Abstract
This paper describes the progress made in the city of Ilo over the last 15 years and discusses the reasons for its success. Progress includes the much improved provision for water, sanitation and electricity, and the tree-planting and street-paving programmes. It also includes a municipal programme that has ensured that land is available for housing that even low-income households can afford, and that has avoided problems of illegal settlements – despite the city's rapid population growth. It also describes some of the public works – for instance, the pier and sea walkway, and the parks – and how some 300 projects were financed and executed through partnerships between municipal government and community-level management committees. However, the paper's intention is to go beyond the description of achievements, to a consideration of the processes that underlie them. Drawing on the author’s dialogue with the current mayor of Ilo, the paper discusses how the combination of local factors, a broader national and international context and local leadership has helped form the basis for these achievements. It highlights the importance of a mode of government that helps encourage trust, that meets its commitments and that respects agreements developed with the inhabitants.