Public consultation
As an aid for drafting the third Plan of Action for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean, eLAC2015, it was decided to gather the opinions of experts who were not directly involved in government deliberations. This was done by means of a public consultation on the priorities and target issues for eLAC2015.
The process consisted of three rounds of consultations via the Internet; 917 professionals from the public and private sectors, academia and civil society took part. The resultant report is divided into three parts. The first part explains the purpose and history of international commitments on the information society, focusing on regional accords among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The second part describes the goal, methodology and design for each of the three rounds of the exercise, and presents and analyzes the findings. The last part sets out the findings that, along with contributions from the governments, the monitoring of the eLAC2010 Plan and the agreements made at the Preparatory meeting held in Uruguay, were the main inputs for eLAC2015, which was approved at the third Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Lima, Peru, from 21 to 23 November, 2010.
Download here the Public consultation.
The Preparatory meeting
Seventeen Latin American and Caribbean countries that are part of the Regional Plan of Action for the information society participated in the Preparatory Meeting for the Third Ministerial Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, which took place on November 21 to 23, to discuss the long-term strategy for the region, eLAC, which asserts that information and communications technologies (ICTs) are instruments of economic development and social inclusion.
Participants to the meeting addressed the current regional plan of action for the information society, eLAC2010, and discussed a new proposal for the next five years. During the first day of the meeting, country representatives studied the guidelines proposed by ECLAC, organization that acted as Technical Secretariat of eLAC2010, for the new Regional Plan of Action to 2015. On the second day, participants agreed on an advanced proposal of the Plan, composed of eight general guidelines and 22 goals.
The main guidelines aim to advance towards the universalization of access to broadband in the region and a transactional and participatory e-government. They also seek to have ICTs serve as inclusive and quality public policy tools in education and health, as well as promote digital innovation and the incorporation of ICTs in small companies.
