children aged 3 – 16 years live in poverty and one in every five is extremely poor with inadequate calorie intake. Poverty effects 60% of children aged 0 to 5, 58% children 6 to 11 years and 52% for children 12 to 17 years
Nationally, chronic malnutrition effects almost one third of Peruvian children although as with other indicators, overall figures mask the urban-rural divide. Twice as many children in the countryside are malnourished as those living in cities and towns. In some parts of the Andes region 9 out of 10 children are affected. Stunting across Peru has remained almost unchanged for children in over a decade.
In primary education coverage is more than 90% following successive governments’ push to increase enrolment, although far fewer children attend preschool or go on into secondary school. Low achievement has been uncovered in standardized tests at all levels, with children from urban areas and children in private schools doing significantly better than their rural, public school peers.
Completion and quality are pressing issues in education today. Even when children stay in school many are not learning at the expected levels. In a recent UNESCO study involving most Latin American countries Peruvian students came in the lowest achieving group, along with with several other countries.
The number of working children is high. An estimated one out of four children and teenagers aged 6 – 17 - approximately 2 million - are involved in some kind of economic labour. Most take part in labour intensive unpaid family activities.
Child poverty reduction programmes and policies
The political and policy context is at present undoubtedly more favourable for Peruvian children than in the past, although the impact of current initiatives remains to be seen.
The Peruvian government has recently developed an overall strategy for tackling childhood poverty in Peru under the umbrella of CRECER. This aims to link existing programmes in order to strengthen their effectiveness, including nutrition, health and education interventions. It also incorporates the guidelines of the National Plan of Action for Children and Adolescents (NPAC) which runs from 2002 - 2010 and establishes 90 goals. The Prime Minister is expected to attend Congress and report advances on NPAC once a year.
In 2006 Peru set up a commission on achieving the Millennium Development Goals and 11 priority activities for children were reincorporated into the budget law for 2007.
A special unit within Peru’s Ministry of Woman and Social Development monitors the municipal offices now responsible for protecting children’s and adolescents rights across the country (DEMUNA), with a particular emphasis on reducing the amount of domestic violence. The Peruvian Ombudsman also has a special office for children and adolescents to enforce children`s rights
Peru is following UNESCO’s Education for All initiative and has reported on advances. There has been an increasing awareness of the importance of early childhood in the policy agenda. This was clearly signalled through NPAC and by the inclusion of pre-school as part of basic education, making it free and compulsory.
Our work to date
Young Lives has analysed a number of programmes and issues effecting children in Peru, mostly centred around the question of inequality. One of our influential studies looked at the potential impact for Peru of the Free Trade Agreement with the USA, suggesting that while beneficial overall, it may have a short-term impact on poor families, hence highlighting the need to target social programs and interventions to them.
In Peru we are exploring in depth the following research areas:
1. Access and quality of services: we are focusing on the provision, quality of services and results linked with education, nutrition and health. For instance in education we plan studies on the quality and impact of multigrade education (usually aimed at rural children) and bilingual education. In health and nutrition we will analyse the availability of programmes such as universal insurance, health services (accessed through health posts, hospitals and clinics) and participation in nutrition programs (such as a glass of milk, school breakfast and popular dinners schemes).
2. Vunerability: only a few programs in Peru are directly targeted at the poor in rural areas, of which Juntos (‘Together’) is prominent. This conditional cash transfer programme gives families 100 soles a month if their children attend school and regular health check ups. Our first major Juntos study indicates that the quality of services the poor attend are not high, which limits their potential as a tool for improvement. Two further studies are due out soon,
We have also carried out research on Wawa Wasi (‘House of Children’ in Quechua, the most common indigenous language in Peru), an integrated programme for children ages 6 to 48 months in poor contexts although mostly urban. It combines health, nutrition and education of the children and parental guidance on child rearing practices in a day care setting. We have shown that while Wasi Wasi is highly valued by most parents and community leaders, they do not usually view it as a comprehensive initiative (i.e. covering but only as a day care programme; hence we have highlighted the need for awareness raising so that people understand what it offers as well as recommending that it expand its services to rural areas - something that is now being tried out.
3. Civil rights: As in many countries, legal rights for children are frequently not upheld in Peru. Out study on DEMUNA, the offices for children and adolescents rights in Peruvian municipalitie, has found that many are not as active as the law sets out, particularly in poorer municipalities. Working closely with the office in the Ministry of Woman and Social Development, which supervises DEMUNAS we plan to design additional studies on this important programme - just one more example of the kind of issues and programmes we can investigate using Young Lives data and the informal alliances we have developed and wish to strengthen with selected policy makers, planners and implementers at all levels.
In Peru we are especially interested in inequality and exclusion given both their academic and policy implications. We therefore wish to focus our efforts on supporting the work of CRECER intensively, as well as working closely with the officers of the specific programs.
