The present publication has been prepared to study the potential of ICTs to promote socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable agricultural development. In Latin America, social inclusion and environmental sustainability in agriculture are especially relevant issues, in light of the great structural heterogeneity within the sector and, more recently, the stepped-up pressures on natural resources resulting from the boom in international commodity markets. Yet, the adoption of ICTs in agriculture cannot be expected by itself to reduce production asymmetries and enhance social inclusion. …
This report presents strategic recommendations for the development of Aruba's fintech sector with a focus on leveraging artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technologies. It evaluates Aruba's readiness in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector and the financial sector, comparing key indicators against counterparts in the region, including Curaçao, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The report highlights strenaths, such as stable democratic traditions, high education levels and a robust banking sector, and weaknesses, such as…
This study examines two knowledge management processes, namely knowledge capture and retention and knowledge sharing, in the context of the Caribbean. It provides theoretical backgrounds of the processes and specifically looks at the advantages for and barriers to knowledge management in the public sector. The study suggests that by using existing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to create an online presence, the Caribbean public sector can already move towards achieving some knowledge capture and retention and knowledge sharing goals. The study concludes by evaluating through…
Document prepared by the secretariat of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for the Regional Meeting on Information Technology for Development (Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, 20-21 June 2000).…
La innovación, automatización y digitalización de los procesos productivos conllevan numerosas externalidades positivas para las empresas. Entre esos efectos se incluye un aumento de la competitividad y la productividad pues se mejoran los procesos operativos, se facilita el acceso a los nuevos mercados, se fomenta la diferenciación de los productos y se optimiza toda la cadena de valor. Las tendencias de la fabricación inteligente aprovechan esos cambios y ponen de relieve las oportunidades y los retos para las empresas. Existen varios factores que condicionan la adopción de nuevas tecnología…
Over the last two decades, new information and communications technologies (ICT) have been incorporated into education systems around the world, as a way of enhancing the learning experience. Latin American countries have over this time made great efforts not to be left behind in this global trend. The first school-oriented ICT policies and programmes began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This process has been guided by the notion that ICT have the potential to alter the scenario in which they are introduced, and that they can facilitate the review and reformulation of prevaili…
Expertise, skills, experiences, understandings and capabilities (knowledge) aid development, not just by informing decision-making, but also by providing ideas for actions and activities that can be taken. Due to their size, and economic and environmental vulnerabilities, Caribbean Small Island developing States (SIDS) faces special challenges when working towards their economic, social and environmental development goals. These challenges have contributed to the creation of knowledge gaps, and that which is already available is located in isolated pockets, throughout the Caribbean. Migration …
The ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean will convene an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) to consider elements of artificial intelligence readiness and digital government strategies for Caribbean countries, taking into consideration their special circumstances as Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It will also include a discussion of the draft study: “Caribbean artificial intelligence readiness: an exploratory review”, which aims to provide a preliminary analysis of AI readiness for the Caribbean based on key dimensions and provide some recommendations to policymakers.
Taking into …
This occasional paper examines the experiences of three leading global centres of the ICT industry –
India, Silicon Valley, and Estonia – to reflect on how the lessons of these models can be applied to the
context of countries in the Caribbean region.Several sectors of the technology industry are considered in relation to the suitability for their
establishment in the Caribbean. Animation is an area that is showing encouraging signs of
development in several countries, and which offers some promise to provide a significant source of
employment in the region. However, the global market for anim…
Scant empirical evidence is available on how the Latin American and Caribbean region participates in global value chains (GVCs) and what drives this process. Frequent questions in this connection are: How has the spread of information and communications technologies and free trade agreements facilitated the region’s participation in GVCs? To what extent do small firms participate in GVCs? What learning mechanisms and production and technological feedbacks operate in different types of GVCs? How can countries and firms take advantage of upgrading processes in GVCs? What role do policies play to…
The White Paper draws on interoperability experience and projects in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago, which provided the basis for the architecture of the Latin America and Caribbean interoperability platform designed by ECLC.1 The European Union's experience with interoperability —in the form of studies, practices and agreements that are potentially useful to the Latin American and Caribbean countries as they discuss interoperability— has also been instructive.The Paper provides definitions to serve as a framework for discussion, and as a starting point for explor…
Los capítulos que conforman este libro, abarcan desde la visión más general del sistema de banda ancha hasta la propuesta de líneas de acción específicas para la política pública. Una parte importante del mismo se destina a evaluar la dinámica y los efectos económicos de la banda ancha en América Latina y el Caribe, esfuerzo que es particularmente difícil, dada la carencia de información sobre el particular, tanto a nivel agregado como sectorial. Esto reafirma una de las recomendaciones de política del último capítulo: la necesidad de avanzar significativamente en el desarrollo de sistemas de …
While ICTs can break down barriers and ensure that everyone can participate actively in society, many people with disabilities are currently not able to use computers, access the internet or handle smartphones and other mobile technology. In the Caribbean, this is particularly worrisome, given that there are approximately 1.3 million persons with a disability of some kind and around 250,000 persons with a significant disability.
It is for this reason that ECLAC Caribbean undertook a study to research ways to bridge the digital divide that affects persons with disabilities. One of the solutions…
An on-line survey of experts was conducted to solicit their views on policy priorities in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Caribbean. The experts considered the goal
to “promote teacher training in the use of ICTs in the classroom” to be the highest priority, followed by goals to “reduce the cost of broadband services” and “promote the use of ICT in emergency and
disaster prevention, preparedness and response.” Goals in the areas of cybercrime, e-commerce, egovernment, universal service funds, consumer
protection, and on-line privacy rounded out the top 10.
S…
The Caribbean needs to provide affordable and wider access to digital services, while taking advantage of the opportunities created by technological convergence and mobile technologies.
As part of its continued support of these and other Caribbean priorities within the objectives of the eLAC 2018 Digital Agenda, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean has outlined several objectives which will encourage broader input from the region.
Representatives of Caribbean countries have been invited to an informational webinar, which…
This paper examines the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for disaster risk management (DRM) with a specific focus on the Caribbean. The study included the review of literature and case studies, as well the administration of a survey instrument that collected the feedback of 13 regional national DRM agencies.
Analysis of the survey suggests that while subregional disaster management agencies have fairly good access to technology infrastructure and enjoy an information sharing culture, challenges exist with regard to the information governance frameworks as well as the …