IMPROVING GOVERNMENT CAPACITY AND HAZARD RISK MANAGEMENT IN LIMA, PERU Lima, Peru. Photo by Aarom Ore on Unsplash Since the turn of the century, the Peruvian economy has property tax assessment and collection. The database built experienced two distinct phases of economic development. constitutes a first approximation of the characteristics of the During the first phase, Peru was one of the fastest-growing housing stock in the district, particularly linked to the physical countries in Latin America, with average GDP growth of 6.1 characteristics and potential vulnerabilities to the impact percent annually between 2002 and 2013; the poverty rate of natural hazards, and its valuation will be complemented fell from 52.2 percent in 2005 to 26.1 percent in 2013. More through the complete updating and deployment of the recently, the country has seen slower GDP growth, with district’s urban cadaster. This support was key in helping average GDP growth of 3.1 percent annually between 2014 and World Bank teams understand the nature of the challenges 2019, leading to a temporary reduction in private investment and opportunities related to existing property tax collection, and less fiscal income. and helping urban municipalities strengthen their capacity to generate revenue. Cities and local municipalities have been impacted by the recent slowdown in growth, affecting their capacity CRP also supported a review of national policies on land to generate income as well as to finance and manage use planning and disaster risk management in urban areas. infrastructure and services. With 80 percent of the Peruvian This review helped the World Bank team understand the population residing in urban areas, it is crucial that cities institutional challenges regarding the integration of cadastral and local municipalities have access to capital which can information with other sources of disaster risk management help them manage the increased hazard risk and the critical information at the provincial and municipal levels. infrastructure that depends on it. In Peru, the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and In this context, the City Resilience Program (CRP) was the World Bank have signed a grant agreement in the amount instrumental in supporting project preparation of the World of 5 million Swiss francs to fund complementary technical Bank’s National Urban Cadaster and Municipal Support Project assistance efforts in urban and municipal management. This in Peru (US$ 50 million). The National Urban Cadaster and could lead to further cadaster improvements as well as to the Municipal Support Project will strengthen urban cadasters in improvement of municipal urban management and revenue 22 municipalities located in four provinces (Lima, Chiclayo, generation capabilities. Lambayeque and Piura) and improve local government The CRP’s planning and financial tools help cities to plan for capacities for revenue generation and urban management, and mitigate adverse impacts of disasters and climate change, including hazard risk management. thus enabling them to save lives, reduce losses, and unlock CRP funding enabled a review of the gaps in local property tax economic and social potential. The aim of the program is to revenue and an assessment of hazard risks in the municipality catalyze a shift toward longer term, more comprehensive of Breña. The activity included the use of drone and street multi-disciplinary packages of technical and financial services, view imagery, machine learning and municipal taxpayer building the pipeline for viable projects at the city level that, in information to build a database to improve municipal turn, build resilience.