FAO and China promote digitalization in Chile through the 1000 Digital Villages initiative
4 April 2022, Santiago, Chile - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the FAO-China South-South Cooperation project, through the 1000 Digital Villages in Latin America and the Caribbean initiative, began the implementation of pilot projects in Chile with the aim of increasing connectivity and digital capacities in the rural territories of the region.
These initiatives, which are part of the second stage of 1000 Digital Villages, will also be carried out in other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, thanks to support from the "Digital transformation and innovation in agriculture" project. The project aims to boost connectivity and provide resources and digital solutions for thousands of people to improve their services, employment opportunities and income. On 22-23 March, the coordinator of the 1000 Digital Villages initiative, Eduardo Ramírez, and the coordinator of the South-South Cooperation project, Leonel Tapia, traveled to the Ñuble Region to visit three towns in the Itata Valley where these "digital villages" will be piloted.
"This particular project is especially important because it involves 100 farmers from the Itata Valley, an area rich in vineyards that was severely affected by fires in the region. The Government of Chile also decided to include them in the project due to the lag in terms of connectivity that persists in this area," explained Tapia.
During the visit, Ramírez and Tapia both met with representatives of the Regional Government of Ñuble, the Office of Agrarian Studies and Policies (ODEPA), the Undersecretary of Telecommunications (SUBTEL), the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, the Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP), and telecommunications companies Claro and Mundo to present the digital villages proposal.
"In the first year of work of 1000 Digital Villages, we developed a proposal that we believe is consistent with the needs for digitalization and capacity building in the rural territories of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is this model and proposal that we now want to scale up in collaboration with governments and the private sector in the region," said Ramírez.
It is expected that the digital villages pilot projects in the Itata Valley will be launched during the first half of 2023 and that, once the results are evaluated, these will be replicated in other areas of the Ñuble Region.
Coopeumo experience
In addition, the coordinators of the 1000 Digital Villages in Latin America and the Caribbean initiative and the FAO-China South-South Cooperation project "Digital transformation and innovation in agriculture" travelled to the O'Higgins Region to learn about the digital connectivity experience designed and implemented by the farmers' cooperative Cooperativa Campesina Intercomunal Peumo Ltda (Coopeumo).
"The most interesting thing that we observed is that these are low-cost solutions that can positively impact rural areas," added Ramírez.
About the 1000 Digital Villages initiative
In 2020, FAO launched the global 1000 Digital Villages initiative to promote the digitalization of services in rural areas.
There are currently 14 countries in the region participating in the initiative: Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Venezuela.
About South-South Cooperation
This initiative is part of the FAO-China-CELAC project within the South-South Cooperation framework, which provides financial and technical support for the design and implementation of rural digitalization pilot projects in: Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. The goal of the project is to contribute to the implementation of technology in rural areas.