At the Quebec City Summit of the Americas in April 2001, leaders recognized the importance of promoting information and communication technology (ICT) to improve social and economic development and made a commitment to narrow the digital divide. ICA plays a unique and important role in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by bringing together stakeholders from different sectors to implement strategic networks and scale up innovative technology initiatives. ICA fulfills a critical role in the LAC region by facilitating the coordination, collaboration, and sharing of efforts across countries for a number of key projects.

In 2007, ICA started its second phase with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In this new phase, ICA will focus its support on the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a tool to enhance democratic governance and health conditions in the Americas region. Additionally, ICA will continue working on issues related to the role of ICTs in education and certain aspects of economic development.

[Background] [Mission and objectives]

Press release: Launching of project on Social Impacts of 1x1 Models in LA 2008-08-11
The following is the press release distributed on August 11, 2008 announcing the launching of the DESEM-IDRC project  'Social Impacts Research on 1x1 Models in LA'.  Full text available in Spanish.