KABUL - With the support of the World Bank, the Afghan Government today launched a new programme to develop a national culture of innovation in the area of information technology, offering the possibility of cash prizes for the best ideas in this area.

“MCIT [the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology] will announce various challenges under the programme and welcomes proposals from Afghans to come up with innovative ideas and solutions in the field of mobile technology to address the announced challenges in effective and efficient manner,” the head of the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Technology and Innovation, Wais Payab, said at a news conference announcing the programme in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Called DEWAE, the programme will be overseen by the MICT and was underwritten by the World Bank. Its overall goal is to harness new technology to improve governance.

The United Nations has been active in searching for ways to promote good governance by harnessing information and communication technology (ICT). These tools are seen as cost effective and efficient ways of soliciting the inputs of large numbers of people. Many UN agencies have begun adopting such technology to achieve desired development and social inclusion goals. Recent innovations include the use of a smartphone application that allows mothers to register the births of their newborns.

At today’s news conference, Afghans were challenged, and offered the possibility of cash prizes, to use new ICT to come up with tools that can spur efficiencies in different government bureaus. Awards will be provided for the best ideas in four categories: mobile government, mobile technology, young technologists, innovators and ICT champions. The best proposals could win between $2,000 and $80,000.

“Through this programme, MCIT will encourage the concept of innovative thinking and will find innovative solutions in the field of mobile technology and ICT, which will be delivered by Afghans themselves,” said Mr. Payab. “These solutions and ideas will be implemented in the relevant government organizations to enchance their service delivery to the citizens of Afghanistan.”