Promoting public administration and regional economic development
Project description
Title: Citizen-oriented state reform (Good Governance)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Peru
Lead executing agency: Presidential Cabinet of Peru
Overall term: 2019 to 2022
Context
The Peruvian Government is committed to increasing integrity and fighting corruption. At the same time, it is strengthening institutions for good governance. It is also working towards equitable, competitive and environmentally sustainable economic growth and social development.
In this context and in view of the significant regional differences, the government faces the challenge of implementing its policies nationwide. This challenge is reflected in the Social Progress Index, which measures the quality of life in each region. The Index shows that none of the country’s 26 regions is achieving ‘high’ social progress. Nine regions are at the ‘medium-low’ level and 16 are at the ‘low’ level. This illustrates uneven development of the regions, despite an overall improvement in the country’s economic performance.
Moreover, corruption across the country also has a detrimental effect on economic and social progress in many cases. In six years, the population’s perception of corruption has risen from 44 to 62 percent (as of 2019). This affects both the government and the regions and significantly limits the regional governments’ management capacities and ability to act.
Objective
Key actors in regional development are more effective in terms of implementing improvements in public administration and promoting integrity, competitiveness and innovation.
Approach
The project supports the Presidential Cabinet in three areas:
Firstly, it supports the public integrity system, which coordinates the state’s fight against corruption, in up to three regions, as well as corruption prevention and risk management.
Secondly, it strengthens public administration in up to three regions with a view to improving the provision of citizen-oriented services. To this end, the project optimises the internal management of administrations, which it does by promoting risk management and by developing innovative and digital methods.
The project also drives economic development through regional development agencies in seven regions. The development agencies are based on cooperation between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders with the aim of increasing competitiveness and innovation in prioritized value chains such as tourism and agricultural products. The European Union supports this area with additional financial resources.
All measures take account of overlapping actions in terms of capacity development, innovation, digitalisation, environmental sustainability and gender equality.
Results
The seven regions advised have established regional development agencies together with the government, business sector and academia.
Four regions have launched regional innovation strategies for intelligent specialisation in order to become more competitive. The plans consider aspects of environmental sustainability, circular economy and gender equality.
The regions advised now have integrity and anti-corruption plans and active regional anticorruption commissions.
With a view to advancing the public service reform in Peru, an agreement has been reached on cooperation between the National Civil Service Authority (SERVIR) and the German Research Institute for Public Administration (FÖV) in Speyer.
The regulatory impact analysis is now a state policy, the methodology of which is inspired by Germany and Latin America. The implementation reduced the administrative burden by an estimated USD 87 million for the private sector, civil society and citizens.
Last update: March 2021