RED Hat, Inc, a provider of enterprise open-source solutions, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has signed an agreement that aims to support digitalisation, the strengthening of value chains and the empowerment of women in the Caribbean region.

In this sense, Red Hat joins the Private Sector Partners Coalition for the Future of Latin America and the Caribbean, a historic partnership led by the IDB to mobilise the private sector to action to advance toward sustainable development. In particular, the collaboration between Red Hat and the IDB will focus on three fundamental themes: recognition, digitalisation, and strengthening of the value chain to work together for a prosperous future of IDB member countries in the region through collaboration on digitalisation.

“This partnership fills us with pride, as it continues to reaffirm our commitment to the different ecosystems and communities with which we work collaboratively every day, through open-source solutions. We continue our efforts in social areas that align with the Bank’s interests and policies in the region. For example, the digital transformation of governments, to provide transparency and efficiency in management, and issues such as innovation focused on diversity and inclusion. We believe our experience will have a much greater impact within the region with this agreement,” said Paulo Bonucci, senior vice-president and general manager, Red Hat Latin America.

The IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone added, “The IDB is very excited to welcome Red Hat to the coalition and to collaborate in line with three of the five pillars of Vision 2025, our agenda to promote recovery and development in the region, such as digitalisation, strengthening value chains, and empowering women. We are convinced that collaboration with private sector partners like Red Hat is critical to the region’s recovery.”

The pandemic has shown how critical digitalisation is to productivity. A recent study by the IDB reveals that 244 million people throughout the region, or 32 per cent of the population, completely lack access to the Internet, while 77 million people cannot access it correctly or with the minimum quality requirements.

In this context, Red Hat said it is committed to working with the IDB to improve these statistics and continue to strengthen existing initiatives such as Open Unlocks the World’s Potential, an action that encourages the company’s partners to share stories about how learning and using open source unlocks the potential to create communities where everyone is supported to use their voices and talents.

Red Hat which is based in North Carolina in the US delivers reliable and high-performance technologies for cloud, Linux, middleware, storage, virtualisation, and mobile, along with world-renowned consulting, technical support, and training services. For this, it certifies the community projects with the highest level of adoption and adapts them to a business-quality format.