1. Building a Digital Nation:
Transformational Change
and Scaling Up
Anir Chowdhury
Policy Advisor
Access to Information Programme
Prime Minister’s Office
Bangladesh
May 13, 2013
2. Bangladesh Context: ‘Glass Half Empty’
Income: $700 GDP per capita, 30%+ under $1/day
Literacy: 50% Bangla (English insignificant)
Electricity grid: 40% of area under grid, very
unreliable!
Solar increasing
Service delivery
Not need responsive
Complicated/fragmented process
Extremely male biased
Endemic corruption and „rent-seeking‟
3. Bangladesh Context: ‘Glass Half Full’
• Social: Facebook, urbanization
• Economic: PPP Policy
• Technological: Mobile, internet
• Legal: ICT Act, RTI Act
• Political: Highest level, new young
leadership
• Government Readiness: mindset
change, data centre, new IT-savvy
recruits
1,4M
2,8M
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
March December
Thousands
Facebook, 2011-12
4. 3 Key Issues for Service Improvement
Service Delivery Model
• Complicated Process/Forms/
Notarization
• Face-to-face delivery
Capacity of Civil
Servants
• Change management and
innovation is
limited/discouraged
• Private sector in the last mile
is absent
Enabling Environment
• Public registers (people & assets) to
target, validate, & monitor service
• Digital data/information to support decision
• Comprehensive policies and laws
Understanding root causes of service inefficiency
5. Improve Service Delivery
to the Underserved
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man.”
― George Bernard Shaw
6. Reached Agreement
Focus on Innovations that lead to
Service Delivery Improvement
Continuous
improvement
1. Time
2. Cost
3. No. of visits
4. Expected quality
7. Preventing Digital Divide:
Citizens Access Points in 4,500+ UPs –
True Bottom-Up Development
Birth and death
registration
Examination
results
Government
forms download
Job information
Visa application
and tracking
Digital
photography
Computer
training
Mobile
banking
Life insurance
English
training
centres
Payments for
government
services
Tax collection
Remittance4.5 mil users/month
USD 600K/month
Start with the underserved first!
8. One-Stop Service in all 64 DC Offices
Certified copy of land records delivery
increased by 40%
Time for citizens reduced from several
weeks to 2-5 days
Decision making time reduced by 80-
90%Transform services and provider behaviour
9. UN Chiefs Inaugurating 2 Landmark
Initiatives in Bangladesh
International recognition and involvement
14. Bangla Content a Priority
• 100,000+ pages
• Agri, health, edu, law and
human rights, disaster
mgmt, tourism, employment
• 300 orgs (govt., for-
profit, non-profit)
Enable massive Bangla content
People don‟t
have desks!
15. Focus is on ICT to Improve Education,
Not ICT Literacy
Transform education, not IT education
All 300+
primary, secondary, v
ocational, madrassa
textbooks online
Thousands of teachers
share content through a
dedicated portal
18. Mobile Banking: Developed/Developing
Country Contrast
Developed: nice-to-have Developing: must-have
Strong inter-bank payment
systems
Extensive bank branches
Ubiquitous ATM and POS
networks
High credit/debit card
penetration
High availability of internet
banking.
Weak inter-bank
infrastructure
Limited number of bank
branches
Limited ATM and POS
system
Limited internet but high
penetration of mobile
devices
Problem with current mode of mobile banking:
1. The bank account holder must own a mobile phone – prohibitive for the very poor
2. Transaction cost if prohibitively expensive for small transactions
19. i-Banking
Cash-In and Cash-Out
through mobile & prepaid Bank
Cards
through UISC Cash Agents & POS
Terminals
i-Payments
G2P: social safety net payments
P2G payments: utilities, all forms
of challans
Person-2-Person fund transfers /
remittances
i-Commerce
B2C & C2B services: buying
seeds, fertilizers, bus tickets,
paying for medical services at
upazilla health complex, etc.
i-Insurance
Micro-insurance for life,
disability, crops, etc.
Access to proper risk
management tools over
mobile devices
i-Credit
Micro-credit at lower
transaction cost lower
interest
Comprehensive Financial Inclusion (i-*)
20. Results in 3 years
33M e-services from UISC
36M birth registration electronically
USD16M earnings for UISC entrepreneurs
0.8M e-applications processed in district
HQ
1.1M land records delivered electronically
from district HQ
21. 49M results of public exams over internet,
33M over SMS
2.7M admission applications through SMS
in 32 public universities, 400 colleges, 70
medical colleges
3M students (by June 2013) learning from
multimedia content developed by 16,000
teachers
23. Develop Capacity and
Catalyze Transformational Change
“I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to
not know what can't be done.”
― Henry Ford
24. Develop Capacity of Thousands ...
• Leadership mobilization
Interested Honourable Members of Cabinet and
Secretaries
• Process simplication & change mgmt.
e-Gov Focal points (Addls/Jt. Secretaries), DCs
• Implementation & Technical capacity
UPZ Chairmen, ADC, Quick Win focal
points, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNOs),Deputy
Director (LG)
• Incentives
Innovation Award
Target
groups
• 500+ elected
representatives
• 2,000+ civil
servants
• 9,000
Entrepreneurs
• Media
• Citizen
• Private Sector
and NGOs
• Demand Creation
• Information Officers, Journalists, UISC
Entrepreneurs, Citizens
• Awareness Development
• Innovation fair (divisional fair is on the card)
25. e-Governance Focal Points to
Innovation Teams
Introduced the role of e-Governance Focal
Points in every Ministry (50+)
Rigorous learning sessions containing visioning
sessions, debates, case study analysis, service
simplification exercises
Action research through Quick Wins
Recent Government gazette to form Innovation
Teams in each Ministry (50+), each directorate
(400+), each district (64) and each sub-district
(487)
26. Info Centres in Union Parishads, Farmers‟
Clubs
Upazilla doctors providing tele-consultation
Computerized land management
Tracking social safety nets
Disaster early warning through mobile
network
Teacher training and e-Learning
100+ ‘Quick Wins’ launched. Another 600 in the Pipeline
Encourage baby steps. Allow failure!
27. Quick Win Beginning Now
e-Purchase Orders
(e-Purjee)
20,000 farmers
2 sugar mills
200,000 farmers
15 sugar mills
e-Service Centres in
Rural LGIs (UISC)
2 UPs
4 entrepreneurs
4,500+ UPs
9,000+ entrepreneurs
4.5m citizens/mon
Tk. 5 crore/mon income
Multimedia classroom
and teacher-led
content
7 schools
22 teachers
By June 2014
23,315 schools
70,000 teachers
1. Increase confidence of govt officers
2. Allow risk-taking for innovations
3. Partner with private sector and NGOs
Quick Wins Scaling Up
28. Grassroots Blog Enabling Country-wide
Problem Solving, Citizens Empowerment,
Break-down of traditional admin hierarchy
29. 200+ e-Services
100+ govt. agencies
50+ companies
Creating a Sense of Positive Competition
among Ministries and
Promoting International Branding
30 countries
200 speakers
150 exhibitors
7 country pavilions
17 awards
Start with informal incentives like recognition
30. Planning and Coordination from the Top
Leadershi
p
Enabling
Env
Services
• Quick Wins/
Innovation Labs
• Large e-service
projects
• Bangla content
• Demand creation
• Ownership
development
• Process
Simplification
• Digital Strategy
• ICT Policy, Law, RTI
Act
• PPP Policy
• e-Architecture
• Population registry
31. Execution from the Bottom
(Field admin, LGIs)
Education Police Welfare Transport Tax
RevenueMunicipal Body
DC OfficeEnvironmentElectricity
Joined-up
government
Cost savings
Improved service
Connected Citizens
One-Stop ShopHarassment,
Time, Cost
Citizens will NOT go to services, services will come to
32. Build the
Enabling Environment
“I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a
much better policy to prophesy after the event has already
taken place.”
--Winston Churchill
33. Horizon Scan and Vision Documents
Horizon Scan 2007
HEAL Vision documents 2008
Health
Education
Agriculture
Local Government
Civil Service
Visioning was far more important
than the vision documents
34. ICT Policy 2009, RTI Act 2009
Shared
Vision
Social
Equity
Support
to ICTs
IntegrityHealthcare
Productivity
Employment
Creation
Environment
Education &
Research Strengthening
Exports
Universal
Access
10 development sectors
306 action items for all govt agencies
35. Strategic Priorities for Digital
Bangladesh Report 2010
Development
• Education
• Agriculture
• Health
• Justice
• Law Enforcement
• Land & Water
Resources
Sectors
• Social Safety Nets
• Disaster Management,
Environment &
Climate Change
• Commerce &
Investment
• ICT Industry
Enablers
• Connectivity
• Banking & Finance
• Parliament
• Local Government
• Civil Service
• Youth
• PPP
• Policy & Legal
Framework
„Strategic Priorities for Digital Bangladesh‟ aims at identifying
the role of technology in socio-economic transformation by
2021.
Mainstreamed into National Planning in 6th 5-year plan
(Sector policies like Education, Health, Rural
Connectivity, PPP)
36. Policy for ICT Infrastructure:
Rural Connectivity Guidelines 2010
Institutions Broadband Rollout Projection
Organization Total 3 yrs 6 mon 12 mon 24 mon 36 mon
Govt. (district + upz) 12,000 12,000 12,000
Thana 500 500 500
Local Government (urban) 350 350 350
Local Government (rural) 4,500 4,500 4,500
Secondary School 19,000 19,000 3,000 7,000 5,000 4,000
Secondary Madrasa 9,500 9,500 1,000 2,000 2,500 4,000
Colleges 3,500 3,500 250 500 2,750
Primary School 80,000 10,000 500 500 4,000 5,000
Health Complex 1,000 1,000 1000
Community Health Clinic 18,000 18,000 1,000 3,000 14,000
Post Office 8,500 8,500 64 482 1,000 6,954
TOTAL: 156,850 86,850 23,164 11,482 18,250 33,954
38. A2I’s Approach:
Ready, Shoot, Aim …
“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other
plans.”
― Allen Saunders
39. 4 Vital Realizations for
Transformational Change
1. Focus on the citizens, not on the provider
2. When thinking about technology, think
outside the „computer‟ box
3. Catalyze transformational change
management
a. By using innovation as entry point
b. By leveraging existing relationships
4. Forge strong public-private partnerships
40. Citizens call a helpdesk
directly
Citizens come to
Community e-Centres
Helpdesk answer Citizens
questions
Information workers
go to citizens
Realization 1:
Citizens will NOT go to services,
services will come to citizens
41. Web,
email
MailRadio TVCounter Call Center Cell PhoneSmart Phone
Why design e-Services around desktops when
users don’t have desks?
Realization 2:
Must think outside the ‘computer’ box
42. Realization 3:
Top-Down Planning, Bottom-Up Execution
Performance Dashboards, Innovation Teams
Technology
Process
People
•20% Technology
•35% SPS (Service
Process
Simplification)
•40%
Transformational
Change
Management
Innovation
Leadershi
p Teams
43. Peopl
e
Privat
e
Publi
c
Technical Assistance
/ Resources from
Development
Partners
Realization 4:
Partnerships create multiplier effect
• 50 service partners
• 300 content partners
• Thousands of crowdsourcers
• $100M+ mobilized
• Need to mobilize $1.5B
44. 3 Notable Disruptions:
Taking into Account and Taking
Advantage of …
Tipping point?
Govt.
Innovatio
n Labs
Social
Networking
Crowdsourcin
g
Closed
Grassroots
(UISC) blog
with 14,000
members
Teachers‟
Portal with
8,000
content
700 Quick
Wins with
100+launched,
Many scaled
up
45. a2i Innovation Cycle: Built in hindsight
Generate
Incubate
EvaluateUpdate
Replicate
“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only
connect them looking backwards.”
― Steve Jobs
46. Shared visioning through participation
Breakthrough thinking through Innovation lens
Leapfrog execution through partnerships
What can A2I experience
provide to other countries through
South-South partnerships?
Knowledge Sharing
47. “A good hockey player
plays where the puck
is.
A great hockey player
plays where the puck
is going to be.”
― Wayne Gretzky
Thanks