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Development in the Americas (DIA) 2026: Evidence Gap Map and Digital Use Indicators

By Department of Research and Chief Economist (VPS/RES/RES)

The 2026 edition of Development in the Americas, the Inter-American Development Bank's flagship report, examines how digital technology is used to deliver public policy. This dataset carries the two evidence bases behind it: a map of impact evaluations of digital interventions, and a set of indicators on how people in the region use digital services.

What the data covers

The evidence map holds one row per measured outcome of a study. Each row names the policy sector the study is indexed under — government transactions, health, education, citizen security, social protection, trade and investment, taxes and basic infrastructure — the country studied, the population and the digital intervention evaluated, the evaluation design and the sample, and the outcome indicator with its effect size, unit of measurement and significance level. The interventions range from student device distribution and computer-assisted learning to biometric authentication for benefit delivery, digital tax reminders, police body-worn cameras and smart utility metering. The studies were carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean and in comparable settings elsewhere, on interventions that took place between 1999 and 2024.

The indicators map holds one row per indicator, country and population group. Each value is the share of adults the indicator counts, broken down by sex, age group, education and place of residence, and it covers connectivity and devices, digital skills, communications and entertainment, financial and commercial use, digital public services and generative artificial intelligence. It reports on countries across Latin America and the Caribbean alongside regional, OECD and emerging-market benchmarks.

Intended uses

The evidence map answers what has been evaluated in a sector, where, and with what measured result, so that concentrations of evidence and the areas without any can be read off directly. The indicators map sets that evidence beside how widely digital services are actually used, and allows comparison across countries and between population groups.

Methodology

Each effect in the evidence map is reported as the study reports it, in the study's own unit of measurement and with the significance level at which it is stated; a row carries a direction rather than a magnitude where that is all the study gives. The indicators are computed from national surveys, with the country rounds referring to 2025-2026 and the OECD and emerging-market benchmarks to their own most recent available years.

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Metadata & use

Identifier https://doi.org/10.60966/zvk0ucuz
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation

Inter-American Development Bank (2026). Development in the Americas (DIA) 2026: Evidence Gap Map and Digital Use Indicators. IDB Open Data. https://doi.org/10.60966/zvk0ucuz
Published date 2026-09-01
Modified date 2026-09-16
Tags/Keywords DIA 2026 · digital transformation · evidence gap map · impact evaluation · digital public services · internet use
Language
  1. English
Temporal coverage 1999-2026
Country
Saudi Arabia
Mozambique
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Tajikistan
India
Iran
Tanzania
Kyrgyzstan
Vietnam
Syria
Indonesia
Philippines
China
Kenya
Russia
Papua New Guinea
Uganda
Côte d’Ivoire
Ghana
Sierra Leone
Niger
Jordan
Morocco
Algeria
Lebanon
Türkiye
Namibia
Barbados
Ethiopia
Paraguay
Uruguay
Brazil
Dominican Republic
Egypt
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Costa Rica
Venezuela
Ecuador
Colombia
Panama
Argentina
Chile
Bolivia
Peru
Mexico
Rwanda
Palestinian Territories
Zambia
Botswana
South Africa
Publisher
Inter-American Development Bank
Author
Inter-American Development Bank
Data collection type Experimental Data · Survey Data
Statistical type Cross-sectional Data
Data structure Structured Data
Data notes

What is this dataset?

It is the data behind the 2026 edition of Development in the Americas, the Inter-American Development Bank's flagship report, which examines the use of digital technology in public policy. It has two tables: an evidence map of impact evaluations of digital interventions, and a map of indicators on how people in the region use digital services.

What does the evidence map contain?

One row per measured outcome of a study. A row carries the study's short citation and full reference, the policy sector it is indexed under, the country, the population and the digital intervention evaluated, the evaluation design and sample, and the outcome indicator with its effect size, unit of measurement and significance level. A study that reports several outcomes has several rows, and a study indexed under more than one sector appears once in each.

What does the indicators map contain?

One row per indicator, country and population group. A row carries the indicator, the survey question behind it, the category it belongs to, the breakdown dimension and group it refers to, the reference period, and the value.

Which countries are included?

The indicators cover Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, alongside regional, OECD and emerging-market benchmarks. The evidence map covers studies from Latin America and the Caribbean and from comparable settings in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

What time period does it cover?

The evidence map records interventions that took place between 1999 and 2024. The indicators refer to the 2025-2026 national survey rounds, with the OECD benchmark referring to 2024 and the emerging-market benchmark to the latest available year between 2022 and 2024.

How were the data collected?

The evidence map was assembled from published impact evaluations, each coded onto the report's framework of policy sectors, interventions and outcomes. The indicators are computed from national surveys of internet and digital service use.

How should the effect sizes be read?

Each effect is given as the study reports it, in the unit named in the same row — percentage points, standard deviations, log points, odds ratios and others — and with the significance level at which the study states it. Where a study reports only the direction of an effect, the row carries a plus or minus sign in place of a magnitude.

How should the indicator values be read?

Each value is a proportion between 0 and 1 rather than a percentage: a value of 0.5 means half of the group. The row whose breakdown group is Overall covers the whole surveyed population; the remaining rows break the same indicator down by sex, age group, education or place of residence.

In what format is the data available, and under what licence?

Both tables are published as DataStore resources on this page, readable and downloadable as CSV and queryable through the CKAN DataStore API. The dataset is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

How do I cite it?

Cite the dataset by its title, with the Inter-American Development Bank as publisher and the address of this page, together with the date on which you retrieved it.

Dataset files

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