"What's the point, when we're already dead?" Implementation challenges of COVID-19 public policies for indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon: A sequential multi-method qualitative study.

ABSTRACT: Peru issued multiple COVID-19 policies for the Amazon, yet how they worked in practice for Indigenous Peoples remains under-documented. We conducted a sequential multi-method qualitative study, reviewing 20 national and regional policy documents (Mar-Dec 2020) and interviewing 12 implementers, regional and local officials from the health sector (n = 8) and the Ministry of Culture (n = 4), plus one central-level culture representative, in Loreto and Junin. Triangulating top-down policy review with bottom-up practitioner accounts across two contrasting regions strengthened validity. Policies frequently lacked explicit intercultural guidance, clear monitoring indicators, and dedicated budgets. Implementers described budget misalignment, omission of specific health networks, delayed supplies,

SUBMITTER: Valdivia-Gago A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12788662 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature