Description:
COVID-19 brought home the urgency of addressing long-standing inequality ICT access gaps.The immediate effects of the health emergency and the measures taken by various governments in Latin America to reduce the spread of the virus have highlighted our increasing dependence on reliable connectivity and adequate infrastructure. In the face of the crisis, our lack of adequate ICT capacity has resurfaced. Infrastructure deficit in the region has led to the critical issue of inequality, i.e., connectivity gaps, affordable and quality access, network robustness, security and traffic management. The suspension of schools and universities as well as of non essential activities and work has made the costs of the digital divide more clear than ever. The implementation of stay at home measures have different implications for people living in areas with access to mobile connectivity versus those that remain without access. Remote work and schooling is not a possibility for all and this threatens to increase the negative effects of the crisis in the long term for low income groups, women and minorities. In addition, For those who thought the debate on universal access was passé, COVID-19 reminded us that we need to offer a policy solution urgently. Countries in the Latin American region have not implemented a solution to the difficulties of compensating the lack of commercial attractiveness for ISPs to invest in remote regions. To be sure, there have been a myriad of policies and investments, public-private schemes and incentives, universal access funds and state led initiatives and none of these have reached any real level of success. We need to revisit old solutions that may have had implementation errors, as well as think out of the box for new solutions. This session will begin with a state of the issue of topics to be addressed including: infrastructure deficit and connectivity gaps in Latin America; gender gap in internet adoption in Latin America; and how this has been further revealed during the recent pandemic. Panelists will also address gender differences in employment in Latin America; the value of digital skills in Latin American education systems and labor markets, and what this means in a post-Covid-19 context. These issues will be addressed with recent research studies presented by specialists in the region. The moderator and speakers will invite in-person and online audiences to speak to these issues, and provide insight into specific cases or propose policy within the current global and regional context.
