Digital technologies are transforming how people live, work, and connect. In Latin America and the Caribbean they offer vast opportunities to boost productivity, improve service delivery, and create new sources of value. Yet access and adoption remain uneven: while most of the region’s wealthiest households are online, many low-income and rural communities, Indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendants still face barriers to digital inclusion. By advancing equitable and secure digital transformation, LAC countries can unlock innovation, enhance resilience, and foster more inclusive growth across the region.
The World Bank’s Latin America and the Caribbean Digital Development Unit works to connect people, governments, enterprises, and civil society to expand access to digital services and harness safe, inclusive, and secure digital and AI innovation—creating more opportunities and better jobs across the region.
The unit’s mission is structured around five strategic pillars:
- To expand coverage to connect hard-to-reach areas and improve connectivity quality.
- To increase affordability of devices, especially for the bottom 40% of the population.
- To unlock digital services for all with digital enablers (digital skills, cybersecurity and data protection).
- To spur the growth of technology companies especially in low-income countries.
- To enhance AI readiness to bridge the widening digital divide.
Strategy
The LAC Digital Development Unit delivers on the World Bank’s core mandate: to provide financing, knowledge, and development support that help countries advance their digital transformation.
The unit manages a robust portfolio of lending and non-lending operations across the region.
Lending operations provide financing for large-scale investments—including in digital infrastructure, government digital services, and digital skills—while non-lending operations deliver advisory services, technical assistance, policy analysis, and capacity building.
Together, these efforts help countries lay the groundwork for impactful investments, respond to national priorities, and maximize development outcomes.
How We Work
The LAC Digital Development Unit’s work is organized around six interconnected business lines that form the key foundations and accelerators of digital transformation:
- Digital data infrastructure
- Digital government
- Digital connectivity
- Digital safeguards
- ICT industry and digital jobs
- Green digital
These business lines are strengthened through close collaboration with other World Bank Global Departments, as well as with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), ensuring a comprehensive World Bank Group approach to digital development in the region.
