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Good practice Imported

Connected Communities — Rural Digital Transformation in Ñuble and La Araucanía

Chile · Chillán · See the Chile profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 98% 32/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A $3M UN Joint SDG Fund programme installing 50+ connectivity points in Chile's Ñuble and La Araucanía, reaching 8,500+ people with broadband, training 2,000+ farmers and 1,100+ rural/Indigenous women in digital skills, and extending telehealth to 25,000+ residents.

50+
New connectivity points installed or underway (by mid-2025)
8,500+ people
People with direct broadband access (by mid-2025)
440,000 people
Estimated indirect beneficiaries (by mid-2025)
2,000+ people
Smallholder farmers trained in digital tools (by mid-2025)
1,100+ people
Rural/Indigenous women trained in digital platforms (by mid-2025)
25,000+ people
People reached via telehealth (by mid-2025)
3 million USD (Joint SDG Fund, plus bilateral/private contributions)
Programme budget (2024–2027)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
UN Resident Coordinator's Office Chile & FAO (Joint SDG Fund)
Period
2024–2027
Keywords
connectivity, rural development, telehealth, digital skills, gender & indigenous inclusion

Context

Ñuble and La Araucanía in southern Chile combine high rural poverty with large Indigenous populations; over half of households lacked home internet access, and more than 70% of students could not access online learning during school closures.

Objectives

Combine broadband infrastructure rollout with digital-skills training and telehealth to close the rural-urban digital divide, with a specific focus on rural and Indigenous women and smallholder farmers.

Activities

Launched in October 2024 by the Chilean government and the UN Resident Coordinator's Office, with FAO as technical lead and support from ECLAC, UN Women, PAHO/WHO and ITU; governance runs through semi-annual regional technical committees (first convened in Chillán in March 2025 and in La Araucanía in April 2025).

Results

By mid-2025: over 50 new connectivity points installed or underway, direct broadband access for 8,500+ people (est. 440,000 indirect beneficiaries), 2,000+ smallholder farmers trained in digital tools for production/e-commerce, 1,100+ rural and Indigenous women trained in digital platforms, and telehealth extended to 25,000+ people.

Conclusions

As a donor-funded pilot running through 2027 with no independent evaluation yet and no public funding commitment beyond the initial Joint SDG Fund grant, long-term sustainability beyond the three-year window remains untested.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Multi-agency UN delivery team: FAO (technical lead), ECLAC, UN Women, PAHO/WHO, ITU, working with the Chilean government and regional technical committees

Conditions for success

  • Joint government–UN governance via semi-annual regional technical committees
  • Bundling connectivity, skills training and telehealth rather than infrastructure alone
  • Explicit targeting of rural, Indigenous and women beneficiaries

Common failure modes

  • No confirmed public funding commitment beyond the initial three-year Joint SDG Fund grant, risking discontinuation of connectivity/training services after 2027

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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