This Quadrennial Periodic Report (QPR) includes 48 policies developed during the 2016 ̶ 2019 period and has been prepared through a participatory process carried out from May 2019 to April 2020. The work plan to build the QPR has incorporated working groups with representatives of the private and public sector, unions and the academy, as well as spaces for presentation and consultation with diverse groups of actors from the creative sector in Lima, Chimbote and Cusco. The findings recorded in this report can be read at three levels of analysis: i) distribution of the policies: the measures in accordance with the four objectives established in the monitoring framework; ii) content of the policies: themes, new contributions and sustainable measures; and iii) transversal look: main achievements and challenges.

The first level of analysis focuses on the distribution of the reported policies and measures among the various objectives set out in UNESCO's monitoring framework. These are mainly contained in Objective 1 ("Supporting sustainable systems of governance for culture") (21 policies). This objective gathers initiatives related to the various stages of the value chain of the cultural industries and arts: training, creation, production, distribution, access, among others, as well as policies that transversally affect the entire sector, so it understandably includes most of the compiled policies, measures and strategies.

Regarding the other objectives, the distribution varies in the number of measures reported.

Objective 3 ("Integrating Culture in Sustainable Development Frameworks") also records a considerable number of the reported policies (17 policies), being an indicator that the platforms and spaces for skill formation and the generation of networks of collective work have been priority topics for the cultural management in the past four years. Some of the measures included in Objective 3 address topics as diverse as the Culture Points Network, the audience-oriented area of the Grand National Theater or the training for public officers, and also proposals from civil society, such as APOC's shared advocacy agenda, the Cultural Governance Program of the University of Piura, among others.
Moreover, we found that there are fewer measures reported in Objective 2 (“Achieving balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increasing the mobility of artists and cultural professionals”) (5 measures) and Objective 4 (“Promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms”) (5 measures). Although from a first reading, we can see that these are works in progress that still need to be consolidated through strategies and policies, it is crucial to note the contributions of the private sector, civil society and the academy for the promotion and participation of women in the sector, the strengthening of artists' working conditions or the flow of cultural goods and experiences at the international level.

In the second level of analysis, we approach the contents of the reported measures. Many of these are novel, very diverse measures, with years of experience in their implementation, and which jointly indicate significant breakthroughs in the development of the cultural industries and creative sectors. This gains more relevance if we take into account the Quadrennial Periodic Report presented by Peru in 2012; although we can account for the status of the projects already reported in the previous QPR—such as the Culture Points Program, which now has its own law, the Ruraq Maki Program, which has developed a digital platform, or the IBER programs, to which IBERcultura Viva joins—this time, the report is much more comprehensive, detailed and diverse.

Regarding the sectors, the public sector has reported initiatives for all the objectives, both through programs and regulatory frameworks that aim to enhance access to creation (“Libertad Creativa”), encouraging people's active participation in cultural life through physical spaces or digital media (Cultura24) and through strategies that arise from coordination with other public institutions (“Libertad Creativa”, “Barrio Seguro”).
Also noteworthy is the progress made in terms of institutionalization through the promotion of culture from the public sector during this period. This is evidenced by achievements in the form of sustainable financings, such as the Economic Incentives for Culture, which are programmed on an annual basis, have an increasing financing and are prepared jointly with the sectors; or through initiatives promoted by other ministries that go for proposals based on creative tools to achieve sustainable development goals, such as courses by the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), programs by the Ministry of the Interior or by the Ministry of Education, which value the importance of culture as transversal in all areas of life.

Along these same lines, it is crucial to highlight the context in which these actions have been developed. This is undoubtedly a period in which remarkable breakthroughs and stable strategies that contribute to the growth of the cultural and creative industries have been recorded. But this is also a context of constant political changes that lead to general instability for the sector: abrupt changes in Peruvian political-institutional structure, constant changes in the management of the Ministry of Culture itself, and thus, different priorities that hinder the sustainability of medium-term policies, strategies or actions in the sector. This period also coincides with the creation of the National Cultural Policy (PNC) which is still in progress. We would like to highlight its importance for the development of the sector, as well as to emphasize that, when presented, it will generate crucial changes, which will probably be mapped in the next quadrennial report. Both documents—each of them with a specific profile, where the PNC seeks to establish guidelines for the culture sector and the QPR provides a state of affairs on the creative sector—will have an impact on the sustainability, continuity and strengthening of the recorded policies.

On the other hand, the private sector and civil society design and implement initiatives that represent important pending works that the public sector has not been able to fully address, and which are essential for the development of the sectors: mapping, diagnoses, surveys, training spaces, among others. These are the cases of academic institutions such as the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) or the University of Piura (UDEP), which, among others, have become capacity building spaces for cultural agents, as well as spaces in charge of generating information and producing updated knowledge about the sector in its different components. Civil society, for its part, plays a key role by positioning as an active agent that influences the development and monitoring of public policies, through organization and coordination platforms such as the Peruvian Alliance of Cultural Organizations (APOC), which gathers and disseminates the needs and requests of multiple civil society organizations interested in actively contributing to public policy.

The third level of analysis is set out from a transversal look to the reported policies, in order to identify the achievements of the last four years, as well as the challenges or works in progress. As has been already mentioned, the growth of the creative sector is indisputable, as it is so that this compilation of policies allows us to see clearly what the current and future urgencies are, posing a tentative order of priorities.
This transversal look was built from a systematization and analysis work by the team in charge of preparing the QPR, but mainly from open meetings with representatives of civil society organizations, unions and associations, actors associated with the academy, and the members of the National Team. Therefore, it is crucial to highlight that the selection of the challenges corresponds to a collective effort to coordinate and organize the information gathered, and also to make the opinions and urgencies of each participant known.

We selected eleven challenges that condense, in concrete statements and clear tasks for the following four years, 58 proposals prepared by the different participating actors. These are: 1) strengthening intercultural approach; 2) strengthening cultural management at the local level; 3) enhancing inter-institutional coordination; 4) having updated information systems; 5) promoting the participation of women and LGTBI communities in cultural life; 6) improving the working conditions of the culture worker; 7) enhancing and enabling digital environment; 8) strengthening measures aimed at creation and management; 9) generating strategies for national and international mobility; 10) establishing synergies with Civil Society and the Private Sector; and 11) the National Cultural Policy. The challenges are developed in the last section of this report.

Finally, it is essential to point out that the Quadrennial Periodic Report presented by Peru in 2020 has been prepared during a period of time affected by atypical conditions that put sectoral priorities into perspective, and cause constant changes and reformulations to the sector's central issues; therefore, the challenges presented in this document have been organized, not only from the context and the needs of a state of emergency, triggered by the health crisis caused by COVID-19 since March 15, 2020 but also with the aim of developing the sector in the long term.