Digital Bangladesh
Background
Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) are recognized as a powerful tool for socio-economic
development. With appropriate policies, supplemented by realistic strategies,
ICTs are known to have brought tremendous welfare to people in terms of better
access to information, job creation, and enhanced public services through
efficient governance and diversification of economic opportunities. Today, the
adaptation and usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is
increasingly being linked to the national economic development and subsequent
human development for the countries of the world. Countries are using
ICTs to participate in the
international economy, to exploit emerging technologies for the betterment of
their citizens, to modernize institutions and markets. Bangladesh, like most
developing countries, recognizes the potential of ICTs as an unprecedented
lever for economic emancipation as well as an enabler for poverty reduction and
human development -both of which are of equal importance.
Early efforts ICT as a sector
The realization that ICTs can be an
important enabler for Bangladesh's development is not new. The early efforts in
this regard were directed towards developing ICT as an export sector and a
potential area of employment generation for ICT graduates.
As early as 1991, the Export
Promotion Bureau (EPB) with support from United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and International Trade Centre (ITC) undertook an initiative to explore
market potential of ICTs. Through a series of meetings and seminars, the key
issues were identified and corrective measures were suggested. Another project
of Ministry of Science and Technology with support from UNDP and United Nations
Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in 1992 involved identification of
problem areas and drafting of recommendations to promote ICT export of
Bangladesh. In both cases, however, no follow-up action appeared to have been
taken.
One of the most recognized efforts
in this regard was taken in 1997. A committee was formed with Professor Jamilur
Reza Choudhury as its convenor to explore the potential of an export oriented software
industry in Bangladesh. The committee comprised of representatives from the
government, industry, and academia, which submitted its report in September 14,
1997. Several of the recommendations of the committee were implemented which,
in many ways, shaped the modern discourse around ICT in Bangladesh.
Establishment of Bangladesh Association of Software &
Information Services (BASIS), formation of ICT Task force
headed by the Prime Minister in 2000, substantial reduction of government
levies on ICT imports, etc. can be traced back to the recommendations made in
that report.
The report of the committee, often
referred to as the JRC report, captured the imagination of common citizens and
government alike, created renewed political commitments of the subsequent
governments around ICTs.
ICT as development enable
World over, the use of Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in development programming is a
relatively new concept. In 2000 ICTs assumed a new, when the United Nations and
G8 group of industrialized countries flagged ICT for Development (ICT4D) as a
global development priority by declaring that, "everyone, everywhere
should be enabled to participate in the benefits of the global information
society". The subsequent publication of UNDP Human Development Report
titled Making New Technologies Work for Human Development in 2001 was a
landmark effort to explore the use of new technologies for the benefit of
common citizens of the world.
The renewed interest influenced the
UN General Assembly to adopt resolution
56/183 (21 December 2001) which
endorsed the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in
two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003
and the second phase took place in Tunis from 16 to
18 November 2005.
The Bangladesh delegation in WSIS
was led by the incumbent Prime Minister who endorsed the 11-point WSIS agenda
and declared Bangladesh's intention to become an information society by 2006.
The second summit in 2005 was attended by the then Minister for Science and ICT
who reaffirmed Bangladesh's intention to follow up on the agenda as well.
Public sector initiatives
The country's first National ICT
policy, approved in 2002, touched upon issues related with e-Governance and ICT4D
but stopped short of addressing them from a holistic viewpoint. Especially, in
the absence of concerted effort to implement the policy within the government,
the real impact of the policy was not significant. Establishment of
"Support to ICT Task Force" (SICT) project was the first major public
sector initiative to leverage ICT for development. Launched in 2002, the
project started its operation from 2003. The project was created to implement
the ICT Task force decisions. Unfortunately, the task force remained largely
inactive ever since and hence the project could not benefit from the task force
much. Rather it became the de facto implementation wing of the executive
committee of the task force.
A year later, another project was initiated in the Prime
Minister's Office with technical support from UNDP in July 2004. The activities
of the project led to the formulation of a comprehensive action plan for
e-Governance including government process re-engineering and promoted the
pioneering initiative to build leadership for ICT enabled change in civil
administration. Appointment of a senior officer as ICT focal point for each
ministry started the process of building the critical mass and awareness within
the administration for ICT enabled change. The project initiative to publish 50
most frequently government forms online can be cited as one of the first
e-Governance initiatives to directly benefit the citizens. The Access to
Information (A2I) Programmed, a follow-up project in the PMO, started in 2007
with a proclaimed goal to leverage ICT in public service delivery and build
necessary capacity of the stakeholders to promote the use of ICTs in
development.
This project too was supported by
UNDP. True to its objective, the project initiated action research to identify
the potential use of ICTs in social sectors such as education, health,
agriculture, etc. In the meantime, several other projects such as the World
Bank supported ICT component of Economic Management Technical Assistance
Project (EMTAP) of Ministry of Science and ICT came up with specific
recommendations to leverage ICTs for development. Finally, the largest ICT
initiative in the country to date was implemented during 2007-2008 for the
preparation of 'Photo voter roll' used ICT tools to prepare a credible voter
list with technical assistance form UNDP. In the course of the project, common
citizens of the country, most of them for the first time in their lives, saw
ICT tools, and appreciated their immense potential. In parallel, about 50,000
young boys and girls were trained to operate a sophisticated software
application system and carried out bulk of the activities of the project.
Policy and legal context
Over the last few years, new understanding
of ICT as a development enabler has made its way into the various policy
documents of the government. The revised ICT
Policy 2009, which has recently been
approved in the cabinet, has specific direction and guidelines reflecting most
of the priorities of the Digital Bangladesh agenda.
The 9thParliament has
already passed the Right to Information Act. The act has required legal
imperatives that corroborates and promotes the overall context of Digital
Bangladesh vision. The cabinet has already approved the ICT Act 2009, which is
expected to be placed in the 2ndsession of Parliament for approval
and promulgation. Once promulgated, this would pave the way to introduce the
provisions required to initiate electronic signature and e-Commerce. The policy
directives to introduce Citizen's Charter at all levels of government should
act as another policy incentive to promote use of ICT in delivery of governmentservices and information. Steps taken thus far to introduce such
charter and related lessons learned would be useful inputs in implementing
Digital Bangladesh.
Emergence of Digital Bangladesh
"Digital Bangladesh by
2021" emerged as part of "Charter for Change"the election
manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League for the 9thParliamentary
Election. The declaration was made in December 12, 2008 for the election held
in December 29, 2008. Though a date is attached to this agenda, it is
interpreted as a long-term vision rather than a target. This forward-looking
vision quickly captured people's imagination and became the cornerstone of the
entire election manifesto. In the backdrop of a markedly pro-poor election
manifesto of the Awami League, the Digital Bangladesh vision is unique as it
proposes to mainstream ICTs as a pro-poor tool. Indeed, this is probably the
first time in the history of Bangladesh that the vision of poverty reduction
and human development leveraging ICTs was proposed that received instant
support from common citizens. In many ways, the "Digital Bangladesh"
vision took the policy makers and practitioners by surprise. While the basic
premise of the vision is not new, the all-encompassing nature of the vision
demands a fundamental shift of mindset of the implementers. It not only needs
thinking anew but new ways of thinking.
Elements of Digital Bangladesh
The "Digital Bangladesh"
vision needs to be translated in the context of the overall election manifesto
of the Awami League led Grand Alliance that now forms the largest chunk of this
government's commitment. In Digital Bangladesh, ICT needs to be an enabler to
the nation's struggle to achieve the economic, cultural, and social
emancipation. Indeed, one of the key tenants of "Digital Bangladesh"
is its unmistakable bias towards the poor who constitute a large majority of
the people. In many ways, 'Digital Bangladesh' is a reincarnation of the vision
of 'Sonar Bangla' (Golden Bengal). Hence, it may be wise to keep it as an
overarching objective rather than a conclusive target. From this viewpoint,
where it makes sense, ICTs and new technologies need to be
leveraged in all aspect of national progress of a Digital Bangladesh. Some of
the key areas in which ICT can be leveraged immediately are outlined below.
Human Resource Development(HRD)
Digital Bangladesh needs people who
can take it forward and thrive in such a country. This component is about the
future of "Digital Bangladesh" and is a precondition to propel the
agenda to its final destination. Clearly, a student who used ICT to learn will
find it easier to use ICT to apply whatever s/he learned in the Digital
Bangladesh.
The key objective here is to make
the best use of new technologies to build world-class skills in all areas of
study especially mathematics, science, and English language. Taking advantage
of newer and less costly delivery tools and digital learning contents the aim
will be to build the competencies needed to compete in the globalized 21stcentury
world. ICT for education or e-
Education will also deal with
providing vocational and 'lifelong education' opportunities to the youth and
adults in order to retool them and build newer skills to improve their
productivity.
The Ministries of Education, and
Primary and Mass Education have realized the potential of ICTs in elevating the
educational quality and have deployed initiatives to develop digital materials
for school education. Realizing the inadequacies of the digital platforms in
schools, especially the absence of them in primary schools, the ministries have
started with digital materials for teacher education which is a crucial area of
building the capacity of teachers who are going to build the soldiers for
Digital Bangladesh. Innovations like
use of TV and Video in classrooms are being tested in several instances. Radio based
adult education programmehas already shown great prospects. Use of videotaped
TV programme as learning tools is becoming popular among the farmers.
Initiative to use digital media and e-learning platforms are being undertaken
to provide on-demand and on-the-job training and skills building for the public
servants.
In this context, as part of the
Digital Bangladesh initiative, efforts need to be taken to develop a
sustainable institutional mechanism that enables creation and distribution of
digital content by both public and private sectors and explore new and
sustainable delivery platforms for rural schools.
Connecting the Citizens
Ensuring access to the Digital
Bangladesh for all citizens, poor or rich, literate or illiterate, urban or
rural is another foundation stone of Digital Bangladesh. The key objective of
this component is to find a sustainable channel so that people can benefit from
all that the Digital Bangladesh would offer in a manner that s/he could easily
use and afford.
More
specifically, this component will deal with i) building awareness and capacity
of the communities to access public services leveraging ICTs, ii) issues
associated with local language content and locally relevant content, iii)
innovative access channels and platforms for common men/women, etc.
This component will also deal with
establishing two-way channels to promote participation of grassroots in policy
discourse and provide feedbacks to the policy makers on particular policy
adjustments.
Already mobile phones have created a
sustainable channel of communication. The use of mobile phone based voting in
to determine the best singing talent in a TV show probably represents the most
popular use of the device to reach to the poorest of the poor. Several pilots
are underway to use voice-based systems that provide required agricultural
information to the farmer. Tele-medicine, both as a tool for off-site service
by medical specialist and as a callcentre service are tried and tested in local
context. Several initiatives to develop community based and/or rural shared
internet access points by both private sector and government are underway.
Already Bangladesh Tele-centre Network, an association of private sector
practitioners, has deployed many hundreds of these centres. At the same time,
initiative to establish such shared access points in Union Parishads,
UpazillaParishads, Farmers' Clubs,
Agriculture extension service
stations, Pauroshovas are underway under the direct/indirect auspices of
government agencies. Phone-in programmes in public and private TV channels have
become a regular feature already. Introduction of phone-in feature in the
nationally televised programme on agricultural issues, health issues, legal,
and human rights issues already attracts a large audience. Community radio can
emerge as another channel of communication for the poor and the marginalized.
If people's participation in programming and management can be ensured,
community radio can be a sustainable platform for people-to-people
communication and problem solving. As part of the Digital Bangladesh vision,
new efforts should be undertaken to develop sustainable delivery channel systematically
in partnership with private sector as the last mile provider. Shared and
specialized service outlets, both in private sector and at the local government
bodies, to cater one-stop services to the citizen need to be established and
promoted. Low cost broadband access to the internet is another key priority in
this regard. It may be mentionedalready a private company has obtained license
to build fibre optic backbone to connect all Upazilla under the
"Nationwide Telecommunication
Transmission Network" and
started pilot operation as well. Policy incentive to promote low
cost 3rdgeneration cellular and WiMax connectivity to rural
Bangladesh may also be considered as a policy priority.
Digital Government for Pro-poor services
Government exist to execute
authority and function to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or
rules with the ultimate objective is to serve the citizen. The key objective of
'Digital Government' would be to leverage technology in all spares of
government with a sharp focus to ensure delivery of such services to thoseare
the least served. The two key sub-components of this component are e-Citizen
Service and e-Administration to delivery e-
Citizen Services. Unlike most
developed countries, government is the key provider of citizen services and
public information in Bangladesh. Communities rely on public services like
agriculture, health, education from the government. Hence, one of the key
sub-components of the Digital Bangladesh would be provision of ICT enabled services
(e-Citizen services) by public agencies. It may be noted that priorities should
be given to services that are critical for majority of the citizen like
education, health, agriculture, social safety nets, etc.
The key objective of the e-Citizen
service sub-component is to ensure anytime, anywhere services to anyone in need
of such services at a cost that he/she can afford and in a way that is
transparent to all. The key outcome of this component is to make sure that
people, especially the poor and marginaized, get the most out of public
provisions of information and services.
Hence, the key deliverables of
e-Citizen Service initiative is innovative service design and delivery channels
that suits citizen's lifestyle. In terms of specific indicators, this would
mean i) reduced number of interaction, especially face-to-face interactions,
between the service provider and recipient, ii) delivery in a speedy and cost
effective manner, iii) extended service availability (where possible 24x7
window), etc. As a special case for service delivery, this sub
-component will also focus on
providing services and information to government employees and the business
communities (especially the small business entities) in a convenient and cost
effective manner.
Payment of utility bills through
mobile phones, SMS-based railway ticketing information, etc. are some of the
pioneering initiatives of the government which can be cited as examples of
ICT-based service delivery. These initiatives enable common citizens to receive
information and services in a manner that is most convenient to them. For
example, the initiative that allowed customers to pay dues to Titas Gas
Distribution Company Limited liberated the customers from standing in long
queues to pay their dues, and instead, afforded them alternative ways to settle
their bills any time and from anywhere suiting their lifestyles.
It
is important to note that more than a dozen similar initiatives are currently
under implementation that should create an extensive knowledge base to better
design and implement these types of initiatives in the future. What is required
now is an institutional mechanism, which will identify and foster similar
initiatives in the future and provide required technical assistances for
implementation of such initiatives.
The second important sub-component
of "Digital Government" would be e
-Administration. This sub-component
would involve leveraging ICT tools to encapacitate the civil servants and
administrative processes with an explicit objective to plan, design, and
implement efficient production and delivery of citizen services. Use of
database systems at Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistic
to support effective management of the secondary schools and teachers is an
excellent example of such initiative.
ICT in Business
This component will deal with three
broad issues of Digital Bangladesh namely
i)
access to market,
ii)
promotion of ICT business to support
Digital Bangladesh and
iii)
ICT as an export oriented sector.
Leveraging ICTs to promote access to
markets by the disadvantaged producers and businesses would be a prime
objective of this component. By extension, this also includes the issue of
leveraging ICTs to maintain a socially responsible and equitable market for
all. By extending initiatives like cellBazar and mobile payments, this
sub-component can open up markets for small entrepreneurs and large business
alike.
Introduction of ICT platforms to
participate in public procurements (e-Tender) is yet another example of how
ICTs are leveraged in various parts of the world to open new opportunities for
the businesses. The second sub-component would be the issue of promotion of the
ICT business.
The basic objective would be to
support the industry so that it may provide the services and technology needed
to sustain the three other components of Digital Bangladesh. This sub-component
would need to deal with assistance to the private sector to attain the
international standards by bootstrapping some of the training institutions/mechanism
and by promulgating the necessary standards and benchmarks required to maintain
and encourage quality. Finally, the third sub-component involves promoting the
ICT business sector to boost its potential for ICT export and earn foreign currency.
This may also involve providing the right springboard required for the local
companies to access the global market. In case of both the second and third
sub-component, the other key objectivewill be to generate gainful employment
for the youth and for the country. Initiation like m-banking and electronic
payment as well as electronic business transactions are few key initiative in
this regard. Supporting the industry to develop required human
resources and promoting market access would be another dimension of the initiative.