The leading multilateral actors involved in digital transformation in the Americas committed on April 16 to expanding and consolidating a regional digital identity in Latin America and the Caribbean through the idLAC project. Thanks to this joint effort, it is now technically feasible for an individual to complete public services in another country using the digital identity issued in their country of origin.
idLAC's progress, milestones, documentation, and coverage map have been available online as of today at redgealc.org/idlac. The project foresees the incorporation of at least six countries before the end of the year as a result of sustained regional coordination, and by 2027 it aims to have at least five cross-border public services enabled through this process.
These developments were presented on April 16, 2026, during the World Bank Spring Meetings by the Inter-American Network on Digital Government (Red Gealc), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, Co-Develop, and the Organization of American States (OAS).
During the event, the technical teams of Brazil (in person) and Uruguay (remotely) demonstrated the operation of idLAC through a mutual recognition mechanism for digital identities that already enables access to 300 digital services across these two countries. Representatives of Colombia and Peru also presented their countries´ in the same direction.
These developments are expected to expand in the coming months and, by the IX Meeting of Ministers and High-Level Authorities of Digital Government of the Americas, to be held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on October 1 and 2, 2026, six countries are expected to have operational capabilities within the framework of idLAC. This represents a midterm milestone in a process that will eventually encompass more than ten countries in the region.
The idLAC project reached a turning point at the previous Red Gealc Ministerial Meeting (Brasília 2024), when the multilateral organizations mentioned above committed to coordinating efforts to advance toward an interoperable regional digital identity. For Red Gealc, idLAC also represents the natural continuation of other regional actions promoted by the region's digital government authorities, such as the cross-border digital signature initiative launched in 2019 and presented at the 2022 Ministerial Meeting in Lima.
At the meeting held on Thursday, April 16, Sangbu Kim, Vice President for Digital and Artificial Intelligence at the World Bank, stated: "The progress of the idLAC Consortium demonstrates what countries can achieve when they work together toward a more connected and inclusive regional digital future. The World Bank is proud to support these efforts to expand access, reduce barriers, and strengthen regional integration across Latin America and the Caribbean."
Paula Acosta, Head of the State Institutional Capacity Division at the IDB, noted that "coordinating and sharing efforts with the other multilateral partners will allow our region to move faster in adopting cross-border digital services for the benefit of citizens and businesses."
For her part, María Fernanda Trigo, Director of the Department for Effective Public Management of the OAS, emphasized that "idLAC is one of the most transformative regional projects of recent years, as it makes possible the 'effective exercise of democracy' contemplated in the Inter-American Democratic Charter. This is achieved by efficiently enabling citizens' access to cross-border digital identification for carrying out digital public services between countries, which translates into significant benefits for users, such as savings in time and financial resources, as well as greater productivity and transparency for public institutions."
In addition to the multilateral authorities, the event included the participation of the Dominican Republic as Chair of Red Gealc in 2026, represented by Reyson Lizardo, Director of Digital Transformation at the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OGTIC), who noted that "idLAC is naturally aligned with the efforts we have promoted through Red GEALC to standardize cross-border interoperability and strengthen data governance."
At present, twelve countries in the region have expressly committed to working on the evolution of the idLAC software: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay.
Red Gealc is made up of the digital government agencies of the Organization of American States (OAS) Member States. This project, launched with support from the IDB, also received contributions in 2025 from the World Bank and Co-Develop, which were renewed for 2026-2027.
Reference: E-054/26
