What is Red GEALC?
The Network of E-Government Authorities of Latin America and the Caribbean, Red GEALC,
has brought together digital government agency leaders from countries in the region since
2003. Such a lineup makes Red GEALC a unique instrument to promote horizontal cooperation,
support the creation of participatory public policies in the field, train government officials,
provide knowledge on key aspects when developing digital government national strategies,
promote solution exchange and experts’ dialogue among countries in the region.
Red GEALC’s general purpose is to support the development of digital government public
policies with citizens -especially the most vulnerable populations- at the core.
Such an effort is consistent with the Organization of American States’ (OAS) policy on the
relevance of integrating ICTs in political, economic and social development efforts, as has been
established in the context of the Summits of the Americas since the Miami Summit in 1994,
which was later emphasized by the Declaration on Connectivity of the Third Summit of the
Americas held in Quebec in 2001, to be later re-emphasized by the Fourth Summit of the
Americas held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2005.
Besides having the OAS Technical Secretariat available to it, Red GEALC counts on the Inter-
American Development Bank (IADB) as another promoter both from a technical cooperation
point of view (the IADB is part of Red GEALC’s Executive Committee) as well as by means of
specific projects under the Regional Public Goods Initiative of IADB. Therefore, the purpose of
Red GEALC is also consistent with IADB’s development policies, to such an extent as to be
considered by the Bank as one further mechanism for regional dialogue.
Red GEALC has the three European members of the Ibero-American General Secretariat as
observer countries (Andorra, Spain and Portugal). In turn, at the request of ministers on the 5 th
E-Government Ministerial Meeting, which was later approved by the region’s Foreign Affairs
Ministers, Red GEALC has been recognized due to its Inter-American nature.
From its inception, the network has also counted on the support of the International
Development Research Center, IDRC, and of the Canadian International Development Agency,
CIDA. It regularly coordinates tasks with other international agencies such as ECLAC, OECD
and the United Nations.
Among the various activities described on work plan reports, Red GEALC has conducted the following outstanding actions:
• In person and virtual knowledge exchange opportunities have turned it into a key source of reference for more than 60 top officials in charge of promoting digital government among countries in the region.
• Yearly meetings to establish priorities and get familiar with regional and extra regional experiences. Every two years, together with top member country digital government authorities, ministers in charge of this topic are invited to get together.
Biennial editions of Awards for Excellence in Electronic Government, excelGOV, in recognition of the best solutions for transparency, citizen participation, efficiency, m-government, digital transformation, cross-border services and other highlights that appear in every edition. Besides awards, special mentions are also presented with a focus on gender, open data and open-source software. Over 400 candidacies from 20+ countries have taken part and full catalogues have been created as a valuable sample of specific cases.
• Establishment of a horizontal cooperation fund, FOCOH, that has set in motion over 150 experts from 20 countries.
• Specific support to e-government solutions and exchange of health-care and social emergency experiences resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Generation of two regional open-source software programs and constant support to countries in the region when establishing basic technical agreements for cross-border digital signature.
• Four open data, sustainability, digital inclusion and m-government research initiatives and four resulting pilot projects including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru.
• In-person workshops with the participation of over 400 top officials from the region.
• Daily updated, online information and document repository to be publicly accessed through this platform. It has become the main online referent in the region on the subject matter (www.redgealc.org). It includes a secondary portal for each country in the region with strategies, state of the art updates, legislation and e-government news.
• Over 400 officials being trained on e-government online courses.
• Ad-hoc working group on open source data, public innovation, open source software and
emerging technologies.
• Working group leadership on eLAC e-government as an initiative of countries in the region which are members of the group.
• Discussions on a monitoring mechanism on the state of progress of e-government, e-
• GovMonitor towards an impact monitoring.
Comité Ejecutivo Red Gealc
The Annual Meeting of Members, in the framework of Red GEALC Annual Meeting, is the top decision-making body. It consists of the top authority of the agency representing each country in Red GEALC. Their representation can be delegated when participation in the Annual Meeting turns out to be impossible. Every country has a vote.
The other government bodies are the President and the Executive Committee. They hold office for one year (with one single consecutive reelection being allowed).
During the 18th Annual Meeting of Red GEALC (City of Buenos Aires, September 30th to October 1st 2019) Costa Rica was elected President country for the year 2020.
Representing this country, the role will be held by the Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), Paola Vega on behalf of the Ministry.
The 2020 Executive Committee was also elected. This is the body responsible for executing decisions made in the Annual Assembly and for implementing the Annual Plan. It is composed of eight member countries elected by the Annual Assembly based on geographical criteria (two representatives from the Andean Region, two from the Caribbean, two from Mesoamerica and two from Mercosur, in this case, Chile and Colombia, Belize and the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Panama, and Argentina and Uruguay, respectively) and representatives from sponsoring organizations (OAS, Technical Secretariat, and IADB) with the involvement of the Manager of Red GEALC.
President Red Gealc 2020
Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications
Minister
Executive Committee 2020
Undersecretary of Open Government and Digital Country
Secretariat of Public Innovation
Executive Office of the Cabinet of Ministers
Ministry of Youth, Sport and e-Governance
Head of the Division of Digital Government
Chile
Mintinc – Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications
Director of Digital Government
Director of Digital Governance
Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications
Deputy General Manager
National Authority for Government Innovation
Manager in charge
Executive Director
AGESIC – Agency of Electronic Government and Information and Knowledge Society
Department for Effective Public Management
OAS
Coordinator
Data and Digital Government Clúster
IDB
Grupos de trabajo
Working Groups are open spaces where the digital government agencies from Red GEALC member countries gather to advance on any of the Action Plan areas or to perform tasks mandated by the Executive Committee or the Annual Assembly.
The following are the on-going Working Groups:
Coronavirus Working Group
This group was created to exchange solutions and ideas in reference to how digital government can support country efforts in the region to manage the COVID-19 crisis.
Membership in this group is dynamic. It currently comprises 16 countries and its work is reflected in a dedicated working line that can be found at this link.
Open Data Working Group
he Open Data Working group was formally created by the Red GEALC Executive Committee in July 2015 while it informally spawned during Gobcamp III held in Mexico City in October 2014.
Its purpose is to redouble efforts to develop and strengthen open data, as well as regional initiatives and policies on open data.
Details of their actions can be found at this link.
Public Innovation Working Group
Since its creation in 2015, it has been performing all the Annual Plans of Red GEALC. Its objective is to encourage the exchange of best practices in order to improve public sector innovation policies of the region. It executes a corresponding working line that can be found at this link.
Public Software Working Group
Since the implementation of the collaborative Regional Mechanism of public software which is financed since 2014 by the Regional Public Goods initiative (RPG) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), a Public Software Working Groups started operating within the framework of Red GEALC.
Participating countries are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Its governance structure includes a Technical Coordinating Group (TCG) which for the 2014-2017 period comprised Venezuela and Uruguay as permanent members (given these were the countries that presented and managed the project, respectively) and two other countries that rotated every six months.
In 2014, 2015 and 2016, the countries rotating on this management role were Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Dominican Republic.
From 2017 to 2020, many of the actions executed were related to cross-border services given the implementation and adaptation for the arrobafirma public software.
Emerging Technologies Working Group
Its purpose is to identify emerging technologies and develop relevant knowledge in order to support the digital transformation of the region. In many instances, it works in coordination with the Public Innovation Working Group.
It leads a corresponding working line which can be found at this link.
Communications Working Group
The Communications Working Group is formed by the communication departments of the digital government agencies of the region. It provides permanent support to Red GEALC’s communication strategy, including the website and social media accounts.
Other working groups
In preparation for the 2021 Annual Plan, the new Cybersecurity Working Group is currently under development.