Abu Dhabi will host the fifth annual forum of the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (Gaid), on December 5 and 6.

The Gaid Forum, organized and sponsored by Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (Adsic), and held concurrently with the "World Summit Award - Mobile Content", will hold discussions about the role of ICT in achieving the eight millennium development goals (MDGs) by the year 2015.

Discussions will include eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of Gaid, said: "It gives me great pleasure to announce at this UNGaid annual meeting in Abu-Dhabi the launch of the MDG eNabler which was invented by our team of experts.”

“This virtual engine will act like a GPS for economic development and will be available for free use by all developing countries to advance the achievement of the millennium development goal,” he added.

The MDGs eNabler, which aims at promoting the development goals, will act as a “one-stop shop” for policy makers, planners, project managers, and development workers involved in the implementation of national development programs and strategies.

The eNabler is a set of web-based tools and resources designed to assist all users worldwide in their work to advance and accelerate MDGs nationally. It comprises a set of creative components including an ICT solution matrix, which is a strategic planner, the Meta portal (portal of portals) in ICT for MDG, simulators and games, and compendium of excellence.

Gaid was launched in 2006 as a global platform for putting the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) into effect, and promoting the use of ICT to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs. – TradeArabia News Service