‘eNabler’ Project by Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology

 

and Development to Help Boost Progress towards Millennium Goals

 

The Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology and Development (GAID) held a high-level breakfast meeting in New York to launch a set of online tools aimed at providing users around the world with the resources and means to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals at the national level by the target year 2015.  The “MDGs eNabler” project is spearheaded by GAID, with support from Governments, private corporations, academia and the civil society.

More than 80 Government leaders and officials, chief executive officers, technology company managers and senior United Nations officials participated in the launching ceremony at the Millennium Hotel on 21 September.

Important statements of support and offers of collaboration were pledged by the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology of India, Sachin Pilot; the Chief Executive Officer of Ericsson, Hans Erik Vestberg; the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; the World Bank; the Islamic Development Bank; and others.

According to GAID Chairman Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the MDGs eNabler will allow Governments of developing countries to take charge in their struggle for access to health and educational needs.  Mr. Ghazaleh, echoing the view of the Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning of Liberia, Sebastian T. Muah, asserted that the innovative initiative was long overdue.  He stressed that its timing and execution is crucial to become mainstream and successful.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, read a welcoming message on behalf of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  “I welcome the GAID membership, under the leadership of its Chairman, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, to launch web-based knowledge tools and information resources providing tangible and practical benefits to developing countries in their efforts to advance MDGs,” Mr. Ban said in his message.

“[Information and communications technology (ICT)] can empower farmers to have better access to market, increasing their opportunity to be part of the global supply chain. ICT can enable students to get better education materials. Doctors use ICT to provide health care to those in need, including in remote areas,” the Secretary-General said in his message to the meeting.  Technologies can provide access to knowledge and opportunity for those who do not have it, Mr. Ban added. “The Global Alliance for ICT and Development can make a great contribution to assisting developing countries in achieving the full potential offered by ICT by moving from advocacy to action.”

“I invite all stakeholders to join the GAID membership in this endeavour,” concluded the Secretary-General.

GAID was established in 2006 as a multi-stakeholder platform to put in practice the spirit and vision of the World Summit on the Information Society and promote the use of information and communications technology to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.  It provides all stakeholders with a broad forum and a global platform for dialogue and partnership on cross-cutting issues.

For more information, please visit http://www.un-gaid.org, or contact Enrica Murmura, tel: +1 212 963 5913; e-mail: murmura@un.org; Franck Kuwonu, tel: +1 212 963 8264; e-mail: kuwonu@un.org; or Tim Wall, tel: +1 212 963 5851; e-mail: wallt@un.org, of the United Nations Department of Public Information.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record