CAF boosts Panama-Peru collaboration to advance innovative solutions for rural educational infrastructure

Designing traditional infrastructure solutions for education in rural communities and dispersed settlements is a challenge for most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which have a large number of families living far from urban centers, under adverse geographical and logistical conditions, which hinders access to high-quality education for children and young people.

CAF acknowledges the importance of educational infrastructure in providing adequate school spaces for learning and students' comprehensive development, and as part of this challenge, it organized a productive online forum between the technical teams of Panama's Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) and Peru's Ministry of Education (MINEDU) with the aim of exchanging experiences and know-how in the field of non-conventional educational infrastructure.

The meeting was led by the teams from CAF's Social and Human Development Department and the CAF's Peru Country Office, and it featured National Project Director Eduardo Villareal, and National Engineering and Architecture Director at MEDUCA Fanny Solís, and General Educational Infrastructure Director Fernando Griebenow, and MINEDU Investment Planning Director Fausto Blas, as well as the relevant technical teams from both ministries.

Participants cited Panama's experience in installing modular solutions to replace the so-called "hut classrooms," a common occurrence in the most remote areas of the country. Through an inter-institutional work strategy, Panama's Ministry of Education has deployed effective measures to improve access to education for children and young people who were studying in precarious conditions in makeshift classrooms.

During the meeting, Peru's and Panama's technical teams exchanged lessons learned and challenges of this type of initiative, including technical aspects such as durability, climate adaptability, and accessibility for students with physical disabilities, as well as issues related to installation logistics and the completeness of interventions, based on inter-sectoral and inter-institutional work by the State.

CAF will continue to facilitate collaboration between these and other countries, and to provide technical assistance and financing for programs and projects that foster the provision and improvement of school spaces and ensure equitable access to education for all Latin Americans.