HomeKnowledge LibraryCuna Más Part One: Peru’s Early Childhood Programme Struggles to Maintain Quality as it Scales Up
HomeKnowledge LibraryCuna Más Part One: Peru’s Early Childhood Programme Struggles to Maintain Quality as it Scales Up

Cuna Más Part One: Peru’s Early Childhood Programme Struggles to Maintain Quality as it Scales Up

This case study weighs up the achievements and challenges of rapid expansion experienced by Peru’s Cuna Más programme.

Based on a successful home visiting intervention in Jamaica, Peru’s Cuna Más was designed to improve the cognitive and emotional development of children below the age of three, living in poverty. This is the first case in a two-part set that looks at how Cuna Más initially expanded quickly but, by 2016, faced operational challenges as it reached populations across Peru that had not previously encountered government-run social programmes.

This case offers an understanding of how a social program that has proven to work in another part of the world can sustainably scale up with quality in a complex environment, amid a host of political, cultural, and logistical challenges.


We commissioned this case study with the Harvard Kennedy School as part of a series that explores the transition to scale of early years initiatives.

Early Childhood Programmes: Management Case Studies

This collection of six case studies from the Harvard Kennedy School shares lessons on how to scale early childhood programmes.

Learn more