The MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) are a major United Nations Initiative with profound global impact (see www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). The use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to advance the core MDG priority areas is an effective tool to speed up and strengthen development efforts.
Discussions in the UN-GAID (Global Alliance for ICT Development) Conference at Monterrey, Mexico (Sept 2-4, 2009), resulted in launching of the eNabler Project in 2010. The initial focus of the eNabler Project was to accelerate the pace of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through ICT. However, the eNabler evolved into a “one-stop shop” with a pool of informational plus econsulting resources which could be useful for all actors (ICT and non-ICT) involved in development.
The most active resource of the eNabler Project is a computer aided planning environment called SPACE (Strategic Planning, Architecture, Acquisition, Controls & Education) that has matured into a powerful spinoff of the eNabler Project. SPACE supports the entire Learn -Plan-Do-Check cycle and quickly produces highly detailed plans based on best practices for a wide range of ICT services that are customized for the chosen country/region.
A working prototype of SPACE (previously known as Strategic Planner) has been demonstrated at UN-GAID conferences in Geneva (May 2010), Riyadh (July 2010), Bahrain (August 2010), New York (September 2010), and Abu Dhabi (December 2010) with strong support from more than 100 countries and international organizations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), Red Cross, UNESCO, Microsoft and WITSA (Worldwide IT Services Alliance). SPACE has also been presented at the International Conference on Least Development Countries in Istanbul (May 2011), Annual Conference in Bahrain (May 2011), and e-Democracy Conference in Macedonia (October 2011). SPACE has gone beyond MDGs and is currently being used in 20+ eGovernment as well as eBusiness initiatives globally. It is also supporting graduate courses in ICT Planning and Architectures, and helping a Certificate Program for Government CIOs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.