ABSTRACT
The Integrated Regional Development (IRD) Project began as a pilot project designed to test an urban-rural investment strategy and to improve the regional planning capabilities of decentralized agencies in several departments of the sierra. In contrast, the objective of the Disaster Relief, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction (DRR) Project—the largest ever undertaken in Peru by Agency for International Development (AID)—was to support recovery from natural disasters, rather than to build institutions or to test a development strategy. Although the IRD and DRR projects had quite different objectives, there were some important similarities in their designs: assistance for project-related units serving Contemporary departmental development corporations, which were established within permanent national-level agencies and central funds for subprojects and components meeting project criteria. It also includes supportive technical assistance and project management units within the corporations. Many junior professionals were recent university graduates or even university students, who were willing to put in long hours for low pay in remote areas of the country.
