CAF Boosts Region’s GovTech Ecosystem

CAF energized the Ibero-American GovTech ecosystem by promoting different instruments and participating in activities with high impact on the region together with governments in the region.

1. On October 6, the first GovTech summit in Colombia took place, inaugurated by President Ivan Duque. The president emphasized the catalytic role of the government in galvanizing public enterprises to incubate and accelerate innovation in the public sector. For the first time, a country president inaugurates a national GovTech forum in Latin America. In addition, CAF executive president Sergio Díaz-Granados emphasized that the GovTech ecosystem, “apart from being a driver to build capacities to implement public policies through technology, is also a strategy for economic development and the dynamization of the local innovative entrepreneurial sector.”
   
   This online meeting organized by the government of Colombia through its innovation agency, INNpulsa, with the support of CAF, brought together more than 500 relevant stakeholders from the Colombian and Ibero-American GovTech ecosystem, in order to promote government digital innovation. During his speech, Carlos Santiso recalled that “GovTech is not only digitalization of the state, but a way to put the State in startup mode and bring the public sector closer to the private sector in order to improve public management and delivery of services to improve the quality of life of the people.”
   
   Through the Directorate of Digital Innovation of the State, CAF supports the Colombian government in strengthening its GovTech ecosystem with a technical cooperation project and as well as with specialized consulting to MiLAB, the first GovTech laboratory of government innovation in the region, and which is part of INNpulsa.  
   
   
2. In this context, Colombia inaugurated the first Global Alliance of GovTech Leaders, which it will chair for the next two years, with CAF’s technical support as a permanent secretariat. This alliance aims to offer a space for dialogue and exchange between governments committed to the promotion of GovTech ecosystems to accelerate the modernization of states and boost local startup ecosystems. This inaugural meeting featured 13 national and local governments, including Bogotá (Colombia), Brazil, Colombia, Córdoba (Argentina), Scotland, Jalisco (Mexico), Lithuania, Madrid (Spain), Medellin (Colombia), Monterrey (Mexico), Poland, Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Serbia.
   
   
3. On October 5, the city of Córdoba in Argentina inaugurated the first municipal GovTech fund in Ibero-America and launched the first Call of the Córdoba Smart City Fund. This fund will invest in high-impact digital ventures for the city, solutions to modernize municipal and urban management. It will finance startups with solutions to improve administration and public services, as well as those with solutions for the intelligent and sustainable city management.
   
   Carlos Santiso participated in the launch with the Mayor of the City, among other attendees. Mayor Martin Llaryora was categorical: “We're going to be disruptive. This is a political decision: We are committed to innovation. Cordoba is going to start being on the radar. We’re going to start competing. We want to hack the way the municipality moves.” Santiso emphasized that “with this GovTech disruptive innovation fund, the first of its kind in Latin America, Córdoba is committed to innovation with a public vocation, innovation that seeks to have an impact by working hand in hand with the public sector and, at the same time, underpinning its local entrepreneurs.”  It should be noted that the structuring of this fund boasted the technical support of CAF. 
   
   
4. As part of its govtechlab platform, CAF launched theGovTech observatory, a platform that connects the services of innovative startups and digital microenterprises with the management needs of governments, allowing greater visibility of products and services designed and offered by GovTech startups in the region. It currently holds information on some 300 startups from mostly Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.