Latin America's Digital Divide: Overcoming Persistent Gaps
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare—and exacerbated—virtually all of long-standing inequalities in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Among the most egregious has been the digital divide: only 45.5 percent of Latin American households have broadband access, and the average gap in internet usage between the top and bottom quintile of earners is about 40 percent. The rural-urban divide is also stark. In urban areas, 67 percent of households are connected, while in rural areas, the figure is only 23 percent.
The gap in connectivity has had profound implications for the education and health sectors as well as for labor markets. Disparities among and within countries are stark, with millions of school children losing out on educational opportunities in the absence of in-person classes. Those without internet cannot access telehealth services, even as governments relaxed barriers to telemedicine to expand healthcare to the vulnerable. And across the region, high-income workers are more than twice as likely as low-income workers to able to telework.
To discuss these gaps along with strategies for overcoming them, please join the Wilson Center's Latin American Program and Science and Technology Innovation Program on Monday, May 10, 2021, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm ET for a discussion with regional experts.
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Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Science and Technology Innovation Program
The Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP) serves as the bridge between technologists, policymakers, industry, and global stakeholders. Read more