Policy Interventions to Address Digital Inequalities in Latin America in the Face of the Pandemic

BERNADETTE CALIFANO; BECERRA, MARTÍN

Digital Inclusion. International Policy and Research

Palgrave Macmillan

Año: 2024; p. 39 - 61

The aim of this paper is to analyze policy interventions to addressdigital inequalities in five different Latin American countries (Argentina,Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) during the first months after the outbreakof COVID-19 reached the region (March-June 2020). The study draws on an analysis of the set of regulations and specificpolicy-making actions introduced in the field of connectivity in the countriesunder review, as well as official documents prepared by the public and private sectors,and statistics on ICT access and usage in the region. The main argument is put forward that Latin American governmentsresponded quickly to the spike in demand for connectivity posed by the contextof the pandemic, partly because they had learned from what had happened inother latitudes, and partly because of the legacy of public policies resultingfrom previous experiences in the sector. However, the digital divides thatpersisted from previous structural inequalities lessened the impact of theactions implemented during the pandemic emergence. Likewise, these actionsrevealed that inequalities tend to increase, as a digitally underserved segmentof the population becomes deprived of access to education, health information,entertainment, and work-from-home services in their various forms in thiscontext.