Centro de Estudios y Promoción del Desarrollo
DESCO

DESCO is a non-governmental development organization that is part of Peruvian civil society. It has worked for 43 years in the areas of social development and capacity building with excluded sectors in Peru.
It has published a series of systematic documentation of experiences, called "Alternatives for Development" (Alternativas para el desarrollo), which is available at: http://www.desco.org.pe/publicaciones40.shtml . The thematic areas of the experiences are:

• Poverty and inclusion.
• Civic participation.
• Participatory management of territory.
• Local economic development.
• Urbanism and housing.
• Gender and political participation.

DESCO's Urban Program manages the Urban Observatory (Observatorio Urbano www.observatoriourbano.com), whose mission is to produce information and make it available to community and grassroots organizations and public officials who, through their actions or initiatives, shape the future of cities. This information is presented through:

• A Geographic Information System. All information gathered in included in a GIS that is available to the community at no charge.
• Studies and research to understand problems related to city management from the standpoint of the needs of the poorest sectors.
• Meetings to analyze and discuss proposals with local and metropolitan stakeholders selected because of their involvement in the issues and their capacity for dialogue.

The Urban Observatory portal includes links to Web sites with information of interest to public officials, academics and/or professionals in the development field and representatives of community and grassroots organizations.

Publications of systematically documented experiences include:
Series: Alternatives for Development ( Alternativas para el desarrollo)

• Concurso participativo de proyectos: gestión participativa del territorio y la movilización social en la mejora del barrio
  Author(s): LLONA, Mariana; SAITO, Ingrid. 2008.
• Sabor a Café: una experiencia de desarrollo con pequeños productores cafetaleros de la selva central. LLONA, Mariana; SAITO, Ingrid; RUIZ, Raúl , 2005.
• Rumbo a la competitividad: aprendizajes de la promoción de la agroindustria rural en la provincia de Caravelí, ARATA POZZUOLI, Atilio; TORO QUINTO, Oscar , 2005.
• Densificación habitacional: una propuesta de crecimiento para la ciudad popular, ZOLEZZI, Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, Carlos, 2005.

DESCO
ADDRESS: León de la Fuente 110 – Magdalena del Mar
CITY: Lima
COUNTRY: Perú
POSTAL CODE: Lima 17
TELEPHONE/FAX: 6138300 / 6138308
EMAIL: postmaster@desco.org.pe
INSTITUTIONAL WEB:www.desco.org.pe / www.urbano.org.pe / www.observatoriourbano.com

PERSON TO CONTACT: Laura Soria Torres
OCCUPATION: Jefa del Programa Urbano
EMAIL: lsoria@desco.org.pe / laura@urbano.org.pe