Our role in digitalizing Latin America with Big Data

This week, Telefónica and the International Development Bank (IDB) renewed their strategic alliance to continue promoting digital transformation and socio-economic development programs in Latin America from 2017 to 2020. This time, the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) has also come on board, with the goal of strengthening collaboration with the private sector.

This new addition, broadens the scope of the alliance as well as the opportunity to take joint actions on economic, social and digital development projects in countries where Telefónica, the IDB and the IIC operate, in collaboration with governments, civil servants and the private sector.

The agreement was signed this week here in Madrid by José María Álvarez-Pallete, Chairman and CEO of Telefónica, and Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the IDB. This unique collaboration will focus on six different areas within the Smart Cities area as part of the IDB’s Emerging and Sustainable Cities Program. These include:

Big Data projects focused on data analysis and public interest solutions.
Digital Economy.
Internet Accessibility and development of appropriate regulatory policies.
Entrepreneurial support as framed within the Telefónica Open Future program.
Development initiatives including the areas of education, health and security.

During the first period of this strategic alliance (2012-2015), various development projects in diverse areas such as ICTs and microfinance, education, Smart Cities, internationalisation of SMEs and social entrepreneurship, in addition to collaboration on regulatory studies and publications.

In LUCA, we are extremely excited about the opportunity to participate in Big Data projects in Latin America. We strong believe that using data for development is crucial in driving progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and for this reason we are regularly working with governments and NGOs to use our analytical capabilities for social good. In 2017, we will be taking part in a range of hackathons (like this one in Rio de Janeiro) to see how mobile data and open data can be applied to the most pressing social issues out there.

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