Editing Alejandro Toledo (section)

=== Social initiatives ===
Toledo did implement some of his plans for investment in social infrastructure and institutions. The amount of paved roads increased by 20% during his presidency; medical attention to the poor doubled in rural areas, and public sector salaries increased (school teachers' pay rose by 87%) and over 100,000 new homes were built for poor Peruvians.<ref name="elcomercio.pe">"[http://elcomercio.pe/wikileaks-peru/146 Análisis sobre mensaje a la nación de Alejandro Toledo]" Retrieved 27 June 2011.</ref>

By 2004, Peru had a far-reaching [[social safety net]] that included food programs serving 35 percent of the population, and work programs offering temporary employment to unskilled workers. The Cooperative Fund for Social Development funded projects to construct and improve schools, health clinics, rural roads, water and sanitation systems, and electric grids. Toledo placed food and infrastructure programs under the Ministry for Women and Social Development and urged that municipalities implement decentralization. Social safety-net spending in Peru remained well below the Latin American average under Toledo even as it covered a larger percentage of the population, which means that outlays were insufficient to lift many people up out of poverty.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

==== Education ====
Toledo inherited an educational system which had been plagued for decades by mediocrity, low completion rates, inadequate resources, and inequality between genders, classes, and races. Toledo launched Project Huascaran, which enabled primary and secondary-school classrooms to connect a nationwide computer network of learning systems. During his campaign, Toledo had promised to double teachers’ salaries, but ran into problems when the teachers unions successfully opposed an initiative to tie salary increases to improved skills and performance standards.
In 2002, Toledo declared an emergency in education, stating four objectives to respond to it:
* Reverse the deterioration in quality of education
* Give priority to basic education
* emphasize teacher training and performance
* evaluate and upgrade schools
Throughout his administration, enrollment rates in primary and secondary education remained high and private-school enrollment increased, but overall literacy and test scores improved only slightly. In an interview on his last day in office, Toledo expressed frustration that his administration had not done more to improve education.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

==== Healthcare ====
During his first year in office, Toledo replaced previous health-insurance programs aimed at the poor with a more comprehensive free insurance program, {{Interlanguage link|Seguro Integral de Salud (Perú)|lt=Seguro Integral de Salud|es}} (SIS). The program aimed to provide Peruvians without health insurance with improved access to health care. By the end of his term, SIS covered more than 11&nbsp;million Peruvians living on the outskirts of cities or in rural areas. However, about a third of the country remained without health coverage.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

The program has been immensely popular. [[Alan García|President García]] expanded the program, which has been praised by neoliberal reformers for extending coverage to indigenous people and women. They also note that it has addressed with considerable success the fact that Peruvian women's healthcare costs are much higher than men's owing to higher rates of illness and reproductive issues. The legislature continues to build upon SIS, using it as a basis for what many hope will someday be universal healthcare coverage for all Peruvians.<ref>Ewing, Christina (2010) [https://books.google.com/books?id=sbqGfzhkFvMC&q=sis&pg=PA162 ''Second-wave Neoliberalism: Gender, Race, and Health Sector Reform in Peru''], Retrieved 1 June 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-271-03711-0}}</ref>

Toledo also attempted to improve access to healthcare in the most remote places. His Juntos program awarded a monthly benefit to poor families who agreed to get vaccinations and screenings, attend school, and obtain birth registration documents. The Toledo administration also provided financial incentives to young doctors who were willing to spend the first few years of their practices in remote areas.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

==== Housing ====
Peru faced a major housing deficit in 2001, with the majority of its urban population living in slums. Toledo's administration sought to improve access to affordable housing through subsidies, loans, down payments, land titling, and encouraging financial institutions to reach further down-market. Most of these efforts were grouped under the Fondo Mivivienda, which was a program started in 1999.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>