Project performance evaluation

The "Market Strengthening and Livelihood Diversification in the Southern Highlands Project" is part of a virtuous circle of creativity and innovation by IFAD in Peru. The project had a good geographical focus on the districts considered to have the greatest incidence of poverty and had a satisfactory impact on rural poverty reduction.

According to the impact analysis carried out by IOE, based on the official data of the Government, the project reduced the poverty of the rural families it reached by 12 per cent. This reduction was closely linked to the average increase in income, which was achieved to a large extent by diversification of production and its sources and by innovations in technology and production patterns – in particular with the support to economic productive undertakings through the business plans.

On the other hand, the evaluation reveals the factors that would have made an even greater impact on rural poverty possible. These include a more effective strategy of targeting the poorest and a longer period of private and public technical assistance to the businesses undertaken in order to ensure their sustainability, as well as linking them with financial services that would give them access to working and investment capital.