412 Peruvian leaders trained in civic-democratic values

A total of 412 participants graduated from the Leadership for Change Program, a CAF initiative promoted by Peru, in alliance with the Instituto de Gobierno y de Gestion Publica (Government and Public Management Institute) of the University of San Martin de Porres (USMP, for its acronym in Spanish), seeking to strengthen citizen leadership and civic-democratic values. The 2014 edition was held in nine decentralized offices in the country. 

The closing ceremony included the participation of CAF's Director Representative in Peru, Eleonora Silva Pardo, and the academic coordinator of the Instituto de Gobierno y de Gestion Publica of the USMP, Ivan Hidalgo Romero.

Silva Pardo highlighted that for the ninth consecutive year, the multilateral entity carried out the program which includes training for leaders representing social, cultural, indigenous, farming, and union organizations, in addition to associations of micro and small enterprises of the capital districts of Comas, La Victoria, San Juan de Lurigancho and Villa El Salvador, as well as the cities of Arequipa, Chiclayo, Huancayo, Huanuco and Trujillo, in the country's interior.

While stating that the initiative started in Colombia in 2002, the Director Representative pointed out that currently, the training is carried out in Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, with the purpose of identifying, selecting, and training leaders that create a transforming leadership, use tools to detect the needs of the community, and formulate consensus and other actions that contribute to better exercise citizenship and governance. 

For Silva Pardo, the program's strategic value lies in the importance of training as a mechanism aimed at strengthening democratic governance and improving the reality of citizens and their environment, allowing their communities to achieve a better quality of life and improve dialogue between the different levels of government and sectors of society. 

At the same time, Hidalgo Romero highlighted that this year the Leadership for Change Program combined the modules of the course, making them live and on-line. He noted that in a globalized world, education must be linked to the information and communication technologies (ICT), allowing simultaneous training in a country with such a diverse geography. 

He also stated that the use of ICT and providing on-line courses implies adapting the pedagogical framework in order to continuously improve teaching, adding that the new challenge in the 2015 edition is the interaction between the groups of the 25 regions in the national territory.

This version provided awards to the three best group projects created by the program's participants, according to parameters established by CAF. The first prize was awarded to the project "El complejo deportivo y alameda El Pinar-Comas" (El Pinar-Comas sports complex and avenue) of the North Lima headquarter; the second place was awarded to "La implementacion de alarmas vecinales para la seguridad ciudadana en San Juan de Lurigancho" (Implementation of neighborhood alarms for citizen security in San Juan de Lurigancho) in the East Lima headquarter; the third place was awarded to "El fortalecimiento de una cultura de paz y convivencia en instituciones educativas emblematicas" (Strengthening of a culture of peace and communal living in emblematic educational institutions) in the Huancayo headquarter.

The Leadership for Change Program has benefitted more than 29,000 participants in the five countries since it started in 2002. With respect to Peru, between 2006 and 2014, approximately 4,900 leaders from 25 regions in the country have been trained with this initiative. Thus, CAF contributes to improve public management and institutional quality by helping its member countries identify emerging young leaders.