With the signature of Minister Ali Baban, the Ministry of Planning has formally accepted the Government Assistance Database (GAD) as the system for managing capital investment projects. This acceptance officially makes GAD, with training and installation facilitated by USAID/Tatweer, a powerful conduit for capital investment and development information in Iraq.

The GAD system, which was jointly developed by USAID/Tatweer and the UNDP, is functional in both Arabic and English and is currently fully installed on the MoP's servers. Entities across the GOI can access the GAD via the internet, which facilitates the online submission of requests for project funding and program updates. Furthermore, GAD was approved as the software to be used to manage the capital investment projects in the 2010-2014 National Development Plan.

Following the completion of this phase, the MoP, in cooperation with USAID/Tatweer, will begin GAD training sessions for the various ministries and GoI entities. Training manuals and user guidelines have already been developed, and course scheduling is quickly moving forward. The first training session on the GAD system will commence on February 14, 2010, at the MoP building in Karrada.