Using Technology to Include Children with Disabilities in Ecuador
The project set out to facilitate the access to education for 60 children with disabilities, in a school of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas in Ecuador, through the use of technology. But more importantly, this project has positively impacted the sense of opportunity of children with disabilities, changing the perception of these children as a burden and increasing the likelihood that they attend college and yield positive economic returns

Activities:
To establish a baseline study and conduct outreach activities with children, measuring the child's level of happiness. Train teachers in ICT tools and provide software and hardware equipment.

Beneficiaries: Fe and Alegría special education center in Santo Domingo de Los Tsáchilas in Ecuador, and set out to expand the number of children with disabilities attending the center, including small children attending their outreach clinics.

Emerging and Sustainable Cities and Competitive, Technology and Innovation
Design of Integrated Operating and Control Center (IOCC) as part of the transformation of municipalities to become "Smart City".

The IOCC is a platform solution, powered with modern technologies operated by experts from multiple government agencies and concessions that work collaboratively to provide integrated solutions for complex urban challenges.

The IOCC receives large quantities of data, in real time, from connected devices (surveillance cameras, devices and sensors) installed within the city; process this data to support focused responses for routine events (e.g. mobility, transportation, public safety, energy, etc.); and, most importantly, allows integrated responses in cases of emergency events that require intense collaboration.

The management of large amounts of data, from multiple sources, through the collaboration of different experts allows faster and better responses to urban routine events and emergencies, where the resolution of a problem doesn’t necessarily come from one single entity. Furthermore, the data analysis from the connected devices allows the identification of behavior patterns, the generation of knowledge to anticipate future events and evaluate government interventions, and provides evidence to support the development of public policy and operational responses that improve traffic and transportation management (connectivity and mobility), disaster risk management and public safety and crime prevention.

An integrated and collaborative solution to manage urban issues will be increasingly required as the number of connected devices and quantity of data continues to increase.

The IOCC solution allows municipalities to effectively handle incidents of traffic, public security, natural disaster, etc. which are associated with rapid urbanization. While most of the proposals are concentrated within the urban sustainability dimension, the IOCC proposal also addresses the environmental sustainability dimension in terms of early warning systems that allow for some amount of mitigation. The linkage of the various systems of the IOCC allow for better disaster preparedness management.

Activities: Technical studies and implementation plans for IOCC

Beneficiaries: LAC Cities

Partners and financing: Korean Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP), Saab, Cisco

Information available in Spanish

Central American Broadband Network
This technical cooperation (TC) proposes the development of feasibility studies to support future investment in the deployment of an optical fiber ring to improve the interconnection among the Central American countries. In the same logic, the studies conducted under this TC will also support countries in their efforts to reduce international Internet connectivity charges through the creation of Inter-Connection Provider (IXP) that allows content aggregation.

Activities:
1. Market Study
• Study of the current supply of telecommunications services in each beneficiary country
• Study to estimate the current demand for those services
2. Technical Study
• Orographic study and population distribution
• Assessment of the existing available infrastructure
• Design of the logic diagram node of the network
• Forecast of the expected traffic according to socio-demographic and economic conditions
• Identification of technological alternatives
• Determination of the requirements in terms of capacity and sizing of the network
• Selection of the best technology to attend the estimated traffic
• Deployment Plan and Implementation Schedule
• Environmental and social impact assessment

Beneficiaries:
Countries in the Central America Region

Broadband Development for Competitiveness and Integration
The proposed regional public good are public policies for broadband development in the Central American region, which are an essential complement for all other sectorial policies, especially public administration, health, education, productivity, trade, science, technology and innovation.

Activities:
1. Análisis de las alternativas de despliegue de banda ancha
2. Desarrollo Regulatorio
• Revisión del marco regulatorio en cada país
• Diseño de propuestas de mejoras a la normativa existente
• Diseño de propuestas de nueva reglamentación
• Identificación de nexos en común entre los distintos países
3. Fomento de la oferta y desarrollo de la demanda de banda ancha
• Revisión de las políticas existentes en materia de conectividad y agenda digital, y benchmark respecto a buenas prácticas
• Diseño de iniciativas de fomento de la oferta
• Diseño de acciones de desarrollo de la demanda
4. Fortalecimiento Institucional
• Preparación de propuestas de fortalecimiento, reorganización y capacitación en cada país

Beneficiaries: Countries in the Central American Region

Roadmap for the Digital Switchover in the Andean Group
The proposed Roadmap for the Digital Switchover attempts to capture the current situation, existing or future constraints and needs in regards to spectrum policies and regulations in the CAN Region. Most importantly, the TC will provide solid guidance to countries for the so called ¿analogue switchover¿, a complex process through which all countries in the region are going through. The switchover is the transition from analog television to digital television, which creates policy and regulatory challenges to governments.

Activities:
1. Assessment of the spectrum status quo in CAN
2. National and regional 700MHz frequency band analyses and plan
3. Design and elaboration of a Digital Switchover Roadmap
4. Disseminating the deliverables in the Region

Beneficiaries: Countries in the Andean Region

Broadband Infrastructure and Public Awareness in the Caribbean
The regional public good being proposed is the definition of a regional strategy that will address aspects of demand for and supply of broadband technology, infrastructure and services. This initiative will support Caribbean countries in improving their broadband connectivity, as well as their policy and regulatory frameworks.

Activities:
1. Project launch
2. Diagnostic of available infrastructure
3. Development of the socio-demographic and economic analysis and identification of areas subject to public-private partnerships
4. Workshop to present results
5. Review of current sector trends and identification of corresponding institutional strengthening needs
6. Review of the Reg. Framework with focus on access, interconnection and tariffs
7. Workshop to present results
8. Development of documents on ICT in Health, Education, Trade/SMEs, Government and Finance to create awareness among citizens, SMEs and Public Administration

Beneficiaries: Countries in the Caribbean Region

Infrastructure for Competitiveness and Social Welfare" and "Competitive global and Regional Integration" Strategic Priorities of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
The Ninth General Capital Increase (GCI-9) of the Inter-American Development Bank established "Infrastructure for Competitiveness and Social Welfare" and "Competitive global and Regional Integration" as two of the five institutional strategic priorities to achieve the Bank’s overarching objectives of reducing poverty and inequality and promoting sustainable growth. The GCI-9 also sets an annual lending target of 15 per cent to support integration and regional cooperation in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) by the end of 2015. The IADB approved it corresponding sector strategies for "Infrastructure for Competitiveness and Social Welfare" and "Competitive global and Regional Integration" which emphasize the Bank needs to act simultaneously on the software (policy and regulatory frameworks) and the hardware (physical integration) of integration, ensuring coherence between national and regional interventions. Though software investments require fewer resources, they can make integration infrastructure more efficient and unlock investments in hardware.

Activities:
During 2013, the IDB approved 168 projects for a total value of $14 billion, increasing from for a total of $11.4 billion in funding in 2012. In terms of resources approved, 33 percent of IDB approvals in 2013 supported regional cooperation and integration. The IDB has a dedicated Fund for Initiatives for Regional Infrastructure Integration (FIRII), which has allocated US$46M for infrastructure project preparation studies and coordination of regional integration and it has also mobilized US$21M through its parallel multi-donor (Canada, USA, Mexico, Colombia and Spain) Fund (RIIF) for the same goal. FIRII has supported among others, the Initiative for the Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure (IIRSA) and the Mesoamerica Project (MIDP) and it has leveraged loans accounting for US$1.25 Billion, with $31 in loans per dollar allocated to technical assistance. The IDB is currently supporting the studies for the interconnection between Colombia and Panama. The IDB has supported The Electricity Interconnection System for Central America (SIEPAC) is a regional Program in which multiple stakeholders of the six countries (Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala) in Central America are involved. The total cost of the electricity infrastructure for the SIEPAC is US$494 million, of which the IDB has contributed with more than half (US$235 million) plus nearly with US$19 million in technical assistance for the institutional structuring and regulatory framework of the regional electricity market (known by its Spanish-language acronym, MER). To date, commercial transactions of electricity are on the rise in Central America. The MER exchanged 134.5-GWh in March 2014, the highest amount traded in the last twelve years. Regarding the physical infrastructure, the tramo Panaluya (Guatemala) – San Buenaventura (Honduras) is already operational and, during late 2014, the Tramo 17 in Costa Rica will be finished, allowing the system to operate at 100% of its commercial capacity. Tasks ahead for the SIEPAC are the implementation of the regulatory framework for long-term transactions, maintain regional capacities needed for the market, and continue efforts on regional expansion planning, among others. Building upon the experience of SIEPAC, the IDM is currently supporting The Andean Electricity Interconnection System (SINEA) was born as part of an agreement between governments of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in late 2010. The countries agreed on a project with three main components: (i) establish mechanisms to facilitate the legal framework the development of regional infrastructure and international transactions of electricity, (ii) identify the required infrastructure for an electricity corridor in the Andean Region, and (iii) advance on specific bilateral agreements for commercial and financial mechanisms for the electricity exchange. During 2012, the IDB approved a US$1.5 million regional technical assistance to support the SINEA by financing studies regarding the regulatory framework, and infrastructure needs for the interconnection. With the IDB as a Technical Secretary, the Andean countries have held 6 physical meetings plus 10 virtual ones to discuss the studies. The methodology adopted by the countries consists in a phased integration analysis, starting with exchanges of electricity from bilateral contracts in the first phase and scaling-up to a regional market. Preliminary results have identified interconnection projects that are economically attractive at a bilateral and regional level, including also the possibility of strengthening the connections between countries that show significant benefits in the first stage of its operation. Countries will continue their work based on an Integration Roadmap to be approved at the next Council of Ministers to be held in the city of Lima on April 25, 2014. The IDB approved on May 2013 the “Pre-Feasibility Study for the Arco Norte Interconnection Project”, a non-reimbursable technical assistance of US$1.9 million to assess the potential development of an electrical interconnection among Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana and the northern Brazilian cities of Boa Vista (State of Roraima) and Macapá (State of Amapá). In this technical assistance, the IDB is working jointly with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the energy agencies and electricity utilities companies of Suriname (Energiebedrijven Suriname – EBS), Guyana (Guyana Energy Agency – GEA), French Guiana (Electricité de France – EDF), and Brazil (Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras - Eletrobras). The aim of the studies is to determine the feasibility, alternatives, risks and mitigation measures of the development of an electrical interconnection to enhance regional integration, accessibility and to have a positive impact on the economic development of the region.

Beneficiaries: All the borrowing member countries of the IDB

Partners and financing: Canada, USA, Mexico, Colombia and Spain