Formalizing Citizen Participation in Peru: Decentralization and the Role of Local Institutional Arrangements in the Provision of Agricultural Services

Abstract: In 2001 Peru started a major decentralization reform. Since then legislation aimed at redefining the roles of regional and local government has been produced and implemented. This paper looks at Peru’s local governments and their involvement in rural development and agricultural services in this changing environment. Specifically, we draw on a unique nationally representative rural municipality panel dataset that covers the period before and after the decentralization reform to evaluate the role of collective action in the delivery of public services for agriculture. Prior to reform collective action (existence of a consensus-building forum) at the district level played an important role in both the provision of agricultural public services and the perception of their quality. Post-reform data suggest that to some degree these largely informal participatory fora have been substituted for by legally-mandated participatory budgeting processes. We present qualitative evidence that suggests that these fora function primarily as information-transmission mechanisms, encouraging better decision-making in municipal governments, and more effective accountability among voters. Although independent of decentralization reforms, participatory budgeting at the local level may be doing as much in strengthening local governance.