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Although the country has had one of Latin America’s strongest economic performances in recent years, many Peruvians continue to live in poverty and face exclusion from political life. Popular frustration with economic and political inequity was evidenced on April 10, when voters selected former army officer Ollanta Humala of the Win Peru Party and the daughter of the imprisoned former president Keiko Fujimori of the Force 2011 Party to go to a second round presidential run-off. In the weeks preceding the second round, both Humala and Fujimori reached out to the middle class by promising not to disrupt the economic model that is credited with Peru’s rapid growth over the past five years. On June 5, Humala narrowly defeated Fujimori to win the presidency. Despite Humala’s victory, without a more responsive political system, Peru runs the risk of increased social conflict and a decline in support for democratic institutions.
Current Activities
Promoting Accountability and Responsiveness Through a Citizen Monitoring Website
NDI is working in Cusco, Lambayeque and San Martin with a Peruvian partner to promote accountability of elected leaders by developing a web portal that tracks progress toward completing campaign promises and policies of newly elected regional officials. NDI and its Peruvian partner are working with party leaders and regional governments to raise awareness for the web portal and garner support for its official launch at the end of the summer.
Helping Promote Responsive Political Parties for the 2010 and 2011 elections
NDI worked in partnership with Peruvian civic organizations and institutions, including Transparency (Transparencia) and the National Electoral Board (Jurado Nacional Electoral, JNE), to help national political parties and regional and local movements be more representative and responsive of citizen needs by sharing comparative international approaches to effective political communication, and policy platform development as well as facilitating consensus on regional development plans. NDI and Peruvian partners also provided national political parties and regional and local movements with “new media” tools to increase outreach to voters and improve internal communications. Some of these tools include: Short Message Service (SMS), Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Hi5. In addition, NDI, Transparencia and the JNE hosted regional debates and conducted mobile electoral fairs where citizens obtained information regarding candidates and their campaign platforms for both presidential and legislative elections. The Institute also supported presidential debates hosted individually by the JNE and Transparencia for the first and second rounds, which boasted over 50 percent viewership ratings by leading Peruvian news sources.
Past Programs
Helping Parties Address Poverty in the Regions
In 2010, NDI concluded a program to facilitate collaboration between regional governments and political and civic groups to develop poverty-reduction proposals and action plans. Through roundtable discussions on poverty-related issues and policies with regional governments, political parties, regional movements, and civic organizations in Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cusco, Lambayeque and San Martín, NDI helped facilitate the creation of institutional mechanisms for continued collaboration with regional governments. These events helped facilitate multiparty agreements on poverty reduction in Lambayeque and Cusco and fostered spaces for dialogue on poverty reduction in Ayacucho, Arequipa and San Martin.
Political Party Strengthening
In 1999, NDI launched the Political Leadership Program (LP), a regional program to strengthen the leadership skills and ability of emerging political leaders to promote the reform of political parties. Since 2003, 90 young Peruvian leaders from 11 political parties have participated in a regional leadership skills development seminar and returned to Peru to implement party strengthening projects that increased youth training and political participation; improved internal and external party communication through the use of new technologies and social networks; and strengthened party training.
Election Monitoring
NDI began working in Peru in 1994, sharing ideas and comparative international experiences that contributed to the formation of Transparencia, the first Peruvian independent nonpartisan national election observation group. During 2000 and 2001, NDI collaborated with The Carter Center to conduct election observation missions in Peru during the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori. For the 2001 electoral process, the presence of NDI and The Carter Center was fundamental in establishing the necessary conditions and international support for free and fair elections.
Promoting Policy Debate in the 2006 Elections
Leading up to the 2006 elections, NDI and Transparencia collaborated closely with Peruvian NGOs throughout the country to provide political parties and regional movements with information and training on the key issues identified by Peru’s multiparty and cross-sectoral National Accord process, as well as on platform development and media strategies. NDI and Transparencia also held candidate debates; distributed hundreds of thousands of “Who’s Who” guides and comparative policy fact sheets providing objective information on candidates and their policies; organized election fairs to connect candidates, civil society groups and voters; and designed and broadcast radio segments on key electoral issues. According to a national poll, 57 percent of voting-age Peruvians—about 9.1 million—were exposed to candidate debates, presentations or materials organized or produced by NDI and Transparencia. Of these, 51 percent—about 4.6 million citizens —indicated that their voting behavior was influenced by these activities.
Supporting Poverty Eradication
In 2005, NDI and policy experts helped inform political parties on health and education issues, leading to an agreement on health policy that was signed by 16 parties and implemented by the García administration.
Legislative Strengthening
From 2001-2005, NDI formed part of the Consortium for Democratic Society in Peru (Consode) and worked to increase public participation in the legislative process as well as the adoption of key reforms. NDI focused on increasing citizen participation in the legislative process, enhancing access to information on the legislature, and promoting transparency and accountability within Congress. Significant legislative-strengthening initiatives included:
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Legislative Ethics – NDI helped the Ethics Committee in the Peruvian Congress draft a new ethics code and rules of procedure to ensure multi-partisan representation and effective handling of ethics complaints.
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Citizen Participation Law – NDI worked with congressional committees involved in drafting Peru’s citizen participation law to solicit citizen input on the legislation through public hearings and new e-governance technology.
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Representation and Public Outreach – - NDI helped the Peruvian Congress restructure its approach for outreach and effective representation at the district level. NDI helped Congress design citizen participation curricula (e.g. distance learning classes, democracy fairs) and develop a staff training program, and provided Peruvian legislators with low-cost tools for communicating with their electorate.
Political Party Strengthening
From 2004-2005, NDI implemented the regional Program for Party Renewal (PREPA) in Peru to promote reform within parties by strengthening party training services. Using reform-oriented methodologies, NDI worked with political parties to improve their training curricula on internal democracy, transparency and outreach practices.
Contact Information
For more information about these programs, use our contact form or contact:
Washington, D.C.
Claudia Pirela, Program Officer
cpirela@ndi.org
Lima, Peru
Victor Rojas, Resident Director
vrojas@ndi.org
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