Washington, DC, Dec. 1, 2022 – IDCA and SmartNations Foundation (SNF) today announced the signing of a long-term strategic alliance agreement. Under the master services agreement, SmartNations Foundation taps into IDCA’s global resources, whereby IDCA commits to long-term funding and the provision of both internal administrative management of the non-profit SNF NGO, as well as support its ongoing research and development work on digital infrastructure and meeting UNSDG/ESG goals in emerging and developing economies globally.

SmartNations Foundation is a prominent 501c non-profit entity, with key members that focus on research-based technology grants, digital infrastructure development for developing economies as well as journalism community-building conferences intended to “connect the dots between the global transition to digital-first economy and societies and how that transformation can lead to mitigating, abating and adapting to climate change at the scale and speed required,” said SNF’s co-founder and managing director, Bruce Armstrong Taylor.

"I couldn't think of a better partner for SmartNations Institute than IDCA", stated Peter Gross, 1st Board Chair of SNF. Taylor continued, “Andre Eidskrem, the Norwegian sustainable data center developer, and I, have shared the same dream, and along with other well-known digital infrastructure thought-leaders, such as Peter Gross, our first board chair, and others, launched SNF in 2019.”

“The strategic alliance agreement calls for IDCA to contribute both strategic advice, consulting, funding, and development expertise to further SNF’s digital-first smart cities infrastructure work empowering emerging, developing economies to progress on UN SDG, ESG, and climate-change goals globally. One of SNF’s early-stage developmental obstacles was access to the kind of globally scaled technical, knowledgebase engineering, project financing, systematic human capital development education, and project development expertise now fully available through the strategic alliance with IDCA”, Taylor concluded.

“IDCA and SmartNations management share a common passion for the power of digital transformation to help advance economies, environmental sustainability, effective social development, and strategic government policy and action,” said IDCA Chairman Mehdi Paryavi, at the signing. “SmartNations adds great value to what IDCA aims to accomplish worldwide and its team of great researchers, experts in technical journalism, and community-building management is in full alignment with IDCA’s mission.

IDCA is the largest consortium of digital infrastructure in the world with key members, contributors, and a comprehensive line of value chain service delivery that also recently launched its global membership community platform.

“IDCA brings is our world’s largest pool of expertise and knowledge and SmartNations aims to help nations around the world. This is why IDCA agreed to finance SmartNations and help it achieve its humanitarian goals faster and more efficiently than ever before”, Winston Ma, CFA., Finance Counsel and Member of the Board Directors at IDCA.

Both organizations particularly share the vision for the growing understanding that the transition to a digital-first economy is key to not only thriving economies as well as the mission-critical link in meaningfully addressing climate change. Developing and emerging societies and economies cannot be left behind in their need for sustainable digital infrastructure development. IDCA and SmartNations are already engaging on major projects in Africa, LATAM, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. The first concrete result of the alliance will be the January 2023 release of the world’s most comprehensive digital readiness of nations report, which is an important stepping stone to meeting the challenges of the digital-first future. These reports are the first of a series of research papers on the IDCA SmartNations agenda for 2023 and beyond.