Santo Domingo Summit Adopts Landmark Declaration and Two-Year Roadmap for Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance
More than twenty government delegations from Latin America and the Caribbean have adopted a landmark declaration on the ethics of artificial intelligence, committing the region to human-centred, rights-based technology governance at a time when AI is reshaping economies and public institutions worldwide.
The Third Ministerial and High-Level Summit on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Latin America and the Caribbean, convened in Santo Domingo on 25–26 June 2026, produced two key instruments: the Santo Domingo Declaration and a Regional Roadmap for 2026–2027. Organised by UNESCO, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and the Government of the Dominican Republic, the summit built directly on the 2023 Santiago Declaration and the 2024 Montevideo Declaration, which had established the regional working group and an earlier implementation roadmap.
Jamaica Steps Forward
Jamaica emerged as one of the summit’s more active participants. The delegation, led by Dr. the Hon. Andrew O. Wheatley, Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for Science, Technology and Special Projects, contributed to technical working sessions and co-endorsed the Santo Domingo Declaration — linking the summit’s regional outcomes directly to Jamaica’s domestic policy agenda.
The timing is significant. Jamaica’s National AI Task Force is finalising a draft National AI Policy due by November 2026, and exposure to regional best practices and international ethical standards at Santo Domingo is expected to strengthen that document’s evidence base. The declaration’s core principles — transparency, equity, non-discrimination, and the protection of vulnerable populations — align closely with Jamaica’s existing legal architecture, including the Data Protection Act 2020 and the Open Data Policy 2021.
Domestic initiatives already in train stand to benefit. Mandatory AI training for government workers, the AI Lab at the University of Technology, Jamaica, and AI modules at the University of the West Indies now sit within a broader regional framework that lends them both credibility and direction.
A Collective Gain for Small Island States
For the wider Caribbean, the summit’s significance lies as much in what it enables collectively as in any single national outcome. Small island developing states, constrained by limited resources and talent pools, gain disproportionately from mechanisms that allow them to share knowledge, pool expertise, and coordinate responses to common challenges — digital infrastructure gaps, skills shortages, and the risk that AI deployment exacerbates rather than reduces inequality.
The Regional Roadmap for 2026–2027 establishes precisely those mechanisms. It also amplifies the Caribbean’s voice in global AI governance discussions, ensuring that perspectives from the Global South on equity, sustainability, and cultural appropriateness are not drowned out by more dominant frameworks originating in North America, Europe, and East Asia.
Practical applications discussed at the summit included AI tools for agricultural productivity, climate adaptation, tourism, healthcare access, and public administration — areas of particular relevance to Caribbean economies.
The Test Lies Ahead
Not everyone is ready to declare the summit a success. Whilst the declaration and roadmap represent genuine diplomatic progress, analysts and participating delegations alike acknowledged that political commitments must translate into funded, implemented programmes to carry real weight.
Infrastructure constraints, the chronic difficulty of retaining technology talent in small economies, and the need for AI systems that reflect Caribbean cultural realities rather than imported assumptions remain unresolved. The accountability mechanisms embedded in the 2026–2027 Roadmap are new; their effectiveness is yet to be demonstrated.
What the Santo Domingo Summit has provided, its architects argue, is something previously absent from the regional landscape: a shared ethical compass, a structured timetable, and a collective accountability framework. Whether governments honour those commitments — with adequate funding and sustained political will — will determine whether the declaration endures as a turning point or recedes as another well-worded communiqué.
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