The Network of e-Government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (Red GEALC)

The Network of e-Government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (Red GEALC) was created in 2003 with the purpose of promoting horizontal cooperation between the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and to facilitate the exchange of solutions and experts between the two regions. With the support of the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Inter-American Development Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA-ACDI); Red GEALC has organized important workshops of collaboration and exchange in which more than 80 high ranking civil servants from 32 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have participated.

Additionally, the network has put in operation a series of mechanisms that facilitate generating and disseminating knowledge in the area of e-Government, as well as the cooperation in e-Government of all the countries of the regions. Such mechanisms include:

• A database of e-Government experts (almost 300 experts) 
• The Awards of excellence in e-Government; excelGOV 
• The Horizontal Cooperation Fund, FOCOH 
• A library of its own publication
• A newsletter 
• 8 virtual working groups through the network’s platform www.redgealc.net
• A program of research and promotion of m-Government
• Training courses of e-Government 
• A mechanism whereby the advances on e-Government can be monitored: e-GovMonitor (launched in Dec. 2008) 
• An information system of e-Government Applications: e-Gobex

With these activities and working areas, Red GEALC has turned into an extremely useful tool to identify, from the practical experience of its members, the main challenges for e-government.