Peora in Focus: Gaps Analysis in Health, Education, Employment and Fighting Poverty | Peru

The Piura Chamber of Commerce and Production, Confiep and the United Nations System in Peru organized the Piura Regional Meeting: “Dialogue and Consensus for the Well-being of the People” with the aim of promoting the development and welfare program for the population, especially the most vulnerable around four thematic agendas: health, education, employment and poverty alleviation, which are framed in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Specialists in these topics shared their diagnoses and suggestions to expedite the bridging of social gaps in Piura. The first of them: the health, associated with (SDG) 2 and 3, address the fight against anemia and malnutrition affecting the pediatric population in Pura. According to the INEI, childhood anemia had a prevalence of 43.2% among children aged 6 to 35 months in 2020, a figure higher than the national average, which was 40%, experts have provided their contributions as a starting point because malnutrition It is not only a public health problem, but a problem closely related to the development of the country.

Therefore, they considered it necessary to work on prevention strategies within the framework of a multisectoral approach that includes all stages of a person’s life, where the communicative educational component plays an important role in making available measures effective for the prevention of anemia and achieving mothers’ understanding that iron is an essential component. More than just medicine, it is a vital input for the proper growth of your children.

The second thematic table was education, related to Sustainable Development Goal 4, analyzes “How to encourage Piura youth to complete secondary education?”. Looking at the figures from the 2017 census, in Piura, out of a total of 350 thousand young people, almost 55 thousand young people could not complete normal basic education, two views were expressed: the first focused on preventing school dropout, which means Strengthening the tripartite: parents, teachers and students in order to strengthen the communication between the family and the work plans of the educational system; The second approach aims to provide a greater educational offer to young people who have not completed secondary school, ie they have the possibility of finding an alternative to basic education despite being outside the age range.

in the block Poverty and minimal servicesReferring to SDGs 1 and 6, they discussed “How to increase the implementation of public investment in the region at the local and regional government level?” The specialists agreed that since the poverty reduction by 10 percentage points due to COVID-19, emphasis should be placed on the formulation of the three levels of government, as well as joint work between the public and private sectors, which is focused on uniting efforts in order to create a value chain conducive to the sustainable growth of the business fabric of Piura . At the same time, it is crucial to move forward in reducing inequality, emphasizing a regional vision, i.e. that public investment agendas recognize the realities of each region and are not viewed in a general way.

The fourth substantive table was about Decent work and economic growth, linked to SDG 8, which addressed “How to promote a regional environment that encourages private investment and allows for the reduction of informal employment in Piura?” , where they realized two ways to address this problem. First, job training retraining so that the offer of training goes hand in hand with the demand for the job; The second, attention to the development of owners of small and micro enterprises to move forward in reducing informality, a structural problem, according to experts, should be covered in an integrated and specific way to avoid duplication of efforts, within the framework of respecting workers’ rights and thus promoting decent work.

The event was inaugurated by the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Piura, Javier Berishi; Head of Confiep, Oscar Caibu; The Governor of Piura, Servando García, expressed the relevant institutional commitment to strengthening coordination between the public and private sectors to advance the development and welfare agenda of Piura.

Oscar Caibu emphasized that it is possible to work together for the growth and well-being of the population of the regions. “From the business sector, we reaffirm our commitment to cooperate as an active and committed actor to help solve major problems and more people can access the conditions necessary for a decent life,” he added.

The forum was concluded by the United Nations representative in Peru, Igor Garavulich, who said that progress and development can only be achieved if there is dialogue and consensus.

“Dialogue and consensus are essential to advancing the 2030 Agenda and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This forum has allowed us to do that and we will continue this effort with all sectors.” For his part, Juan Jose Diaz Dios highlighted the joint work that the public and private sectors must strengthen to bridge the gaps in Piura. “Dialogue is the most important thing, so this kind of event should be repeated,” he said.