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Local Spatial Data Infrastructure, Trujillo - Peru Urban Management Managing cities in developing countries is a challenging task. Continuing urban growth under budgetary constraints and massive poverty conditions makes that urban planning and the provision of urban infrastructures and other basic services is to a large extent ineffective and at sub-standard level. Over the last four - five decades many different policies have been implemented to manage urban growth and provide the inhabitants with essential services such as housing, schools, clinics, infrastructure. While in some regions impressive progress has been made to improve the quality of life resulting in increased life expectancy and higher incomes, massive urban poverty exist in most developing countries. Peru is a highly urbanized country (72% of its 26 million inhabitants life in cities) and 54% of the total population are living in poverty conditions many of them in cities. The experiences in the past of spending large amounts of public money (facilitated by international loans) in the hope that problems disappear have proven to be ineffective and were only partly successful. The major problems of such a project approach are: top-down, bureaucratic, no embedding in local organisations, costly, limited cost recovery, no project maintenance or follow-up, little support by key stakeholders including the population. The current policy of strategic planning at local level in which all stakeholders are participating and decisions are made based on consensus seems promising. Municipalities in Peru should like to have larger mandates and especially financial means to manage their own territory while people like to be involved into the development of their own neighbourhoods. This requires decentralisation of decision-making, budget transfer (national to local) and the tools and capabilities to plan and manage neighbourhoods and municipalities. Between 1990 and 2000 the Peruvian State under the presidency of Fujimori was highly centralised. Only the ministry of the Presidency controlled 25% of the total public expenditure while the approx. 1000 district municipalities of the country have access to less then 4% of the total public budget. The situation has changed since the installation of Toledo as president as he promised to start a decentralisation policy to return powers to local and regional levels. As a result of the International Environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, Trujillo, and many other municipalities in Peru and other countries have developed local integrated development programs, the so-called Agenda 21’s. Agenda 21 and a Municipal Information System of Trujillo An A 21 is a planning and management process that through alliances between the public and private sector and NGO’s intends to develop policies and projects oriented to search for integral and sustainable development of Trujillo. The mission of the A 21 of Trujillo is “to develop Trujillo into a healthy and sustainable city by integrating economical, social and environmental development, respecting cultural heritage and to improve the quality of life for all the inhabitants”. The most critical problems to achieve these objectives are:
 Figure 1 Schematic Representation of Agenda 21 Trujillo Figure 1 shows in the centre the vision of A 21, around the centre the five Strategic action lines (A, B, C, D and E) and results for each action line (e.g A1, A2, A3, A4, B1 etc). In the outer circles five context aspects are indicates: the legal framework, communication, information systems, participation - consensus and education – awareness. The five strategic lines are dealing with:
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