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 5th 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.