Peru is a partner country of German development cooperation. GTZ has been working there on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) since 1975, and on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) since 2009. As one of the major bilateral donors, Germany is contributing to sustainable development and poverty reduction in Peru. In recent years, cooperation with other international donors has been stepped up. The Government of the Netherlands, the Swiss Government and the European Commission are co-financing some projects.

Peru has just experienced a decade of exemplary economic growth in which it has succeeded in doubling its per capita GDP. The number of people living in poverty has fallen from 54 % in 2001 to 35 % in 2009, with the share of people living in absolute poverty more than halved from 24 % in 2001 to 11.5 % in 2009. Notwithstanding these achievements, the country still has large income gaps and a high concentration of poverty in rural areas. Structural problems, such as the still strongly centralised state, are obstacles to more efficient and more transparent governance and the provision of basic services to the population.

Moreover, Peru is one of the countries worst affected by climate change. More than 50 % of the population live in the narrow desert belt along the Pacific coast, where shortfalls in water supplies are a growing problem. Its vast forest reserves – after Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia, Peru has the fourth largest area of tropical forest in the world – are being steadily destroyed as a result of overexploitation and the extraction of natural resources. This is also threatening Peru’s biodiversity, which is regarded as one of the richest in the world.

In accordance with the agreement between the German Government and the Government of Peru, GTZ’s work focuses on three priority areas:

• Democracy
• Water
• Rural development

Downloads

• Brochure: The GTZ in Peru
  Partner for Sustainable Development for over 30 years
  de-GTZ-in-Peru.pdf, 2.27 MB (German)
  sp-gtz-in-peru.pdf, 1.98 MB (Spanish)
  en-gtz-in-peru.pdf, 2.01 MB (English)
• Brochure: GTZ programmes and projects in Peru
  sp-gtz-in-peru-2.pdf, 3.64 MB (Spanish)