UNESCO, through its Regional Office for Central America, Mexico, and Colombia, and the National Artificial Intelligence Agency (ANIA, by its Spanish acronym) officially presented the results of the Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) on Artificial Intelligence. The event brought together national authorities, representatives of the United Nations System, and key stakeholders from the country’s technology ecosystem, including the private sector, academia, and civil society.
The RAM is one of the implementation mechanisms of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, which was unanimously adopted by Member States in 2021 and is recognized as the first global normative framework establishing principles for a safe, inclusive, and responsible technological development. For UNESCO, the transformative impact of artificial intelligence can only be fully realized when its development puts people at the center—ensuring its benefits reach everyone, closing gender, territorial, and socioeconomic gaps, and guaranteeing that no one is left behind by technological progress.
El Salvador: At the Forefront of the Latin American Legal Framework for AI
The event featured opening remarks by the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, Adriana Mira, who highlighted the country’s positioning as a regional leader in artificial intelligence. This leadership is backed by an innovative legal framework consisting of the Artificial Intelligence and Technologies Promotion Law, the Cybersecurity Law, and the Personal Data Protection Law, alongside a governing body like ANIA. This comprehensive structure allowed the country to achieve a perfect score of 100 in the Legal Initiative sub-indicator of the 2025 Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index (ILIA).
For his part, the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in El Salvador, Raúl Salazar, referenced the Global Dialogue on AI Governance—co-led by El Salvador—and highlighted various initiatives that UN agencies are driving in the country. He underscored the importance of a multilateral, inclusive, and human-centered governance, while reiterating the UN System’s ongoing support to the country.
Report Findings: Concrete Advancements in Public Management
The RAM report documents tangible transformations that AI is already generating in Salvadoran public services. Among the most notable deployments are DoctorSV, a platform that uses AI for assisted diagnostics and telemedicine; the digitization of 18 million historical images by the National Registry of Natural Persons (RNPN) in partnership with Google, enabling remote electronic certificate retrieval; and tools like Procurador IA from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which has reduced complex legal tasks from five hours to just 15 or 20 minutes. Additionally, the Grok AI tutorhas been implemented in over 5,000 public schools, with the potential to benefit one million students—a move that illustrates how AI can democratize access to knowledge beyond urban centers.
The assessment also projects that an ethical adoption of AI could generate an economic impact of up to $1.229 billion annually, equivalent to a GDP growth of up to 3.9%.
Recommendations: Toward an AI That Leaves No One Behind
Alongside its findings, the RAM report outlines recommendations aimed at strengthening governance and ensuring that AI development in El Salvador is truly inclusive. The report emphasizes that promoting the participation of more girls and women in STEM fields, as well as reducing territorial gaps between urban and rural areas, are essential conditions for the benefits of artificial intelligence to be fairly distributed.
In response to one of the report’s core recommendations, ANIA presented the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2026 during the same event, setting ambitious goals for the coming years.
This technical assistance from UNESCO to the Government of El Salvador was made possible thanks to the support of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/el-salvador-moving-toward-human-centered-artificial-intelligence?hub=701
