Closing gender economic gaps not only equalizes the playing field between men and women. Gender parity also allows for harnessing 100% of the population’s talent to accelerate the growth of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Public employment services have a crucial role in the search for quality jobs, worker placement, labor market adaptation, and mitigating impacts during economic transitions. Globally, these services have been leveraging on digital technologies to transform, and those in Latin America and the Caribbean are no exception. These technologies are enabling the creation of new channels to expand outreach and service delivery, centralizing, and sharing data, facilitating collaboration, and improving processes. However, rapid technological advancements also pose risks in terms of access and equity.
The IDB Group's Laboratory of Digital Social Security and Beat, the mobility platform, partnered to identify innovative solutions for individuals who use digital platforms as an occupational alternative. This alliance began with a survey of more than 4,500 Beat drivers in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru aimed at understanding their background, general use of mobility apps to generate income, financial health and literacy, and social security coverage.
The Unified Digital Health Record (EDUS) project is an initiative that Costa Rica launched in 2010 to organize in a single digitalized file the medical and social security information of people enrolled in the services of the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS). This case study explains what EDUS is, how it works and what its challenges and benefits have been. The document includes a list of best practices for the design, development and implementation of digital health records.
The Unified Digital Health Record (EDUS) project is an initiative that Costa Rica launched in 2010 to organize in a single digitalized file the medical and social security information of people enrolled in the services of the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS). This case study explains what EDUS is, how it works and what its challenges and benefits have been. The document includes a list of best practices for the design, development and implementation of digital health records.
We estimate the efficiency of health spending in 145 middle and high-income and the potential gains from improving efficiency for a range of health system outputs using Data Envelopment Analysis for 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 and examine associations with health system characteristics. Focusing on Latin American and Caribbean countries, we find large variability in efficiency and overall substantial potential gains in the later period, despite improvements over time.
We estimate the efficiency of health spending in 145 middle and high-income and the potential gains from improving efficiency for a range of health system outputs using Data Envelopment Analysis for 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 and examine associations with health system characteristics. Focusing on Latin American and Caribbean countries, we find large variability in efficiency and overall substantial potential gains in the later period, despite improvements over time.
Latin America suffered some of the world’s longest school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, compelling countries to explore diverse alternatives to maintain children’s education. At the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we investigated various strategies to counteract the learning crisis instigated by these closures and the pre-existing conditions of low educational attainment in the region. We found that one of the most cost-effective strategies was phone tutoring. ConnectEd served as our primary inspiration for this approach.
To contain the climate crisis and meet the Paris Agreements goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2050, countries around the world need to undergo deep socio-economic transformations towards carbon neutrality. This transition towards net-zero can take many forms and pathways for each economic sector, but regardless of its shape, there will be winners and losers. For countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), for example, achieving this goal can bring significant net financial benefits, estimated at 1% of the regions GDP by 2030.
Digital platforms have revolutionized labor markets across the globe, transforming how we work and offering opportunities for workers with a diverse range of profiles. Remote working platforms or e-lancing platforms connect freelancers with clients anywhere in the world. This means that new income-generating mechanisms are emerging that may be especially attractive for groups of the population that often face barriers in finding traditional employment, such as women, youth, migrants, and people with disabilities.