On the last day of Rumbo a PERUMIN – Central Peru Edition, Francisco Santa Cruz, economist and coordinator of the United Nations Development Program (UNPD), talked about the Human Development Index of the regions of Junín, Pasco, and Lima Provinces.

Santa Cruz maintained that the relationship between human development and mining has had important milestones, for instance, the relationship and collaboration established by Antamina mining company. This company financed the latest human development report at a national level, dated 2019.

“To calculate the human development index, we analyzed the life expectancy of the individuals, the average number of years of schooling, as well as the per capita household income.”

He explained that, by year-end 2019, the human development index at a provincial level was divided into five quadrants, according to each region’s growth.

“In the first quintile are the regions with the highest human development index, located mostly along the Peruvian coast, whereas the regions of Junín, Pasco and Lima Provinces are in the third and fourth quintiles, showing intermediate growth.” 

Regarding production localization and human development, the UNDP’s representative said that subsistence agriculture is responsible for the fall of the human development index values.

Conversely, manufacturing is a production factor that stimulates human development. This is because in the regions with high concentration of manufacturing activity there is also access to services and economic promotion.

Moreover, the analyst underscored the fact that, in the case of mining, the relationship has not been clearly established, as there are mining territories with high, intermediate, and low human development index values, like Moquegua, Áncash, and Cajamarca, respectively.

The mining industry is then faced with the significant challenge of figuring out how mining activities can help overcome this structural situation of low human index values conditioned by territorial factors.

“Among the provinces that stand out for having recorded an increase in their human development index values is Yauli, ranked first in the Junín region, followed by Huancayo. In the case of the Pasco department, the province of Pasco is in second place. Finally, Lima Provinces concentrate the largest number of jurisdictions with high human development index values. Examples of these are Barranca, Huaura, Huaral and Cañete.”

Finally, Santa Cruz elaborated on the importance of relying heavily on the convergence of human and territorial developments, inviting all actors to take on shared commitments and take HDI as an essential key performance indicator (KPI.)

“The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) calls for the consolidation of a strategic alliance among mining companies, local governments that manage fiscal redistribution, and communities with great territorial management capacity.”