At a Glance

The Republic of Peru, as one of the twelve founding members of the Equal Futures Partnership, is wholly committed to the Partnership’s central objectives. Through the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations and the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion, the governing bodies overseeing these matters, Peru has instituted significant public policies, programs, strategies and actions to expand the economic empower of and political participation by women at the local, state and national level.

Participating Ministries

Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations

The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) is the governing body established to design, provide, promote, implement and monitor national and sectoral public policies in defense of women, girls, children, adolescents, older persons, persons with disabilities, internally displaced persons and migrants, to guarantee the exercise of their rights and a life free of violence, discrimination and lack of protection, within the framework   of a culture of peace.

MIMP has been instrumental in the defense of women’s rights with a special emphasis on strengthening of citizenship and autonomy of women without discrimination.

Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion

The Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion ( MIDIS ), in order to achieve inclusion and closing gaps faced by the population in the process of inclusion, executes its strategy 'Include for Growth', which focuses on five strategic areas: child nutrition, early childhood development, comprehensive development of children and adolescents, economic inclusion and protection for the elderly.

MIDIS reaffirms its commitment to the economic empowerment of women through financial inclusion of recipients of social programs, many of them are women, to develop abilities to understand how to access and use financial instruments, and how to make informed financial decisions.

PERU’S EQUAL FUTURES PARTNERSHIP COMMITMENTS

• Promoting civic schools for adults and adolescents women, carried out by MIMP.
• Improving the regulatory and institutional framework for reconciling work and family life, carried out by MIMP.
• Achieving economic development of women through enterprises commitment to the eradication of gender violence and the promotion of equality in their institutional policies, carried out by MIMP.
• Including and economically empowering women in vulnerable situations and social programs recipients, through activities related to financial inclusion and financial education, carried out by MIDIS.

Achievements, Progress and Best Practices

Promoting civic schools for adults and adolescents women

Strengthening of the civic and political participation of women benefits the education in democracy and citizenship participation with gender equality, as well as, the dissemination of rights, especially those that promote gender equality and access to decision-making positions.

Within this framework, between 2014 and 2015, MIMP created two educational programs with the objective of empowering women with the basic concepts of the electoral system, the implementation of gender quotas, policy communication tools, and public policy matters on gender equality:

• Special Learning Course "Political Participation of Women in Municipal and Regional Elections 2014" aimed at candidates and / or pre candidates, with a total of 324 applicants, of whom 219 (67.6%) were women and 105 (32.4%) were men. Of the 219 women participating in this course, 80 women went on to register as candidates in the electoral process. As to the level of impact, of the total number of women participating in the course, 40% managed to insert themselves into the dynamics of political competition to run for public office.
• Semi-Distance Learning Course VI "Public Management and Political Participation for Gender Equality", organized in coordination with the National Elections Board. The course was particularly aimed at officials elected into public office at the local and regional level.  Of the total of 283 participants that registered for this course, 139 were officials elected in the Municipal and Regional Elections 2014, of whom 116 (83%) were women and 23 (17%) were men.

Improving the regulatory and institutional framework for reconciling work and family life

MIMP is committed to improving the balance between family responsibilities and workforce participation among men and women, and to the prevention of gender discrimination related to the exercise of these responsabilities. Within this framework, progressive policies and institutional changes have been made as follows:

• Law No. 29992, providing for the extension of work leave for post-natal care of children born with disabilities, which impacts the lives of women by valuing the work of caretakers and improving the harmonization of work and family responsibilities.
• Ministerial Resolution No. 048-2014-TR approving the "Guide to good practices for the reconciliation of work and personal and family life."
• Implementation of breastfeeding spaces in public institutions. From 2014 to 2015, the number of breastfeeding locations at public entities increased from 303 to 319. Out the figures in 2014, 144 breastfeeding spaces were put into operation. Breastfeeding spaces are considered to be operational where the entity has at least one woman in the stages of lactation and there is at least one user of the amenity. With regard to the number of beneficiaries, 550 women utilized these spaces in 2014, the number of which rose to 664 in 2015.

Promote economic development of women through enterprises commitment to eradicate violence against women and promote equality in their institutional policies

MIMP believes that in order to promote gender equality, the eradication of gender violence must be incorporated as a central objective of public and private agenda; and treated as a human rights issue and an obstacle to development. Likewise, MIMP seeks to advance the economic empowerment of women. 

Ministerial Resolution 184-2011-MIMDES, adopted in 2011, institutionalizes, with the "Safe Enterprise Seal, free of violence and discrimination against women", the recognition of companies that have developed good practices to eradicate violence against women and promote gender equality in their institutions and workplace policies. This initiative promotes the acceptance of good practices that advance non-violence against women and equality between women and men within the company and in the community. To date 7 companies have earned this seal and 16 have received honorable mentions.

In 2014, the "Functional Working Group to Promote the Economic Empowerment of Women" was created within the Multi-Sectoral Commission for Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Plan for Gender Equality 2012-2017 (PLANIG). This working group comprises the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Ministry of Production, Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economy and Finance and Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations.

A total of 1.3 million women and men recipients of cash transfer social programs, JUNTOS and PENSION 65, have an established savings account. A total of 1.1 million are women, 560,000 of whom have a debit card.

Women aware and trained in financial education

Since 2010, 322, 862 women have been aware and trained on financial education concepts since 2010, through MIDIS trial experiments and research initiatives with private-public entities and consequently, escalating the good practices through  financial inclusion plans implemented by MIDIS social programs.

Major challenges and steps taken to make significant progress

As part of the Future Equal Partnership initiative, Peru has identified the following addressable challenges:

• To promote the increase of women in decision-making and political and civic participation.
•  Design and implement a comprehensive strategy for economic empowerment of women, agreed with stakeholders to enable helping to close gaps in the economy.
• Promote policies and programs that lead to the redistribution of domestic work and care; which will contribute to closing gender gaps and the empowerment and economic autonomy of women.
• To support building an agenda with the dynamics of a sectoral agreement at national level to improve the economic and employment situation of Peruvian women.
• Continue to include socially vulnerable groups, including female population, who continue to be the most affected in the gaps related to financial inclusion, facing difficulties in accessing financial services tailored to their needs.
•  To strengthen and expand financial education for all women and men recipients of social programs
•  Articulate productive development policies to improve access to credit to women and men users of social programs as well as to provide them with insurance against risks.

Both Ministries will continue the commitment to promote and guarantee political and economic rights of women in conditions of equality and equal opportunities with men. They will continue to develop mechanisms that serve to the inclusion and empowerment of both women and men, ensuring them a better quality of life.