Throughout the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, many youths were involved in a series of terrorist movements such as the Shining Path, in which the military and certain policies identified university students as “subversives.”  Keeping in mind the important activism of various youth generations in political events, the relative delay of Peru’s creation of governmental institutions specializing in youth-related movements, centred in cultural expression (hidden by the dynamic general policy in good measure), is somewhat significant .

Peru started working on the first stages only recently in the beginning of the new century to define youth plans and programmes under the government of Fujimori.  Despite the lack of confidence and fear of manipulation, many groups, institutions, collectives, and experts participated.  Nevertheless, the document of youth policies is not promulgated, but in the transitional government in 2001.  At the same time, in certain cities such as Lima, they have started developing certain youth promotion initiatives at the municipal level, highlighting the creation of a Metropolitan Youth System, which would articulate different estates, civil societies, municipalities and youth groups for the benefit of municipal policies in favour of youths.

With the return to democracy (and the 2002 coup d’etat), a new drive was put forth with the discussion of a youth institution that would promote participation and seek answers to the problems of new generations.  In this same framework, diverse consultations, seminars, and workshops would be encouraged. These would be based on the drafting of law projects, creating the CONAJU system in 2003, as well as the National Youth Commission (in the government) and the Youth Participation Council (with the youth themselves).  These organizations, plus programmes created by local governments, form the CONAJU system that relies on ministerial support. 

Currently, CONAJU pushes for diverse actions in the design field, implementation, articulation and the evaluation of public youth policies.  Some outstanding actions of CONAJU include the Institutional Youth Directory, as well as the organization of Public Access to Youth Services, the publication of Youth in Numbers, and the proposal for a Ten-Year Youth Plan 2005-2015, to construct stable consensuses, which maintain the definition of state policies related to new generations.  A recent CONAJU study indicated that the Peruvian state invests 5% of its resources on youths, emphasizing an overwhelming majority of these resources to education (especially higher education).  Another highlighted programme, under the Ministry of Labor, is PROJOVEN, focused on labor qualifications and new generations in the work place, with a strong emphasis on youths with very little resources.  Similarly, health-related initiatives regarding adolescents and youth are emphasized by the Ministry of Health.

In the field of civil society, there is a large range of  experiences, including youth movements, networks, experiences in participation for resource allocation (participation budget), and social control of public policies (citizenship audits), etc.  A large range of specialized NGOs, especially in the health-related field for youths and in the promotion of marginalized people, feeds into these dynamics systematically. Similarly, they emphasize various experiences of local development, in which it is important to mention the symbolic experience of Villa El Salvador, awarded at the international level for diverse opportunities.

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