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Service @ your doorstep

6 March 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Anir Chowdhury
I would like to start by relating a remarkable personal experience in Jhenidah. There, for the last two months, farmers have been receiving purchase orders for sugarcane through text messages. I found that 80 percent of them could not read the English message, and 20 percent of them were totally illiterate -- they could not read even Bangla. And yet 100 percent of them are able to act on the message since there is the concept of "indirect literacy" in Bangladesh. The reason I have brought this up is to respond to a comment that the Digital Bangladesh vision is quite meaningless when 50 percent of the people can't use a keyboard. I congratulate the principal secretary for explaining the vision where most of the people will not have to use a keyboard. In no way am I suggesting that illiteracy eradication should not be a priority of the government. All I am suggesting, firstly, is that Digital Bangladesh has found many creative ways of delivering vital information and services to common citizens without depending on computers and internet. Both the government and the development partners must recognise this fact and plan innovatively. Digital Bangladesh is not a promise for a different world. It's actually a promise for the same world, much better, much quicker, much more responsive and less costly. At the same time, it's a different world to different people. To a student, it's higher quality of education and being market-ready; to a farmer, it's right information at the right time at the right place; to a patient, it's access to quality healthcare without having to stand in long queues for days; to a serving government officer, it's triumph of merit and performance over connections; to a retired government officer, to a freedom fighter, and to a widow, it's delivery of safety nets and pensions transparently. To all, it's services they deserve and expect at their doorsteps. Secondly, ladies and gentlemen, we have a draft Skills Development Policy before us, while we are also faced with the reality of a "youth bulge" with a third of the country's population in this category. ICT can help in two ways; market-focused distance education by utilising the government's second terrestrial channel which lies unused today, and development of ICT-focused skills to employ a large number of young people in the IT-enabled services industry. Let me cite two success stories of the ICT-enabled skills development in our country; the very large work of voter registration was done electronically by over fifty thousand secondary and higher secondary students, who were trained for a week on ICT. The second example is from the industry, where hundreds of higher secondary graduates are employed to develop graphic designs for American, European and Japanese companies. We definitely need a software industry to support the implementation of Digital Bangladesh for both the citizens and the government. I would like to point out that the return on national investment will be much higher if we pay more attention to the secondary and higher secondary graduates. I believe inter-ministerial coordination among the ministries of education, labour, expatriate welfare, youth, ICT and others, in collaboration with the development partners, private sector and non-government actors, will yield very effective results for the nation, no matter which ministry owns the policy. Thirdly, we need to be very careful about striking the right balance of equity vs. growth in the Digital Bangladesh vision. There is a danger of adopting western-led concepts of Digital Bangladesh, which may contribute to growth but will miss the equity parameter by a large margin. In fact, it may lead to further inequity in the form of digital divide. ICTs can make the strong even stronger or empower the weak and the underprivileged. It is up to us to make the right choice. As we prioritise the action items in the ICT Policy, we must always ask ourselves whether the common man will benefit from a particular digital initiative. Lastly, I would like to draw your attention to developing a knowledge management platform and decision support system within the government. This will connect the officers of different ranks in the centre and in the field, ensure interoperability of the current islands of information, and allow proper implementation of the Right to Information Act and decentralised service delivery. I am glad to note that the ministry of establishment has included these issues in the civil service reform roadmap. In conclusion, I would urge the development partners to explore creative ways to include the Digital Bangladesh agenda in the existing programs they are supporting. Local government strengthening, justice sector reform, education and health projects, capacity building efforts can all be made much more effective, and to deliver more, with a digital edge. I am confident of this.
Anir Chowdhury is Policy Adviser, Access to Information Programme, Prime Minister's Office.

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