While most of the Latin American and Caribbean countries are leading the way in terms of digitizing government services, the digital Government in El Salvador lags behind others in the region.
With only about half of the country’s population using the internet and the lack of trust in digital ecosystems, there’s still a long way to go before it can be considered on par with its neighbours.
While efforts have been made, El Salvador is still far from reaching its goal of fully digitizing public services. What are they doing wrong?
National digital strategies in El Salvador
El Salvador’s first steps toward a more digital public sector started in 2016 when the government formed a dedicated unit – the Electronic Government Directorate (Dirección de Gobierno Electrónico.)
Then, in 2019, the new administration created an Innovation Secretariat, which kept the existing e-government unit but also created additional teams to support the modernization of the government.
Now, to guide policymakers, the government has developed the Digital Agenda (DA) 2020-2030 – the main reference document for promoting and encouraging the digital government of El Salvador.
This digital agenda seeks to integrate all stakeholders that participate in the country’s development through innovation and the application of ICT.
It lays out a ten-year plan for digital transformation.
Its four main streams of work are:
- digital identity
- digital governance
- state modernization
- innovation, education and competitiveness
The Digital Agenda is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and other national strategic projects.
High mobile penetration, low connectivity
According to recent data, El Salvador’s total population was 6.53 million at the beginning of 2022.
Mobile penetration is remarkably high in the country, considering its economic indicators.
Data from GSMA Intelligence indicates that there were 9.77 million cellular mobile connections at the start of 2022 – even exceeding figures for the total population.
However, just like many people around the world, Salvadorians also make use of more than one mobile connection, so these stats are not unusual.
However, there were only 3.30 million internet users in January 2022.
This means that the internet penetration rate stands at 50.5% of the total population.
For comparison, Uruguay’s internet penetration rate stands at 83%.
Due to the inadequacy of a suitable spectrum, El Salvador was one of the last in the region to provide 4G LTE services.
Nonetheless, Kepios’s analysis shows that internet users in El Salvador increased by 0.5% between 2021 and 2022.
And that’s a good step in the right direction.
The current state of digital skills in El Salvador
The government has made significant advances in access to digital technologies.
It has provided high-quality computers for students and teachers across the country.
However, Despite these efforts, El Salvador still lacks a national framework for digital skills development.
This framework is essential to guide how students acquire digital skills to the highly-specialized level in higher education and close the country’s digital divide.
As critical as closing the digital divide is closing the labour demand-supply gap.
Demand for highly-trained professionals in ITC outpaces supply.
This divide is driven by low progress in developing quality fixed broadband infrastructure, which limits the potential of digital technologies to support student learning and teacher training.
Digital service providers also cite low-quality training and education programs as the main barriers to hiring talent.
The government has worked to provide comprehensive digital skills programs in the formal education and training sector.
For example, high school students can decide if they want to follow the technical path and connect with MEGATEC.
This program offers over 30 technical programs to help students strengthen their technical and digital skills and continue an extra year at the TVET institution, where they obtain a higher technical degree.
What to keep in mind moving forward?
El Salvador’s performance in enabling digital innovation and infrastructure remains subdued.
Despite increased research and development expenditures, the information and communications technology (ICT) sector seems to be moving very slow.
The main challenges facing ICT plans in El Salvador include:
- Stimulating investment in mobile broadband networks
- Regulating international standards that promote infrastructure sharing and standardized permitting
- Increasing investment in telecommunications infrastructure, repeaters, and base stations
- Focusing on a national cybersecurity policy and data flow regulations
- Encouraging an innovative digital economy while avoiding unnecessarily costly policies
- More progress in enhancing trust in the digital ecosystem and especially in online privacy
- More investments in boosting digital skills.
If the young generation is equipped with the right set of skills, they can generate social and economic transformation that could benefit a more significant sector of Salvadoran society.
Sources:
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-el-salvador
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-uruguay
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/3063b1ff-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/3063b1ff-en
