SANTIAGO, Chile – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) must make progress on digital inclusion, putting it at the center of its public policies.
EACLAC is also warning that since without suitable measures, today’s fast-paced technological transformation can deepen preexisting inequalities and generate new forms of social, labour and territorial exclusion.
Addressing the Sixth Regional Seminar on Social Development “Inequality and Digital Inclusion; Challenges and Opportunities for Inclusive Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean,” ECLAC’s executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, digital transformation creates significant opportunities for Latin America and the Caribbean, a region caught in three, mutually reinforcing development traps.
“.…one involving low capacity for growth and transformation, another of high inequality, low social mobility and weak social cohesion and a third of low institutional capacity and ineffective governance.”
He said the incorporation of new technologies, the expansion of artificial intelligence and the digital economy’s advances can contribute to increasing productivity, fueling innovation, creating new economic sectors and expanding access to essential services such as education, health, social protection and financial services.
The senior UN official said these transformations can also create new job opportunities, strengthen people’s capabilities, and expand the region’s possibilities for economic growth and development.
“However, these opportunities are not automatically or equitably distributed. Moving towards digital inclusion necessitates recognizing its social dimension and placing it at the center of public policies.
“This is not just a technological agenda, it is also an agenda for rights and development,” Salazar-Xirinach added.
The seminar, which end on Thursday, is organized, in a hybrid format, by ECLAC with support from the EU’s regional programme “Inclusive Societies in Latin America and the Caribbean,” which is financed by the European Commission and implemented through the ECLAC–BMZ/giz Strategic Alliance, the Republic of Korea, and the Ford Foundation.
The European Union’s Ambassador to Chile, Claudia Gintersdorfer, said technology in itself does not lead to inclusion.
“It can expand opportunities, but it can also reproduce existing forms of exclusion if it is not accompanied by appropriate public policies, solid institutions and a clear focus on equity. That is why the issue that brings us here today is not just technological in nature; it is, above all, a matter of development, rights and social cohesion,” she said.
The Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Chile, Hak-Jae Kim, said that the seminar “represents a privileged space for dialogue and collective action at a time when social development challenges require urgent and innovative responses”.
He said that “digital inclusion is not a minor technical issue; it is one of the pillars of social justice in the 21st century.
“Korea wants to continue being a strategic partner to ECLAC and to the region in forging digital inclusion that would put people and their rights at the center.”
In addition to highlighting the multiple collaborative initiatives between German Cooperation and ECLAC, Fabian Klein, an ECLAC-BMZ/giz programme advisor, stated that “we know there is no single solution, and certainly no definitive one, but we firmly believe that exchanging experiences can generate valuable lessons and proposals that would strengthen public policy design and the creation of a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable institutional framework.”
The seminar will provide an opportunity for participants to share experiences, good practices and proposals aimed at bridging digital divides and moving towards more inclusive societies in the region.
Some of the issues to be discussed include the multidimensional measurement of inequality; the digital divide and inclusive social development; digital social protection and health; the use of digital technologies by children and adolescents; labour policies in the face of automation; and the school-to-work transition in the digital era.
This seminar also seeks to give continuity to the debates put forth at the Sixth Session of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to the commitments that emerged from the Second World Summit for Social Development, held in Qatar in 2025.
The aim is to produce strategic inputs that would help identify transformative recommendations and proposals for moving towards inclusive social development, reducing inequalities and bridging digital gaps.
