At the launch of Agenda 2018, 11 public policy proposals were presented to be discussed with the aim of promoting local and regional development. These proposals are the result of the work of researchers from this university who also have experience in the public sector. 

The event was opened with the welcome words of Cynthia Sanborn, Vice President for Research at Universidad del Pacífico. "Agenda 2018 represents the continuity of a long history of Universidad del Pacífico's contribution to the electoral debates", she said. Gustavo Yamada, director of Universidad del Pacífico Research Center (CIUP as in the Spanish acronym), described the initiative. "This is the third time we have made an Agenda, where 19 researchers and consultants associated with CIUP generate proposals grounded in local and regional reality", he explained. 

The “Agenda 2018” coordinators, Carlos Casas and Silvana Huanqui presented the diagnosis and the challenges of decentralization and the eleven policy proposals for regional and municipal governments 2019-2022, respectively. “Decentralization is an instrument which allows us to provide, in the best way possible, the goods and services that the population requires. In addition, the level and speed of the decentralization process are specific to each of the countries”, explained Casas, professor and researcher at Universidad del Pacífico. 

"The four areas that serve to analyze the eleven policy proposals, which are very specific and of great relevance, are: sustainable infrastructure for competitiveness, territorial economic development, articulation of social policies and multilevel governance and public finances," said Huanqui, professor and researcher at Universidad del Pacífico. 

The panel of guest commentators included the vice minister of Territorial Governance, Raúl Molina; the director of the Master in Public Management at Universidad del Pacífco, Rossana Polastri, and the former vice minister of Economy, Cesar Liendo; and was moderated by the senior director of the Llorente & Cuenca consulting firm, Gonzalo Carranza. 

Rossana Polastri, Raúl Molina, Gonzalo Carranza and César Liendo 

"The devil is always hidden in the implementation, but in the Peruvian case that is particularly relevant. To that extent, the value of the "Agenda 2018" documents is that they enter into specificity and develop, in great detail, the existing problem", said Molina. 

For her part, Rossana Polastri commented on the complexity of the decentralization process. "We have a decentralization process that has not yet been completed, which is more administrative and political, and still not so fiscal and economic (...) However, allocating resources is not the only solution. Decentralization is a process that requires many elements, and one of them is management”, she explained. 

Closing the panel, Cesar Liendo reflected on the main challenges facing the decentralization process in the country. "A process such as decentralization is not sustainable if it does not have its own income. However, this need can be reconciled with the need we have as a country to increase the tax burden", argued Liendo. 

The closing words were in charge of José Luis Bonifaz, director of Universidad del Pacífico School of Public Management, who invited the attendees, candidates in the municipal and regional elections, and the general public to participate in the second date of "Agenda 2018": the "Presentation of Agenda 2018 in the South", an event that will take place in Arequipa, on August 23. He also invited them to the third event to be held on September 11 in Lima, which will take place as part of the Public Management Day, where in a group of candidates for the mayoral elections of Metropolitan Lima will participate. Finally, he invited them to the "Presentation of Agenda 2018 in the North" in Trujillo, on September 27.