In October 2009, the USAID/Tatweer program launched a long-term IT training program to increase the internal capacity of GOI offices in building web and networked-based applications using the Microsoft .NET framework and SQL Server 2005. Based on over two years of support to the GOI on information management issues, USAID/Tatweer believes that there continues to be a strong demand within the government in support of this initiative.

The purpose of the program is to mentor GOI staff while they develop their own database management solutions. Complimenting this will be the creation of a GOI-wide IT "community of practice". This program is a direct approach to translate training into actual systems implementation within specific GOI institutions.

The program will initiate training courses with a series of required courses in database design and development (using Microsoft SQL Server), website development using HTML and related technologies, and two courses in website and windows programming using Microsoft C# and ASP.NET languages.

Initial courses will be followed by a series of technical workshops, based on specific needs of the trainees projects. For example, many offices are in the process of converting older applicatioins to new generation databases and require some technical assistance on how to convert data. The goal of these workshops is to facilitate collaboration among GOI IT professionals from various agencies or ministries. This community will be supported by an online networking portal and knowledge base.