Peru Digital Ecosystem Country Assessment (DECA)

The Digital Ecosystem Country Assessment (DECA), a flagship initiative of the Digital Strategy, identifies opportunities and risks in a country’s digital ecosystem to help the development, design, and implementation of USAID’s strategies, projects, and activities. It informs USAID Missions and other key decision-makers about how to better understand, work with, and support a country’s digital ecosystem.

The Peru DECA report presents the findings and recommendations of the Peru DECA. It outlines the key aspects of Peru’s digital ecosystem and provides 10 recommendations for the international development community to create a more inclusive, safe, and enabling environment to achieve development outcomes in Peru. Guided by three USAID/Peru priorities, which include, i) expanding economic and social development in post-eradication regions to sustain coca reductions; ii) increasing public integrity to reduce corruption; and iii) strengthening sustainable environment and natural resource management to expand economic and social benefits, the DECA process consisted of desk research, consultations with USAID/Peru technical offices, and 63 key informant interviews with stakeholders from civil society, academia, and the private and public sectors. 

Key findings include:

1. Peru’s digital ecosystem is one of many contrasts. There have been sustained advances over the last 30 years in connectivity, digital literacy, digital rights, digital government, and the digital economy.
2. Challenges in digital policy implementation and coordination capacity slow efforts to remedy digital divides and secure important digital safeguards.
3. The dense Amazon and the Andes mountains challenge the success of traditional models for rural connectivity.
4. Improving digital literacy for all Peruvians is a central element of the government’s strategy for inclusive digital transformation.
5. Regulations in the digital space are at odds with the protection of basic digital rights, such as freedom of expression online.
6. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) struggle to carve out a role to influence the digital ecosystem. 
7. Peru’s enabling environment for digital financial inclusion in terms of policy and regulation is positive, but challenges remain in terms of product offerings and customer uptake.
8. International and regional players dominate Peru’s growing e-commerce landscape. Technology startups are hitting their stride, but continue to face a multitude of challenges. Technology remains out of reach for the country’s large base of informal micro-, small, and medium enterprises.

USAID’s Digital Strategy charts an Agency-wide approach to development in a rapidly evolving digital age. Building on decades of USAID leadership in digital development, the Strategy outlines USAID’s deliberate and holistic commitment to improve development and humanitarian assistance outcomes through the use of digital technology and to strengthen open, inclusive, and secure digital ecosystems.