Academy for Educational Development

In cities and villages across Peru, basic information that was once nearly impossible to obtain – about municipal budgets, public services and elections – is now accessible through a few simple clicks of a computer keyboard.

Comun@s, which stands for Municipal Communication at Your Service in Spanish, is a project designed by AED and implemented in cooperation with USAID and the government of Peru to bring more transparency and public accountability to municipal government through information and communication technology.

AED teams based in Peru travel to the municipalities to install computer equipment located in public kiosks, called Modulos Ciudadanos, and provide training on how to use them, including how the community can tap into new online systems established by Peru’s government. In addition, AED helps local officials create municipal Web pages with useful information for their citizens. The project provides training on the importance of transparency to officials and residents in 84 municipalities that are scattered across seven regions of the country.

 “Through this project, people can actually approach their government, become involved in their government and feel empowered to take part in their government,” said Maria Victoria Pascual, AED’s chief of party in Peru. “They become a part of the future of their community.”

Reaching Young People

Information on the modules is available in three of Peru’s languages—Spanish, as well as Quechuan and Ashaninka. Residents can research facts and figures on local government spending on sewers, roads and other public works. The most popular feature so far, Pascual says, provides users with information on how to obtain basic documents, such as driver’s licenses, national identification cards, and marriage certificates—and what those documents should cost, so that people trying to buy them aren’t taken advantage of at the local level. Wilson Fasanando Tananta, a school teacher and a resident of the Picota province in northern Peru, first heard about Comun@s through a workshop held in his community. He uses the online information to comb through estimates of local government spending, and whether projects that have been promised are completed.

Tananta has also asked his students to gather information through the module as part of their homework.

“Ordinary citizens can access information directly and easily,” says Tananta, 43. “Young people, and everyone else, are using the site with interest.”

‘It’s the Law’

The Comun@s project was originally funded for three years and scheduled to end in 2010. But USAID extended the project for another 15 months with the goal of sustaining and expanding it. One of the next steps is to add information about upcoming national and local elections to the modules, including voting resources and cut-off dates for registering political parties and candidates. Another new phase will be for AED to create partnerships with the private sector, in the hope that businesses will sponsor Comun@s in new municipalities and spread the word about its services.

One challenge in implementing the project is that participating municipalities are often located in rural and remote areas, where Internet access is limited or nonexistent. AED works with communications service providers to extend Web access to those communities.

In any city or village, the success of Comun@s also hinges on the support and goodwill of the mayors of those municipalities, notes Pascual, who coordinates the project and is responsible for developing its strategic vision. Without those local leaders’ cooperation, it isn’t possible to train the municipal workers on how to use Comun@s, or to train citizens and ensure they have access to it.

“The words ‘political will’ really need to be underlined,” Pascual said. “Once that’s in place, it’s easier to have citizen participation.” In Peru, “access to information is not just a right, it’s the law.”