IDB Drives Digital Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean

ANTIGUA, Guatemala - For the first time at the regional level in Latin America and the Caribbean, citizens will be able to complete digital public service transactions in another country using their national digital identity. This historic milestone was presented during the XIX Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Digital Government Network (Red Gealc), with the launch of the IdLAC software - a technology platform developed as a regional public good with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

What is IdLAC?

IdLAC is a digital identity broker that acts as a secure bridge between digital identity providers (IDPs) and public or private services (SPs) that need to verify users' identities.

This platform allows individuals to access multiple digital services with a single account, without needing to register or authenticate multiple times. It can be used for public transactions such as renewing driver's licenses, requesting certificates, paying taxes, submitting migration declarations, registering exports and imports, among others.

Regional Interoperability

During the event in Guatemala, a live demonstration of the software was conducted. Citizens from Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil were able to authenticate through IdLAC using their national digital credentials to complete a migration procedure in Chile. The software redirected each user to their country's digital identity system, and then returned the necessary information to Chile's system to complete the procedure.

IdLAC is part of the Regional Digital Citizen initiative, driven by the IDB through its Regional Public Goods Initiative, with support from the World Bank, Co-Develop, the OAS, and the Red Gealc working groups on digital identity. The technical development was led by Uruguay (Agesic), with Chile serving as Red Gealc's chair country in 2025.

In addition to the countries that participated in the demonstration (Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile), eight other countries have already joined the development of IdLAC: Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. A new cohort will allow more countries to integrate into this regional ecosystem.

IdLAC strengthens interoperability, security, and trust between digital identity systems, promoting technological sovereignty and regional standardization. It is a concrete example of how digital cooperation can improve access to public services and make life easier for citizens across Latin America and the Caribbean.