Facilitating access and creating opportunities for addressing rural poverty, Development of the Cusco–Puno Corridor Project, Peru, Luis Palma

The Development of the Cusco–Puno Corridor Project was initiated in 2001, through the National Cooperation Fund for Social Development (FONCODES) - a programme run by the Ministry of Women and Social Development (MIMDES) - and by virtue of a Loan Agreement signed between the Government of Peru and IFAD. It directly reached a user population of 79,000 households, located in the southern Andean region of Peru. As part of the project management approach a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Systematisation (PME&S) system was developed step by step. A number of relevant mechanisms helped the system to work effectively, including the active involvement of user organisations in directly managing their undertakings. This allowed the project to achieve highly sustainable levels, develop a Data Base (currently in process of being integrated into the FONCODES Programme Management System – in Spanish, SGP), use a Geo-referenced Information System (GIS), implement a “Contest on Systematisation and Lessons Learned” and use audio-visual technology to view change in producers’ strategies to escape poverty.