Google.org has committed five million dollars to support digital public infrastructure projects across Latin America, with a key focus on expanding a cross-border digital identity system that is now scaling to 12 countries in the region.
The funding, announced during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., will flow through Co-Develop, a nonprofit fund that finances digital public infrastructure development in low- and middle-income countries. The initiative is part of a broader partnership between Google and the Inter-American Development Bank aimed at accelerating government digital modernization across the region.
A central component of the investment is IdLAC, a digital identity broker that connects national identity providers with public and private services requiring cross-border user verification. The system allows citizens in participating countries to access government services in another Latin American nation using their home country’s digital identity credentials, without requiring the transfer of biometric or personal data between jurisdictions. Instead, IdLAC relies on cryptographic assertions from each nation’s identity provider to confirm a user’s verified status.
IdLAC launched in October 2025 with a pilot enabling foreign visitors to Chile to complete immigration processes using Chile’s ClaveUnica digital identity system. The platform is now expanding to support transactions in 12 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, with planned use cases including cross-border tax filing, healthcare access, and migration procedures.
The World Economic Forum has separately been advancing global digital public infrastructure standards through its Connected Future Initiative, which brings together more than 200 organizations to promote interoperability frameworks and governance standards for national-scale digital systems.
The Co-Develop fund, established with backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the IDB, and reportedly also supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, finances open-source digital public goods that governments can adopt and customize for national use. The fund prioritizes interoperable systems designed to avoid vendor lock-in and ensure long-term governmental control over critical infrastructure.
As part of the partnership with the IDB, Google is also offering free artificial intelligence training courses for government officials across the region, aimed at building technical capacity within the public institutions that will manage and operate the new digital systems.
Sources: Google Blog, World Bank
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
