UN Partners With Microsoft To Bring Information Technology To Africa

Ishita Sukhadwala - AHN News Writer
Kigali, Rwanda (AHN) - The United Nations telecommunications agency International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and computer giant Microsoft have formed collaboration to bring benefits of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to millions of people in Africa, it was announced Monday.
The partnership was announced at the Connect Africa Summit in Rwanda which unveiled ITU Global View, a virtual earth-based online platform which displays and tracks ICT related development projects in Africa.
ITU Global View is based on Microsoft's Virtual Earth and integrates a broad range of data sources related to ICT progress in support of goals set by World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
The software was developed jointly with IDV Solutions and the online platform will be hosted and maintained by ITU.
It will be open to all stakeholders -- governments, industry, international and regional organizations, as well as civil society -- allowing users to check status, identify gaps and avoid overlap in collaborative efforts to achieve the WSIS goals.
The WSIS goals aim to make technology available to all segments of society, in urban and rural areas, and in all regions, especially in Africa, by 2015.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said: "Connect Africa is a call to action for the private sector, and we are encouraged by the progress we have made together with Microsoft to broaden the scope of capacity building in Africa", reports All Africa.
Referring to those on the continent still not connected to the Internet, Michael Rawding, Vice President, Unlimited Potential Group which is part of Microsoft said "bringing the benefits of technology to the next five billion people will require new approaches to development and new partnerships between international organizations, governments and the private sector."
It is hoped that the new technology partnership will help with Africa's fight against poverty, disease, hunger, illiteracy and environmental degradation.