Peru: Participation and Local Management Program

Director: Gonzalo Portocarrero Maisch
Executive Secretary: Félix Lossio Chavez
Programa de Participación y Gestión Local
Red para el Desarrollo de las Ciencias Sociales en el Perú
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel
626 2000 anexo 4352
Oficina 300, Departmento de Ciencias Sociales
Lima, Peru

Phone: (51) 1 626 2000, extension 4352
E-mail: gportoc@pucp.edu.pe, flossio@pucp.edu.pe
Web site: http://www.redccss.org.pe/participacion/

Peru’s Programa de Participación y Gestión Local (Participation and Local Management Program) has chosen to focus on awarding those innovations that emphasize collaboration between state and civil society to deal with local challenges. The program has publicized the award in every municipality in the country, with the goal of gathering best practices in public-private partnerships created and developed at the local level.

Because the program is still in its early years, its primary focus is on consolidation. The program’s organizers are working both to generate interest in the academic community and to collaborate with mass media to publicize the successes of their award-winning programs. The primary goal of the program is to identify, recognize (both symbolically and monetarily), and promote local experiences that demonstrate successful collaborations between state and civil society. In addition, the program produces new knowledge about participation and local management. It also generates discussion and dissemination of these experiences to contribute to their replication by other state and civil society actors.

The program is now in an evaluation process to identify its strengths and weaknesses, evaluate its results, and analyze its impact, in order to decide its continuity and propose better ways to promote local participation in Peru.

Gonzalo Portocarrero Maisch is the principal professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru), and dean of the School of Sociologists of Peru. He is a member of the Directive Committee of the Network for Social Scientific Development in Peru. His recent publications include: Peru through the School, Racism and Mestization, and Reasons of Blood and Face: Creole Culture and Transgression in Peruvian Society. Dr. Portocarrero holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Essex in England.