Linking Decentralization and Regional Development Planning: The IRD Project in Peru

Abstract

Planners in international assistance organizations and in developing countries have tried many approaches to regional development during the past two decades; the most recent is integrated regional development (IRD). The IRD project implemented in Peru during the early 1980s sought to combine regional spatial planning with decentralized administration in an experiment that was ultimately undermined by political obstacles and central government controls. The experience in Peru suggests that if regional development planning projects in developing countries with centralized governments are to be more successful, planners must pay much more attention in their design and implementation to decentralizing political control and building local administrative capacity prior to, or in conjunction with, efforts to improve technical planning capabilities.