Among the announcements made at the beginning of her administration, President Keiko Fujimori included the commitment to promote a “major civil service reform.” The mention deserves attention not for its novelty — Peru has been trying to organize the public career for more than two decades — but because managing those who work for the State is a condition to execute the other announced proposals. In this regard, the IDB, in its report “How to improve State effectiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean” (2026), highlights three decisive capacities to strengthen the civil service. These are merit-based hiring, managerial leadership, and data-driven human resource management.
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The starting point
Fujimori proposed merit, ongoing training, and a service vocation, accompanied by measurable goals and accountability. The real reform will begin when these principles become rules for competency-based selection, training according to the State’s needs, evaluation with clear objectives, and preservation of technical teams and institutional knowledge in the face of political changes.
We are not starting from scratch. Since 2013, the Civil Service Law (30057) has been in force, and Servir has the mandate to lead its implementation. Additionally, since 2008, it competitively selects members of the Public Managers Corps and assigns them to strategic non-political leadership positions. Although limited, this model offers a basis to professionalize public management.
The backlog, however, is considerable. In 2024, of the nearly 833,000 people covered by the four general regimes in force in our country, only 3,948 — less than 0.5% — belonged to the regime of Law 30057. In contrast, 373,233 remained under CAS; 270,236 under regime 276; and 185,477 under 728. More than a decade after its creation, the regime designed to overcome this fragmentation continues to be marginal.
From principles to management
First, it is necessary to identify what worked, what blocked the reform, and what to correct. On that basis, a roadmap is needed that prioritizes entities and critical positions, allocates budget, sets deadlines, and publishes verifiable progress. Accelerating means preventing fragmentation from continuing indefinitely, while respecting the rights of those already working in the State.
Second, merit must be realized in public job profiles, verifiable criteria, and transparent competitions. In public management, this requires distinguishing political leadership from technical management and reducing discretion in the latter. The experience of the Public Managers Corps can support a model of competitive selection, reasonable stability, and continuity subject to an objective evaluation, not affinity with the current authority.
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Third, training does not mean accumulating courses. Training must start from identified gaps in required competencies, combine mentoring, rotation, and verify the application of what was learned at work. Evaluation should focus on a few relevant goals, frequent feedback, and well-founded decisions on recognition, development, or correction, without becoming a documentary ritual or encouraging figures without citizen value.
Finally, the service vocation must be reflected in integrity, listening, collaboration, and quality. The reform itself must also be accountable. A public dashboard led by Servir should show the transition of entities, meritocratic coverage of critical positions, continuity of teams, and closing of gaps, linking them to results for citizens.
Success should be measured by the capacity of entities to better solve people’s problems. Otherwise, we will again have a well-announced and partially implemented reform.
There is also another transformation in which the human factor will be decisive. The digitalization of the State, but talking about that transformation deserves another article.
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