Andina

IDB recognizes Peru initiative to help communities gain access to clean water

15:20 | Lima, Sep. 18.

The drinking water and sanitation initiative led by Peru's Housing, Construction, and Sanitation Ministry (MVCS) is one of the five finalists for the first edition of the Superheroes of Development Award organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The international competition recognizes the innovative solutions devised and valuable lessons learned by executing agencies while implementing projects.

The MVCS's initiative "When the community executes: citizen participation and community empowerment in water and sanitation" shows rural populations' organized work to complete drinking water and sanitation projects in High-Andean areas. 

This articulated effort —promoted by MVCS's National Rural Sanitation Program (PNSR)— is undertaken through 183 executing units (communities organized and trained for the execution of projects), and benefits over 41,000 rural people in Huancavelica, Ayacucho, Apurimac, Cusco, and Puno regions.

Said sanitation projects are carried out within the framework of Program for Improvement and Expansion of Water and Sanitation Services in Peru (Procoes), which is implemented through a non-reimbursable loan agreement, with the donation of the Spanish Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation managed by IDB.

The Superheroes of Development Award is part of an effort to improve the performance of IDB-financed projects through systematic learning and knowledge sharing in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Bank received 86 submissions for the contest from projects in its 26 borrowing member countries and in all areas of development.

Finalists include initiatives from Honduras, Barbados, Bolivia, and Peru.

They were selected by a panel of internal and external development experts who followed four criteria: pertinence of the execution challenge described, innovation, impact of the solution, and relevance of the knowledge that can be shared with other projects.

These innovations will be showcased during the IDB Knowledge Week, to be held in Washington D.C. in October when the winning team will be announced. 

The IDB will share these stories throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, so they may contribute to ongoing projects, as well as to the preparation of new operations.

(END) NDP/MAO/RMB/MVB

Published: 9/18/2018