Kicking off a new learning group: AI and MERL in Latin America

By María de los Ángeles Lasa and Fernando C. Barbosa

We are launching a new learning group within the MERL Tech Initiative’s Community of Practice, focusing on AI and MERL in the Latin American context!

Earlier this year, we reached out to community members to ask for their help shaping this group. We received amazing responses from all over the region, letting us know how a group like this could be useful and the topics that mattered most to you. The areas of interest are wide: from curiosity about use cases of AI within MERL in the region, to the desire to learn more about tools and platforms for MERL work, to the concerns regarding ethics, safeguards, and responsible use of AI, and the challenges unique to Latin America MERL professionals face in adopting AI. 

Moving forward, we aim to promote events and discussions that address the issues most relevant to practitioners in international development, humanitarian work, and the social impact sector across Latin America. For now, we will focus on events in Spanish and Portuguese, recognizing the importance of other languages in the region but prioritizing these two given our current capacity.

To kick off this learning group, we are organising an event bringing together key stakeholders from the region to discuss the practical applications of artificial intelligence in Latin America. On Tuesday, May 19, online at 9 AM CST-México / 10 AM Bogotá / 11 AM ET-Santiago / 12 PM São Paulo-Buenos Aires, we will be joined by speakers Dra. Ana Henríquez Orrego and Dra. Alejandra Lucero.

• Dra. Ana Henríquez Orrego (Chile) is a higher education specialist with over 15 years of experience in academic management, quality assurance, and curriculum design. She has led institutional and program-level evaluation processes, contributed to the development of educational models, and supported accreditation initiatives. In recent years, she has focused on the integration of digital technologies and AI in education, designing innovative tools and frameworks to enhance teaching, assessment, and academic management.
  
• Dra. Alejandra Lucero Manzano (Argentina) is a consultant and lecturer specializing in the planning and evaluation of development policies and international cooperation programs, with over a decade of experience working with governments, NGOs, international organizations, and universities. She integrates gender and ecofeminist perspectives into her evaluations and leverages AI to enhance data analysis and translate findings into accessible, compelling narratives. She also provides training and mentorship in planning, evaluation, data analysis, and digital tools.

In this session, we will focus on concrete applications of AI in the field of monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) across the region, exploring practical use cases and their context-specific implications.

About the authors (and co-leads for this learning group!)