THE NETWORK OF E-GOVERNMENT LEADERS OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN (RED GEALC)

The Network of e-Government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (RED GEALC) was created through an initiative of the region’s countries with the support of the Organization of American States (OAS), through the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI), and the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA). The members of RED GEALC, responsible for the advancement of electronic government in their respective countries, conceived this network as a supporting tool for their daily activities. The supporting institutions found in RED GEALC the perfect instrument for promoting horizontal cooperation and joint efforts among Latin American and Caribbean countries in the field of e-Government.

Promoting Entities 

• The Executive Secretariat for Integral Development of the OAS 
• The Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) 
• The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Members

Persons in charge of electronic government from all of the Latin American and Caribbean countries, totaling 51 public officials, as several countries have more than one member in the network.

Components 

• Virtual Working Platform, www.redgealc.net, offering: content management tool for the decentralization of each country’s page content, training room, virtual forums, chats, calendar, information about e-Government from each country, and an experts database.
• Onsite Workshops focusing on best practices in e-Government (Chile, Perú, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada – upcoming –).
• Two facilitators (Caribbean and Latin America) responsible for dynamizing the network, responding to countries´ needs and implementing the working plan.
• Horizontal Cooperation Fund (FOCOH) that finances the exchange of experts.
• Training courses in electronic government in order to support the qualification of e-Government teams in each country (in Spanish, English and Portuguese).
• Working groups for multi-country cooperation and coordination in topics of interest for member countries. Actually constituting four working groups.

Additional information

• The portal www.redgealc.net receives 10,000 unique monthly visitors.
• RED GEALC has trained more than 500 public officials from 25 countries in electronic government.
• Through the workshops of RED GEALC, more than 50 people in charge of electronic government in Latin America and the Caribbean have visited the experiences of other countries in the region and interacted with the officials responsible of these experiences.
• In only 6 months of existence, FOCOH has facilitated the mobilization of 10 experts from different countries of the Network for support to other member countries.