572 leaders trained in citizenship and awareness of national reality in Peru

(Lima, November 28, 2008).- A total of 572 leaders were trained in civic-democratic values and citizenship as part of the "Leadership for the Transformation" program, promoted by the Andean Development Corporation in alliance with the Institute of Government of the University of San Martín de Porres (USMP).

 

The participants in the closing ceremony were the coordinator of the CAF Governance Program, Gloria Betancourt; CAF director in Peru, Eleonora Silva Pardo; director of the USMP Institute of Government, Javier Tantaleán Arbulú; and the president of the Institute of Development of the Informal Sector (IDESI), David Sifuentes.

 

For the third year running, Lima was host to the closure of the "Leadership for the Transformation" program in Peru. This year, representatives of social, cultural, indigenous, and campesino groups and labor unions and associations of micro and small enterprises were trained in the cities of Ancash, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Callao, Cusco, Junín, La Libertad, Lima, Puno, Tumbes and Ucayali.

 

The "Leadership for the Transformation" program emerged from a CAF initiative in Colombia in 2002 and since then has been replicated successfully in Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador.

 

This initiative aims to identify natural leaders of the region and lay the base for a new style of leadership, enriching their system of values and providing them with tools for assuming - with a deep civic, democratic and ethical sense - the responsibilities of leadership, in accordance with the reality of their situation. The strategic value of the program lies in the importance of training as a mechanism for strengthening democratic governance, improving the situation of citizens and their context.

 

"The program is a pioneer with respect to its formula, and innovative because it has the backing of an institution, like CAF, which promotes and implements it in various countries with its collaborators," Gloria Betancourt said.

 

According to Betancourt, over 10,000 leaders have graduated from the program which has great significance in reinforcing democratic governance because it strengthens natural leaders through a process of education, their vision of country and civic-democratic values, while supplementing their knowledge with tools and instruments with which they can exercise their citizenship and take community action with responsibility, integrity and awareness of the reality of their country.

 

"We conceive leadership as an activity exercised so that the group achieves positive results which enable it to adapt to changes and finally take advantage of them," she added.

 

For the Institute of Government, Tantaleán Arbulú thanked CAF for the support given to his Institute for holding the program for the third year running, which - he said - was original in Peru and the Andean countries.

 

"I would like to emphasize the confidence that CAF has shown. Without this cooperation it would not be possible give excellent modules which have been developing and improving academically in subject, content and teaching methods," he said.

 

The main objectives of the program are to identify, select and train natural leaders in an effort to generate a transforming leadership, which manages tools and has the technical capacity to detect the needs of the community, and prepare actions that contribute to a better exercise of their citizenship.

 

Last year, the program successfully trained 543 natural leaders from 11 regions selected to give integrated training to human beings who will act as transmitters of knowledge and values, in favor of progress, freedom and equality, leading to acceptance of plurality and interculturality.

 

The "Leadership for the Transformation" program responds to one of the lines of action which CAF implements in the area of governance. By the end of 2008, the program will have trained 10,730 leaders in the five countries of the Andean region.