As Economy Grows, Peruvian Government Focuses on Social Inclusion

Peru’s President Ollanta Humala is pushing forward an economic development program that centers on the concept of social inclusion. Humala won Peru’s 2011 election after promising voters he would introduce new social programs. Peru’s Minister of Development and Social Inclusion, Carolina Trivelli, explained "Rural poverty is nearly 60 percent and extreme poverty in rural areas is 23 percent. These numbers concern us. That is where the conflicts are centered and our integration and national development efforts are focused there too.” President Humala, who completed his first year in office in July 2012, has focused on sustaining economic growth while also working to diffuse social protests and bring the benefits of economic expansion to a wider spectrum of the country’s population.

Peru, the second highest ranking Latin American economy in the World Bank’s 2013 Doing Business Report, recorded an economic growth rate of 6.8 percent in 2011. Although per capita income rose from $5,291 in 2010 to $6,009 in 2011, poverty continues to affect a large portion of Peru’s population. At an event on October 16, Humala explained: “We’re working so that Peru will have the complete package: growth with social inclusion and democracy.”

Peru, one of Latin America’s fastest growing economies, is continuing to embrace mining-industry investment but is also implementing a wide-ranging multi-billion-dollar social development program. The plan allocates nearly $500 million for pre-natal care for pregnant women, $455 million for nutrition programs, and $1.5 billion in primary education funding. In July 2012 Humala introduced a program to provide low-income Peruvians with discounted electricity and free liquid-natural-gas powered cooking stoves. Peru’s government has continued to support JUNTOS, a conditional cash transfer program launched in 2005. Poverty reduction and government outreach are expected to be topics discussed at the upcoming Union of South American Nations meeting which will be held in Lima on November 30.

“Social inclusion isn’t just a social program, it’s a policy…that is being converted into a development model in Latin America,” President Humala said on October 16.