Beyond the horizon of 2020
The year 2020, due to its symmetrical design and rounded off structure held an important significance to most. For some it was the year they would get married, others will remember it as the day they may have had a child, or a promotion or bought a house, however by and large the year 2020 will be remembered as the year the world faced the biggest health crisis since 1918, due to the insurgence of the COVID-19-19 (also known as SARS-CoV-2). The world slowed down, economies waned, and workplaces vacated. However, from all of this there was, as it often happens in such situations positive reflections and drivers that emerged. As the world slowed down, both locally and abroad, we came to realize the impact the cost our buzzling lives were having, within the environment as well as on our frame of mind, coiled to an incessant rinse and repeat humdrum lifestyle. Among the observations done, air pollution plummeted, forever laying to rest the argument of human driven climate change. As many people/employees were requested to work from home; especially those working in digital or service driven industries, we started reacting through different approaches to both revaluate and enhance our daily and work practices.
MITA particularly had to roll its sleeves as the digital arm of the Government, and due to the various requests from Entities and Ministries pushed further and more rapidly through its Government Modern Workplace Initiative. As this happened various Ministries and Entities adopted Remote working strategies to continue undeterred and keep its employees safe. Government workers and institutions quickly familiarized themselves with tools, such as Microsoft Teams, and other Microsoft tools. In tandem, MITA doubled down to also assist healthcare workers and their efforts as it could, with the likes of Telemedicine Support for Healthcare workers to be able to communicate and share information more rapidly by electronic means and teleconferencing, not to mention the work done in aiding in the COVID-19 response actions by providing tech platforms and consultancy services through different departments at MITA. The new norm, so dubbed, brought to relief the importance of the Environment and recreational areas and more than ever showed the harmonious convergence which could be obtained by merging technology and the surrounding environment. 2020 marks the end of the Horizon 2020 EU Research and Innovation programme, a multibillion Fund (2014 – 2020), which had the objective to attract proposals of innovation that would help, among many other things, reach the EU green targets for 2030 and beyond. Through MITA’s collective collaboration between the Programme Management (PMD), Chief Technology (CTO) and Strategy and Business (SBD) departments, and the Emerging technology Lab, ideas have trickled in and made some ripples inspiring MITA to take a center seat in the realms of innovation.
As 2020 rails on to close, a new funding programme will replace Horizon 2020, named Horizon Europe. MITA is looking into participating further and even spearheading in such programmes through newly created collaborations and synergies. Fueled by both aspiration and ambition as 2020 also marks 30 years of MITA’s inception. A year celebrated in silence through service, by provisioning the digital needs of government and its entities into allowing its work to continue undeterred. Now, with the digital age reaching higher focus, exemplified through the crisis of COVID-19, MITA seeks to redefine its role as a force to not only equip the Government with tools for tomorrow, but as a technological leader, provider and partner beyond the year 2020 and a leading force into the first quarter of the 21st Century at the height of the digital age.