Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

Box 10.1 Economic and social inclusion
In 2011, Peru’s government created the Ministry
of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS),
with a view to reducing inequality of opportunity.
Although the country has experienced strong
economic growth in recent years, the benefits
are not evenly shared. In 2001, 50% of urban
residents were poor, compared to 77% in rural
areas. By 2010, urban poverty had declined to
19% and rural poverty to 54%, which illustrates
the slower absolute and relative progress in
rural areas. The creation of MIDIS was a key
initiative to coordinate efforts to minimise social
exclusion, partly by linking social programmes
to economic opportunities.
MIDIS has three main policy goals. The first
is to promote universal access to public services,
focusing on the rural poor and vulnerable
populations, mainly through temporary
cash transfer programmes. The second is to
increase earnings, food security and productive
employment, partly via capacity-building
programmes. The third is to develop a system
of continuous learning and quality control
through permanent monitoring and evaluation.
MIDIS inherited three programmes and created
two new ones to achieve its goals. JUNTOS is
a conditional cash-transfer (CTT) programme
of the challenges involved (Fukuda-parr, 2012;
chang, 2010). the mDG framework may have
diverted attention from more fundamental debates,
such as the prevailing development paradigm and
the structural causes of poverty and inequality.
this poses questions for the sustainability of
recent achievements, since the mDGs did not
seek to provide a transformational agenda to
promote inclusive and sustainable development,
nor to change the discourse on development
designed to minimise the intergenerational
transmission of poverty by promoting children’s
education. CUNA MAS provides childcare
and family support to improve the integral
development of children below three years of
age who live in poverty. PENSION 65 provides
cash transfers to poor senior citizens in order to
reduce vulnerability and allow families to spend
resources on productive activities. FONCODES
promotes local development, taking a territorial
approach in four areas of intervention:
production, capacity building, infrastructure
development and territorial interconnection.
Finally, PRONAA was created to prevent
malnutrition, particularly for poor children.
MIDIS aims to streamline these programmes in
order to provide better social services. The main
challenges are to consolidate targeting, strengthen
interventions with a territorial approach,
promote results-oriented management of public
funds, align strategic objectives within social
programmes, focus on the specific characteristics
and needs of potential beneficiaries, and link
efforts to work toward common objectives.
Sources: Barrantes and Berdegué, 2012;
MIDIS, 2012; World Bank, 2012b
(nayyar, 2012; chapter 2). the mDGs also failed
to recognise the importance of transition paths.
While achieving better health and education are
important objectives in themselves, and justify
strong investments, history suggests that making
sustainable improvements in human development
requires a significant transformation of economic
and social structures, e.g. a move from agriculturebased
activities towards more productive sectors,
such as manufacturing and modern services. this
poSt-2015: Global actIon For an IncluSIvE anD SuStaInablE FuturE
Those who have
not benefited
from progress
towards achieving
the MDGs tend
to be from
vulnerable social
sectors – such as
the poor, women,
youth, and ethnic
minorities.
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