El Salvador’s evolution towards a learning society will require the dynamic interplay of a series of success factors: leadership, broad-based participation, experimentation, measuring results, and systematizing experiences. Conectándonos al Futuro therefore proposes the establishment of a Learning Society Program based on the following characteristics:

Given the above characteristics, it would not be advisable to build a complex institution to lead a learning society program, fundamentally because institutional rigidity could contradict the flexible and innovative nature of the program. Therefore, a flexible and adaptable structure should be set up, one that is also participatory and independent of any particular sector or institution.

Nor is it a good idea to assign the projects proposed in this strategy to a series of different institutions or organizations, since the program would thereby lose coherence, and it would be very difficult to implement a successful monitoring and evaluation effort.

Although it might seem logical to locate a program of this type in the Infocenter Association, since it is a participatory institution whose objectives are consistent with those of a learning society, it would probably be counterproductive to assign exclusive responsibility for the proposed transformations to the Association alone. We must remember that the Association is only beginning to take shape, and has the principal and immediate goal of building a network of Infocenters throughout El Salvador, which implies an enormous effort; assigning another strategic activity to the Association could lead to dispersion. Furthermore, some of the projects proposed in this strategy (for example, the Innovation Club and the small business franchise network) do not require this type of platform. Nevertheless, the Association must play a fundamental leadership role in any future learning society program, particularly in terms of producing relevant information resources, as well as engaging in broad training efforts to enhance the effective use of these resources.

The best tactic, therefore, would be to build a program with a broad but flexible leadership group made up of champions on this issue from many different sectors of society. The program should have a small staff, whose role would be to promote the implementation of the different projects and proposals detailed throughout this document –and others that will emerge over time, on the basis of proposals designed by different groups who wish to participate– and to supervise program-wide monitoring and evaluation efforts.

Each individual project should have its own advisory board made up of leaders from a broad range of organizations involved in the respective sector.[1] The program as a whole should create a highly specialized permanent monitoring and evaluation team, whose personnel would be assigned to the different projects.[2] Finally, it would be useful to set up an international support committe for the program, to coordinate with similar efforts in other countries and thereby contribute to local learning.

In the near term, before the future Learning Society Program takes shape, it will be important to sustain the momentum created through Conectándonos al Futuro. Therefore, it would be useful to initiate some of the projects and proposals mentioned in this strategy paper through the Infocenter Association, which is currently in a good position to provide continuity to the learning circles and set up additional groups, on the basis of their proposals to generate electronic information resources for their respective sectors. Furthermore, the Infocenter Association should begin setting up its internal monitoring and evaluation unit, as an integral part of its activities, which could also serve as the cornerstone for a broader monitoring and evaluation effort in a learning society program.