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SOURCING & SUPPLY CHAIN
W
orld Footwear
first became aware of
governments investing in school shoes when
the Argentinian government launched an
initiative at the end of 2008 to convince
companies throughout the leather value chain to work together
to make children’s shoes in Argentina from Argentinian leather,
making them available in the nation’s shops at prices similar
levels to those of imported shoes. It said at the time it would
set up a credit of up to $150 million at the national bank to help
the industry achieve this aim.
In 2011, with a repeat in 2012, the Salvadorian government
took this idea a stage further by buying school shoes from local
manufacturers and handing them out to families as part of a
package that included a uniform, books and writing materials to
make sure that even children from the least privileged
backgrounds would have everything they needed to be able to
attend school.
As seen in El Salvador
It is the Salvadorian model that the government of Peru is
now following, including shoes and clothes for schoolchildren
in a wider domestically focused procurement project, MYPERú,
a play on words combining, obviously, the name of the country
with the widespread term for micro- and small-sized
businesses, exactly the type of manufacturing company that the
government wants to benefit. It has also made the point that
this project is a way to help manufacturers in Peru in the face
of a downturn in business from the widespread problems in the
global economy.
Changes for children
Peru’s beleaguered ministry of education (MINEDU) has
spent much of its energy in recent months battling with striking
teachers. A dispute broke out on June 20 over proposed
reforms to teachers’ training and employment conditions,
leading to protests outside the ministry. In the midst of this, the
ministry announced that the first shoes made as part of the
MYPERú programme, around 1.5 million pairs, were ready for
distribution. Children aged between six and 13 at more than
40,000 schools throughout the South American country will
receive the new shoes along with, as in El Salvador, a uniform
and school materials. In some very remote areas, the project
WORLD FOOTWEAR | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
Following the example of El Salvador, the government of Peru has announced that it
will hand out new shoes to 2.3 million schoolchildren to help families send their
children to school.
School shoes idea
moves to Peru
An idea on the march. Providing shoes and other essentials is a
way for the government to encourage children to take up their
place in school.
CREDIT: STEVE ESTVANIK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM