CONNECTING STATE AND CITIZENS

Saifur Rashid Hasan Shafie

CONNECTING STATE AND CITIZENS Transformations through e-Governance in Rural Bangladesh

Access to Information Programme (a2i) Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh and Department of Anthropology University of Dhaka

Access to Information Programme (a2i) Old Sangshad Bhaban, Tejgaon, Dhaka – 1215, Bangladesh http://a2i.pmo.gov.bd

Copyright © 2018 by Access to Information Programme (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is prohibited under the provisions of the Bangladesh Copyright Act, 2000, in its current version (revised in 2005), and permission for use must always be obtained from the authors.

Rashid, Saifur and Shafie, Hasan Connecting State and Citizens: Transformations through e-Governance in Rural Bangladesh

Cover Illustration: Swapan Saha Cover Design: Hasan Shafie Layout and Typeset: Hasan Shafie Press: Shahid Printers, Katabon, Dhaka

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN– 978-984-34-2692-5 (hbk.: alk. paper) 1. e-governance—Public Service Delivery. 2. e-governance—e-Service. 3. e-governance—Fieldwork. 4. e-governance—Transformation. 5. e-governance—Sustainability. 6. e- Service—Assessment. Printed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

CONNECTING STATE AND CITIZENS Transformations through e-Governance in Rural Bangladesh

Saifur Rashid Hasan Shafie

Access to Information Programme (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh and Department of Anthropology, University of Dhaka

Acknowledgment This book is an outcome of an “Ethnographic Study of the Socio-economic Impacts of Union Digital Centres (UDCs) in Bangladesh: Exploring Narratives from the Frontline” supported by a2i (access to information) of the Prime Minister’s Office. The primary intention of the study was to assess the impacts and citizens’ perception of e-Service delivery at the Union Digital Centres (UDCs) in some selected areas of Bangladesh through narrative inquiry and qualitative research. In bringing this study to its present form, we have many debts to acknowledge. First, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the informants who have participated in our formal and informal discussions, shared their experience with us and extended their cooperation in various ways to accomplish our study in a successful manner. The researchers of this study are especially grateful to all the staff of our selected digital centres including entrepreneurs, Union Parishad Secretary, Union Council Members, Chairman and others, who render digital services to the community and the people who receive services from the UDCs for being very active part of our study. We are thankful to all the relevant District level administrators and Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) of the selected Upazilas for giving us time, necessary support and providing assistance during the study period. Our very special thanks are due to all of our research associates for their commitment, meticulous work and sincere efforts in undertaking the fieldwork successfully. We also like to gratefully acknowledge a2i team members who provided us with all the necessary support, relevant secondary data and information and most importantly, facilitated our connection to the entrepreneurs of all the selected digital centres. Finally, we are very happy to acknowledge our profound debt of gratitude to the Prime Minister’s Office, especially the Project Director of a2i, Mr. Kabir Bin Anwar and the Policy Adviser of a2i, Mr. Anir Chowdhury, for guiding us to undertake the study and giving us necessary logistic supports and encouragement for our efforts to bring out this publication. Last but not least, our special thanks are due for Dr. Ramiz Uddin and Rumana Sharmin for their all out cooperation and supports. Both of them were always available to provide us with necessary information and data, and to give us time in so many days to discuss and share our preliminary findings and finalizing the study report. The book Connecting the State and Citizens would not have seen itself in its present form without the generous support of a2i and their team members. Saifur Rashid Hasan Shafie vii

viii

Acronyms a2i BCC BCS BDT BRAC BTRC C2C C2G CMC CSO EU FGD GDP GIS GNI GoB ICT IDRC IOO IP ISP JSC LAN LGD LIC LMC M&E MDG MIC NGO

Access to Information Bangladesh Computer Council Bangladesh Civil Service Bangladeshi Taka (Currency) Building Resources Across Communities Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Citizen-to-Citizen Citizen-to-Government Central Monitoring Committee Civil Society Organization European Union Focus Group Discussion Gross Domestic Product Geographic Information System Gross National Income Government of Bangladesh Information and Communication Technology International Development Research Centre Inputs–Outputs–Outcomes Internet Protocol Internet Service Provider Junior School Certificate Local Area Network Local Government Division Low Income Country Local Monitoring Committee Monitoring and Evaluation Millennium Development Goals Middle Income Country Non-Governmental Organization ix

PECE PMO PPP SCRGSP SME SPSS SSI TCV TDC UDC UISC UNDP UNESCO UNO UP USAID

Primary Education Completion Examination Prime Minister’s Office Public-Private Partnership Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision Small & Medium Enterprise Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Semi-Structured Interviews Time, Cost and Visit Town Digital Centre Union Digital Centre Union Information and Service Centre United Nations Development Programme United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Upazila Nirbahi Officer Union Parishad United States Agency for International Development

Table of Contents Acknowledgment Acronyms

v vi

Chapter One: Introduction1 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Governance and Public Service Delivery 1.3. e-Governance and e-Service Delivery 1.4. a2i Programme and e-Service Delivery 1.5. Issues and Concerns 1.6. Social Audit of Service Performance 1.7. Methods, Data and Fieldwork

Chapter Two: e-Governance and Service Delivery

1 3 5 7 9 11 14

19

2.1. e-Service Delivery on the Frontline 2.2. Locating UDCs in Rural Setting 2.3. Institutional Architecture of UDCs 2.4. e-Services and e-Frontiers in Rural Areas

19 20 24 28

Chapter Three: Study Areas and UDCs Therein

31

3.1. Locale and Selected Sites 3.2. Profiling the Respondents 3.3. Attributes and Earning Potentials of UDC 3.4. The UDC Entrepreneurs 3.5. Gender Divide of Service Recipients and Providers 3.6. Empowerment of Female Entrepreneurs 3.7. Business Security and Satisfaction

31 35 36 41 44 45 46

Chapter Four: Frontline Narratives of Digital Services 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Public Service Delivery 4.3. Youth Employment, Education and Training 4.4. Female Employment and Empowerment 4.5. Social Networking and Communication 4.6. Time, Cost and Visits (TCVs) 4.7. Internal and International Migration

Chapter Five: Making and Mediating Social Change 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Entrepreneurs on Social Change 5.3. Service Recipients on Social Change

Chapter Six: Citizen’s Evaluation and Satisfaction of Digital Services 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Relevance 6.3. Effectiveness 6.4. Efficiencies 6.5. Impacts 6.6. Sustainability of UDC 6.7. Citizen’s Satisfaction on UDC Services

49 49 50 54 58 60 62 64

71 71 73 75

79 79 80 80 81 82 83 83

Chapter Seven: Conclusion85 7.1. Overview and Findings 7.2. Recommendations

85 87

References93 Appendices97 Index107

List of Tables Table– 1.1: Benefits of e-Governance for Development Table– 1.2: Geographic and Ecological Distribution of Study Areas and the Sample Size Table– 1.3: Sampling Design Table– 2.1: Stakeholders of UDC Table– 3.1: Detail Location of the UDCs Table– 3.2: The Equipments and Services of the UDCs Table– 3.3: Status of Public and Private Service in the UDCs Table– 3.4: Background of the Entrepreneurs. Table– 3.5: Overview of the UDCs under study Table– 7.1: Strengths and Challenges of UDC performance

6 15 16 25 32 37 40 42 43 87

List of Figures Figure– 1.1: Overlapping Domains of e-Governance Figure– 1.2: A General Framework for Understanding Voice and Accountability Figure– 1.3: Conceptual Framework for General Performance Assessment of UDC Figure– 1.4: Linking Objectives to Outcomes in e-Service Processes Figure– 2.1: Functional Relations among Government Institutions for UDC Performance Figure– 2.2: Local Lines of Accountability and Monitoring of UDC Activities Figure– 7.1: Challenges of e-Governance and e-Service Delivery

7 10 12 13 21 26 86

List of Graphs Graph– 1.1: World e-Government Development Ranking of Bangladesh and Neighboring Countries Graph− 3.1: Respondents by Sex Graph− 3.2: Age Structure of the Respondents Graph– 3.3: Respondents by Marital Status Graph– 3.4: Respondents by Religious Status Graph– 3.5: Respondents by Educational Status Graph– 3.6: Respondents by Occupational Status Graph– 3.7: Factors Effecting Earning Potentials from Private Sectors Graph– 3.8: Investment-Income Relationships Graph– 3.9: Investment-Services Relationship Graph– 3.10: Service-Income Relationship Graph– 3.11: Equipment-Income Relationship Graph– 3.12: Equipment- Service Relationship Graph– 3.13: Income- Distance (UP HQ) Relationship Graph– 3.14: Top Five Government Services Graph– 6.1: Relevance of Services Graph– 6.2: Effectiveness of Services Graph– 6.3: Efficiency of UDC Services Graph– 6.4: Impacts of UDC Services Graph– 6.5: Sustainability of the UDC Services Graph– 6.6: Citizens’ Satisfaction on UDC Services

5 35 35 36 36 36 37 38 39 39 39 39 40 40 41 80 81 81 82 82 83

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1. Introduction

T

he Government of Bangladesh has conceptualized e-governance as an interactive information service system among the mass people, service providers and other stakeholders. To strengthen e-governance, the Government of Bangladesh has also taken initiatives to bring several changes in service delivering systems, within conventional administrative layers by using modern tools of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in different e-service centres across the country. The mass people, especially the service receivers, are quite happy with services provided by the Union Digital Centres (hereafter UDC). Thus, the services rendered by entrepreneurs have been justified in terms of satisfaction of citizens. In current digital era, it is not possible to have good governance without developing a very good e-service delivery system. The present Government of Bangladesh has taken initiatives to promote e-governance to build political consensus, to develop the required human resources, to promote the use of ICT at different layers of administration by adopting proper policies and strategic plans (Hassan, 2013). People living in rural and peri-urban areas of Bangladesh usually go through different types of obstacles in availing public services from the age-old traditional bureaucratic public service delivery systems, and in most cases, they go through several intermediaries (middlemen) to obtain services at a higher transaction cost than required. Like many developing countries, public institutions in Bangladesh encounter difficulties in identifying the needs of citizens and respond promptly. Overly complicated and top-down bureaucratic processes, having change-resistant attitudes and characterized by over-centralization, pose significant challenges for rural citizens in their attempts to avail public services and information. Given this backdrop,

Connecting State and Citizens

the Access to Information (a2i) programme, being implemented by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) of Bangladesh with technical assistance from UNDP and USAID, and in partnership with the Local Government Division, has undertaken required initiatives to reorient the existing mode of service delivery system. The main objective of a2i is to set up digital centres at the union level, the lowest tier of local government, and improve quality of services, widen people’s access to these services and finally to decentralize the traditional public information and service delivery centres. UDCs initially known as Union Information and Service Centres (UISCs), was re-branded later as Union Digital Centres in August 2014. The Union Digital Centres (UDCs) are the newly established ‘one-stop information and service delivery outlets’ located at the lowest tier (union) of the local government of Bangladesh. Starting from the year 2010, the Government of Bangladesh has been able to establish such UDCs in almost every union to make information and services conveniently accessible to its remote, rural and peri-urban communities. The Access to Information (a2i) Programme of the Prime Minister’s Office took initiatives to set up these UDCs to leverage technology at local levels and to establish public and private service delivery points in every Union Council and District Headquarter. At present, there are 4,565 UDCs (a2i, 2017) in 64 districts of Bangladesh and all these digital centres have now been turned as information hubs for rural communities, from where the rural people are getting easy access to various public information and services. Establishment of Union Digital Centres in every union of the country has been the result of government’s commitment towards its people for providing facilities to let people know about the services that are essential to citizens and then deliver those services efficiently and effectively through electronic or non-electronic means. In this sense, e-governance is a new term to redesign the age-old traditional administrative processes to make the government more transparent, efficient, and service-oriented for its citizens. E-governance is rather ‘practice’ or a ‘form’ for sharing of government resources in various electronic forms using ICTs. It is thus a method of sharing information, data and services with all the populace, although a large proportion of the ordinary people in Bangladesh are deprived of various digital services. Government is also thinking seriously how to reduce information gaps created by the digital divide in modern world. The e-governance is the most attractive, interesting, useful people-oriented and growing phenomenon and has become one of the pivotal parts of administrative reform to bring good governance in any country (Moon, 2005). Public service delivery is the main rationale for the existence of any popularly elected government. Thus, every government takes various initiatives to bring about changes within their existing traditional and process-oriented administrative systems and to gain trust of its citizens and seek support in the course of delivering public services efficiently. It is felt that traditional 2

Introduction

government structures and systems are no longer adequate to meet the desires of the citizen and as a consequence e-governance has emerged (See, Salam, 2013). Therefore, it is obvious that the advent of ICT development centering the UDCs, together with technological advances has resulted in the emergence of a more efficient service delivery system. The advancement has created a significant impact on social, political, and cultural fabric of Bangladesh. This has created a platform for interaction amongst the govt. officials, citizens, service providers and service receivers and has ensured easy accessibility to information across all levels of society.

1.2. Governance and Public Service Delivery

Government services affect the community in significant ways and the government delivers a wide range of services including public goods (Besley & Coate, 2003; Holla, Koziol, & Srinivasan, 2011; Kaul, Conceicao, Le Goulven, & Mendoza, 2003). The government of Bangladesh provides public goods by creating a legal framework that determines the rules of ownership of property and the operation of markets- a framework that encompasses the work of the court, police and corrective services agencies in maintaining law and order. Additionally, the government also manages adverse events, including the work of emergency services and some aspects of the health system. The government also enables higher levels of merit goods and services including education, health, ambulance and community services. The government of Bangladesh uses different methods to deliver services to the community people at the local level and these are: (1) delivering or providing services directly (a ‘delivery/ provider’ role); (2) funding external providers through grants or purchase of services (a ‘purchaser’ role); (3) subsidizing users to purchase services from external providers; (4) imposing community service obligations on public and private providers; and (5) providing incentives to users and/or providers, such as reducing tax obligations in particular circumstances. However, a range of general policy approaches is followed by any government regarding the delivery of services to the public (Besley & Coate, 2003; Denhardt & Denhardt, 2000; Hood & Lodge, 2006). These approaches include: (1) moving from historical or input based funding to output based funding; (2) separating purchaser and provider roles for government organizations; (3) outsourcing provider roles; (4) devolving and decentralizing decision making by government service providers; (5) examining alternative delivery mechanisms; (6) implementing user charging. Bangladesh inherits a colonial legacy in its entire public administration system. The British tradition, a colonial imprint, persists in the bureaucracy to become an essential tool of governance (Rhodes, 2000). The present political system has emerged through different changes. A few years of democracy has been followed by nearly fifteen years of military rule. In 1990, for the first time, Bangladesh achieved a fully functioning democratic 3


structure. Meanwhile, the role of the government has changed in the course of Bangladesh’s development. Government and administration were seen not merely as a regulator but also as a facilitator (Grindle, 2004). The term “good governances” has acquired tremendous importance in the contemporary world, especially in the context of developing countries (Esty, 2006). Good governance is an essential component to implement the plans and strategies to achieve the targets set forth by policy makers; but good governance is a component that most developing countries seriously lack (Moon, Welch, & Wong, 2005; Welch & Wong, 2001b). Grindle suggests for a redefinition of “Good Governance” as “Good Enough Governance”, that is, “a condition of minimally acceptable government performance and civil society engagement that does not significantly hinder economic and political development and that permits poverty reduction initiatives to go forward” (Grindle, 2004, 2007, 2011). From the beginning of the 1990s, the role of government has changed from an intervener to a referee; instead of playing the game, its main duty is to make sure that a fair game is being played. This reinvented role of the government redefined the role of bureaucracy. Traditionally, the bureaucratic environment consisted of only the “domestic economic, political and social context within which the organization is located.” Now, however, “public organizations are more often faced with global threats and opportunities that affect their operations and perspectives” (Welch & Wong, 2001a, 2001b). In recent decades, globalization or market liberalization changes both the domestic context and the functions of bureaucracy and service delivery. Government as service providers, instead of playing an interventionist role in various sectors, is advised to redefine its role and to transform itself into a catalyst for private investors and business institutions (Haque, 2001; Zafarullah, 2007). The government of Bangladesh had declared ICT as a ‘thrust sector’ in 1997. It is widely believed that ICT carries enormous potential in establishing technical and organizational innovations; to reduce costs and change the quality and types of capital equipment, labor and products. Bangladesh entered the digital era in the late 1990s. Gradually mobile phones entered the market tremendously as well as brought about some changes in the socio-economic condition and livelihood pattern of people. The government has already initiated e-governance activities from a holistic perspective; in a much more comprehensive manner than before. Setting a citizen centric service delivery vision for all the significant stakeholders is an important step towards that end. Horizon scan is an integral part of the e-governance’s vision setting and Government’s initiative of preparing citizen charter for all agencies. However, Bangladesh’s overall low ranking (Graph– 1.1) calls for improvements in areas such as the regulatory framework, developing human resource capacity, providing greater access and increasing usage of ICT by citizens and investing in ICT infrastructure (Bakshi & Rahman, 2016; Hasan, 2016; Rahman, 2016; Salam, 2013). 4

Introduction Graph– 1.1: World e-Government Development Ranking of Bangladesh and Neighboring Countries.

Governance, from the perspective of service delivery, can be understood as the set of incentives, accountability arrangements and rules. In good governance, the key actors including policy makers and provider organizations and their managers and staffs are held accountable for their behaviors and ability to deliver high-quality services with efficiency and responsiveness. From this perspective, governance can also be seen as a set of principal-agent relations that are defined by the incentives facing each of the agents and the accountability mechanism that are available to the principals. The accountability framework of the World Bank is a useful starting point for identifying the entry point for influencing the quality, efficiency, and responsiveness of service delivery (Holla et al., 2011; WB, 2003). The main channels for strengthening accountability are the institutions and relationships between the three sets of actors: policy makers and politicians, service providers and the citizens.

1.3. e-Governance and e-Service Delivery The use of ICT, as an effective leverage device, has now become popular for providing various government information and services to the rural people. In connection with delivering government information and services, the ideas of e-government and e-governance have also emerged as new frontiers of public sectors reforms, although there are confusions in defining these two ideas. Some people consider e-governments an important subset of e-governance (Baum & Di Maio, 2000; Howard, 2001; Irani, Al-Sebie, & Elliman, 2006; Karokola & Yngström, 2009). In general, e-government refers to the delivery of national and local government information and services through the internet or other digital means to citizens or business organizations or other government agencies (Palvia & Sharma, 2007). On the other hand, e-governance is a broader concept that deals with the whole spectrum of the relationship and networks within government regarding the usage and application of ICT 5


(Riley, 2003; Sheridan & Riley, 2006). Sheridan and Riley suggest that e-government is an institutional approach to jurisdictional political operations where e-governance is a procedural approach to co-operative administrative relations, i.e. the encompassing of basic and standard procedures within the confines of public administration (Sheridan & Riley, 2006). E-governance draws on the use of ICT at various levels of the government and the public sector and beyond, aiming at enhancing governance (Bedi, Singh, & Srivastava, 2001; Heeks, 1999; Holmes, 2001; Okot-Uma & London, 2000; Saxena, 2005). e-governance or ‘electronic governance’ generally involves the use of ICT by government agencies for any or all of the following reasons: (a) Exchange of information with citizens, businesses or other government departments (b) Faster and more efficient delivery of public services (c) Improving internal efficiency (d) Reducing costs / increasing revenue (e) Re-structuring of administrative processes and (f) Improving quality of services (SARC, 2008). According to the definition of UNESCO (cf. (SARC, 2008): “E-governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making the government more accountable, transparent and effective. E-governance involves new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding policy and investment, new ways of accessing education, new ways of listening to citizens and new ways of organizing and delivering information and services. E-governance is generally considered as a wider concept than e-government, since it can bring about a change in the way citizens relate to governments and to each other. E-governance can bring forth new concepts of citizenship, both in terms of citizen needs and responsibilities. Its objective is to engage, enable and empower the citizen.”

Governance is a way of defining the relationship between government and its broader environment- political, social, and administrative. The implications of e-governance, however, refer to the interaction between government and citizens as well as between government and businesses, while at the same time, in internal government operations, to simplify and improve democratic, government and business aspects of Governance (Backus, 2001; Kettl, 2015). E-governance, although aims at enhancing good governance and strengthening the democratic process, but can also be seen as a way of providing access to information increasing freedom of expression, greater equity, efficiency, Table– 1.1: Benefits of e-Governance for Development. Benefits/ Opportunities

Outcome

Production of same output at lower total cost.

Governance Cheaper

Production of greater output at the same total cost.

Productive Governance

Production of same output at the same total cost in less time.

Quicker Governance

Generating same outputs at the same total cost in the same time, but a higher quality standard.

Better Performing Governance

Generating new output

Innovative Governance

6

Efficiency Gains

Effectiveness Gains

Introduction Figure– 1.1: Overlapping Domains of e-Governance (Heeks, 2001).

productivity growth and social inclusion. It is evident that successful e-governance initiatives provide tangible impact and helps to increase government efficiency, improve citizens participation and quality of life through effective multi-stakeholder partnerships (a2i, 2007). The following table shows some of the benefits of e-governance for development at large (Heeks, 2001): E-governance has the potential to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and various arms of government to promote citizens’ empowerment, improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, increase transparency and improve government efficiency. According to Heeks (2001) e-governance is a constellation of three main domains: (1) e-administration: improving government processes; (2) e-citizens and e-services: connecting individual citizens; and (3) e-society: building interactions with and within the civil society (Heeks, 2001) cf. (Ntiro, 2000). The three domains of e-governance, however, are overlapping as shown in Figure– 1.1.

1.4. a2i Programme and e-Service Delivery

Access to Information (a2i) Programme is an UNDP, USAID and GoB supported project (programme) having its office at the Prime Minister’s Office. A total number of 4,547 UDCs (Faroqi, 2014) were inaugurated on the 11th of Nevember of 2010 by the Honorable Prime Minister of People’s Republic of Bangladesh with an objective to provide support to build a digital nation through delivering quality services to the citizen’s doorstep with transparency and responsiveness. The a2i programme clearly marks a mindset change within the Government to embrace ICT as a powerful enabler for the nation’s socio-economic transformations. Thus in only 4 years of time the ‘UDC model of work’ became successful to win a prestigious award from the ‘World Summit on the 7


Information Societies (WSIS) in the year 2014. Following the success of initial phase of work, a2i then moved to the next phase with more targets to drive innovations in public service delivery systems. Since its inception, the a2i project has been facilitating e-service delivery to the public in collaboration with various Ministries, directorates and field administrations. The Local Government Division and the Access to Information (a2i) programme have jointly started setting up UISC (currently known as UDCs) in 2007. The UDCs were initially piloted in two unions of Bangladesh in 2007. The pilot was then expanded to 30 Union Parishads in 2008 to understand regional variation. Encouraged by the results, UDCs were opened in another100 Union Parishads in 2009. However, by mid-2009, the target of opening 500 UDCs remained unachieved. There were funding issues, which stemmed largely from a lack of political will to advance the programme further. The fortuitous visit of Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, to Bangladesh in November 2009 provided a much welcome breakthrough and fuelled to achieve the target of establishing 4547 UDCs within 11 November 2010 (Hussain &May 2014). The UISC/ UDCs are now operated under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model by local entrepreneurs, under supervision of a local advisory board headed by the UP Chairman at the local UP office. Operated by two private entrepreneurs, the UISC/ UDC is an ICT enabled one-stop centre where rural people can avail various services of multiple provider agencies. It charges prescribed fees for the delivery of services ranging from access to government, commercial and local government information or services. A space is provided by the UP office whilst the equipment such as computers, printers, digital cameras etc. are provided through support from other institutions (Zainudeen, Perera, & Galpaya, 2013). The UDC embodies a major attempt on part of the government to address this and to ensure that the benefits of e-governance are shared widely by rural masses. This initiative is an attempt to translate the current government’s vision of Digital Bangladesh by 2021 (Bhatnagar, 2014; Karim, Mina, & Samdani, 2011; Minges, Raihan, & Raina, 2011). Through implementing various dimensions of Digital Bangladesh to achieve the MDG targets by 2021, the government endeavors to mainstream ICT as the pro-poor tool for poverty eradication, good governance and social equity. Granting the benefits of ICT to everyone requires to citizens to connect the ICT infrastructure, majority of whom (nearly 70%) live in rural areas (Faroqi, 2014; Faroqi & Siddiquee, 2011; Karim et al., 2011; Saleheen, 2015). The UISC/ UDC envisages for creating a knowledge-based society by functioning as a local service delivery point to bring various government, commercial and social services to the doorsteps of rural people by reducing people’s real time, cost, time and hassle, decrease digital divide and ensure participation of the poor, women and marginalized and finally connect the rural citizenry to the information super-highways (a2i, 2012a). To supply these people with the variety of services and make the model an economically viable one the 8

Introduction

government has partnered with banks, life insurance companies, mobile phone companies and non-governmental organizations (a2i, 2012b). Equipped with both e-government and m-government services the UISC/ UDC is expected to serve through information/services of various stages related there to such as ‘emerging presence’ and ‘enhanced presence’, ‘interactive’, ‘transactional’ and ‘integrated’ levels (a2i, 2011).

1.5. Issues and Concerns

The government of Bangladesh, in recent years, has undergone many restructuring programs to increase the ability, efficiency and quality of the service. Despite these reformation efforts, the citizen’s general attitude of the public servants and the quality of the service they provide remains to be quite negative. Various surveys indicate that citizens consider the public service as ‘over centralized, unaccountable, inefficient, overpaid, coercive, unethical and rent seeking’. The country’s bureaucratic efficiency is rated at 4.7 on a 10 point scale (Jahan, 2006). Individual encounters with officials brought “unnecessary harassment, procrastination in deciding simple problems, discourteous and arrogant behavior, keeping customers waiting for hours before attending to their needs, frequent absence from office, not maintaining appointments, ignoring pleas for reconsideration of a problem, unwilling to correct mistakes, and making unabashed approaches for pecuniary benefits” (Jahan, 2006; Leftwich, 1994; Zafarullah, 2007). From several studies, it is evident that, in general, people are dissatisfied with the quality of the service they receive and the performance of the public servants rendering these services is subject to much criticism. So far, the studies conducted in this context focus only on the perception of citizens about public servants and the quality of services they are providing. Thus, the rationale of the present study has been to add value to the ongoing discourses by including and addressing the expectations of the citizens regarding e-service delivery: (1) what does citizen-oriented e-service mean to citizens; and (2) what do they expect from the e-services. The assessment of citizen’s satisfaction and performance of service delivery information is pivotal to the management of any public service delivery system. Assessment of the accountability mechanism is also important to identify what policies and practices are sustainable and why and to track performance over time against aims and objectives. The performance information is required to assess the performance of government in areas of public importance and interest. Knowing about the changes in the people’s livelihood due to the UDCs is also important to enhance processes and outcomes of programme interventions in a wide range of sectors (see Figure– 1.2). Measuring and reporting on outcomes and impacts on individuals, groups and the community has been an aim of the present study. However, outcomes are often difficult to measure and where they are possible to measure, it is often challenging to identify to what extent a particular service has influenced reported outcomes. Often outcomes (and to a lesser extent, outputs) are 9


influenced by factors external to a specific government service. As such, it is typically difficult to determine the influence a particular service has on reported outcomes relative to the contribution of other factors. The study of citizen-oriented e-services depends both on the role and performance of the service providers and also on the satisfaction of service recipients- the citizens (Al-Khatib, 2009; Andersen & Henriksen, 2006; Claver, Llopis, Gasco, Molina, & Conca, 1999; Ivan, Vintila, Ciurea, & Doinea, 2009). The government provides a variety of services and many of its service portfolios have been changing through various development interventions over time. During the early 1990s, the government shifted from a state-centered to a more market-led approach by trying to emulate business ethics such as effectiveness, decentralization, competition, efficiency, value-for-money, and partnership in public services. Figure– 1.2: A General Framework for Understanding Voice and Accountability.

10

Introduction

The present study has tried to assess the impacts and citizen’s perception of e-service delivery at the Union Digital Centres (UDCs) base on narrative inquiry and qualitative data collection from selected areas of Bangladesh. The rationale of the assessment of the socio-economic impacts and service delivery systems of UDCs has been to shed light on the performance of government services and to identify the prospective areas of service reforms to strengthen and diversify the services. It is also expected that the assessment of e-service delivery would facilitate our understanding about policy planning, resource needs and performance of UDCs in Bangladesh and would help to explore more need-based innovative ways to improve the performance of government services at the union level by promoting greater transparency and accountability.

1.6. Social Audit of Service Performance

We need to develop a conceptual framework for the assessment of UDC service performance. Conceptual framework defines the scope of an inquiry, delineates important concepts associated with study objectives, and organize these ideas into a logical structure identifying links between relevant concepts and issues. This framework outlines the structure of data analysis and brings logical coherence to make data meaningful to understand. Wolfson suggests that data and facts “can only be perceived and measured through an underlying theoretical and conceptual framework, which defines relevant facts, and distinguishes them from background noise” (Wolfson, 1994). Conceptual frameworks for performance assessment, however, has shifted over the past several decades (Arah, Klazinga, Delnoij, Asbroek, & Custers, 2003; Boyne, 2002; SCRGSP, 2018). An extensive literature review and case studies of different performance reporting exercises laid the foundation of the performance assessment framework of this study. The present assessment study made a synthesis between several conceptual frameworks for social audit of UDC performance owing to the delicate socio-political environment of the country and against the specific context existing at the local upazila level. Social audit is a way of evaluating and understanding the administrative system and its internal dynamics from the perspective of the community people. It is an independent process of evaluation of the performance of an institution as it relates to the attainment of its objectives and goals. In other words, social audit is an in-depth scrutiny and analysis of the functioning of any public utility vis-a-vis its social impacts. The social audit framework focuses on outcomes, consistent with demand by governments for outcome oriented performance information. However, a general framework connecting the relevant concepts for assessing the performance of UDC and e-services is set out in Figure– 1.3. Therefore, a brief overview of different concepts regarding performance assessment and the relation between those concepts is discussed here to understand the conceptual foundation of this present study on performance assessment. 11

Connecting State and Citizens Figure– 1.3: Conceptual Framework for General Performance Assessment of UDC (Source: SCRGSP, 2018).

This social audit framework of performance assessment is a combination of the Economy–Efficiency–Effectiveness (3E’s) and the Inputs–Outputs–Outcomes (IOO) models of performance assessment and is founded upon service provision logic for linking objectives to outputs and outcomes (SCRGSP, 2018). The outcome information is based on outputs, which is constituted by ‘equity’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ information. This line of reasoning, therefore, has three central domains of performance: (1) equity, (2) effectiveness, and (3) efficiency. These three domains further streams several conceptual areas: outcomes, access and equity, appropriateness, quality and efficiency. The Figure– 1.4 reflects the service process or sequence of steps involved in transforming inputs into outputs and outcomes in order to achieve stated objectives and depicts the relationships between these conceptual variables. This framework also incorporates and accounts the other factors external to government as well as the impacts of other government services delivered through different channels influencing the overall outcomes. This framework reflects the service process through which service providers transform inputs into outputs and outcomes in order to achieve desired policy and service objectives. For each service line, the government has a number of objectives that relate to desired outcomes for the community. The service providing agencies transform resources (inputs) into services (outputs). Output performance is central to the management of efficient and effective service 12

Introduction Figure– 1.4: Linking Objectives to Outcomes in e-Service Processes (Source: SCRGSP, 2018).

delivery. The rate at which resources (inputs) are transformed to produce services (outputs) is the critical issue for assessing technical efficiency. The impacts of outputs on various levels of systems, groups or communities as well as on individuals are the outcomes of a service. The rate of engaging inputs to generate outcomes is referred to as ‘cost effectiveness’. Outcomes are quite difficult to measure and, moreover, it is often challenging to identify to what extent a particular service has influenced corresponding outcomes. In addition, outcomes are often influenced by factors external to intended government service. The Figure– 1.4 distinguishes between technical efficiency (the ratio of inputs to outputs) and cost effectiveness (the ratio of inputs to outcomes), and also recognizes that other influences affect overall service effectiveness (SCRGSP, 2018). The present assessment study, however, intends to explore short term (or immediate), medium term (or intermediate) and long term (or final) outcomes of UDC service performance. Since, outcomes are often difficult to measure, the present study draws largely on the assessment of outputs and focuses on the causal connections between outputs and outcomes. Therefore, the study is conceptually underpinned by the three central domains of performance with equal prominence: equity, effectiveness and efficiency. Equity: The principles of ‘equity’, originated in economic theory, comprises two important dimensions: (1) Horizontal equity (HE)– the equal treatment of equals, and (2) Vertical equity (VE)– an appropriate differentiation (equitable and fair) among unequas (Duclos, 2008; Plotnick, 1982; Rawls, 1972; Wagenius, San Sebastián, Gustafsson, & Goicolea, 2018). Equity assessment focus on any gap in service performance between special needs groups and the general population. The present study accounts both horizontal and vertical dimensions of equity. Horizontal equity (HE) of UDC services refers to the processes whereby services are equally accessible to everyone in the 13


rural community with a similar level of needs. Vertical equity (VE) dimension assesses the extent to which UDC services are meeting the needs of excluded and marginal groups that have special needs or difficulties in accessing government services (SCRGSP, 2018). Effectiveness: It is the capability of producing the outputs against stated delivery objectives of a service. The study addresses effectiveness of UDC services in terms of the degree to which UDC objectives are achieved. The effectiveness assessment includes appraisal of UDC service areas in the contexts of access, appropriateness and quality (SCRGSP, 2018): {{Access:

The appraisal addresses the ease of accessibility to UDC services for community people. Access has three main aspects: (1) Overall access– how readily services can be accessed by those who need them; (2) Timeliness of access–waiting times for accessing UDC services; and (3) Affordability of UDC services. {{Appropriateness: Appropriateness is an appraisal of service performance in meeting the needs of community people. {{Quality: Quality refers to the performance standard of a service in terms of its purpose and specifications.

Efficiency: The concept of efficiency, addressed in this study, refers to several aspects: (1) Technical (or productive) efficiency refers to the productivity of goods and services at the lowest possible cost; (2) Allocative efficiency refers to the production of the set of goods and services that community people value most, from a given set of resources; and (3) Dynamic efficiency means that community people are gradually offered new and better products, while existing products are offered at lower cost (SCRGSP, 2018).

1.7. Methods, Data and Fieldwork

This study has been systematically conducted using a number of data collection methods including semi-structured interviews, informal discussions, case studies and FGDs (focus group discussions) under several steps. The significant steps are discussed here to provide a clear overview on the validity, reliability and representativeness of the data and the corresponding analytical processes have been followed. The study has been commenced with the study of the document review. In order to get insight into the problem as well as understanding of the study areas, an attempt has been made to review the available secondary sources of information. Review of secondary data has been done for gathering of pre-assessment information and listing of all possible sources of existing information. The other secondary literature related to the a2i programme including survey report, UDC flyers, guides and manuals, related articles and reports published in local and international journals and periodicals have also been reviewed. Study Area Selection: For the purpose of the study, a total number of 10 UDCs have been selected from five districts for detail study covering different ecological and geographical locations with an assumption of exploring diversities in 14

Introduction Table– 1.2: Geographic and Ecological Distribution of Study Areas and the Sample Size. Division

District

Ecology

Upazila

Dhaka

Mymensingh

Wetland and flood plain ecology characterized by moderate flood

Barisal

Barisal

River-based ecology, Coastal ecology

Khulna

Satkhira

Coastal ecology, brackish water ecosystem characterized by high salinity, cyclone and storm surge.

Shyamnagar

Rangpur

Lalmornirhat

Teesta flood plain with aridity, characterized by seasonal flood

Hatibandha

Chittagong

Bandarban

Hill ecology, Coastal ecology, Bay of Bengal centric ecology

Lama

Nandail

Name of the UDC Achargaon Moazzempur

Barisal Sadar

Shayestabad

Gouranadi

Khanjapur Shyamnagar Sadar Atulia Patikapara Nowdabash Lama Sadar Faitong

livelihood strategies and outcomes. At a later stage, 2 UDCs of Cox’s Bazar (Islampur UDC of Cox’a Bazar Sadar Upazila and Joarianala UDC of Ramu Upazila) District have also been included purposively with limited scope in the study. The UDCs from each Upazila have been selected based on performance/ functional status (High Performance UDC, Medium Performance UDC, Low Performance UDC and Closed UDC) of the UDCs following the a2i monitoring and survey reports. A brief description of the selected districts based on ecological principles has been given in Table– 1.2. Data Collection: The required data has been collected during the second half of 2016.The cluster sampling method has primarily been used in the study in order to select the respondents for interviewing for the collection of data. This cluster sampling has been used to select respondents for structured questionnaire (SQ) as a quantitative tool for collecting data. A set of questionnaires have been developed, supported by guidelines and code sheets to collect data from a total number of 200 respondents. The research team conducted a number of group discussion and in-depth interviews for pre-testing and finalizing the questionnaires. A total number of 20 FGDs (with attendants of 179 people) have been conducted in 10 UDCs with participation of different stakeholders. The study has been a participatory in nature with focus on learning and narrative inquiry approach. Qualitative data has also been collected through unstructured interviews of 43 informants using checklists. Multiple sources of data have been selected to ensure maximum representation and validity using a variety of sample selection techniques. Data has been collected from different data points. Major data points for this study included: UDC, UP office, local bazaar, open field, residence, restaurant, school, college, community clinic, press club, local shop and others. 15

Connecting State and Citizens Table– 1.3: Sampling Design. Number of Respondents District

Mymensingh

Barisal

SemiStructured Interview

FGDs

Unstructured Interview/ Case studies

Achargaon

20

18

05

Moazzempur

20

20

04

Barisal Sadar

Shayestabad

20

16

04

Gouranadi

Khanjapur

20

19

06

Shyamnagar Sadar

20

17

03

Atulia

20

18

05

Patikapara

20

17

04

Nowdabash

20

20

04

Lama Sadar

20

18

05

Faitong

20

16

03

200

179

43

Upazila

Nandail

Satkhira

Shyamnagar

Lalmornirhat

Hatibandha

Bandarban

Lama

Name of the UDC

Total (05 districts, 06 Upazilas and 10 UDCs) =

Further the data have been collected following a number of qualitative methods primarily focusing on narrative analysis. Narrative method has allowed communicating with the emotional content of values. Narrative is not only talking ‘about’ values; rather it is embodied and communicated values. It is through the shared experience of our values that we can engage with others, motivate one another to act and find the courage to take risks, explore possibility and face the challenges. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions, case studies and local level sharing meetings have been included in the study to supplement the preparation of narratives. The Likert Scale: A Likert scale, a bipolar type of psychometric response scale, has been used in questionnaires to obtain participant’s preferences or degree of agreement with a statement or set of statements related to the assessment of public service delivery. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with a given statement by way of an ordinal scale. However, the designed questionnaire made use of different Likert-type scale response anchors based on 5-point scale to measure attitudes and perceptions related to level of participation, level of importance, level of agreement, knowledge of action, amount of use, level of awareness, level of quality, level of satisfaction etc. (Vagias, 2006). Responses to a single Likert item were treated as ordinal data, because, especially when using only five levels, one cannot assume that respondents perceive the difference between adjacent levels as equidistant. Yet the scoring 16

Introduction

and analysis were done on summative scales because of the given number of small sample population to measure diversity between different categories of participants. Individual responses are normally treated as ordinal data because although the response levels do have relative position, we cannot presume that participants perceive the difference between adjacent levels to be equal (a requirement for interval data). Therefore, unlike many other research efforts, the present study does not treat Likert scale response data as interval data because, from a statistical standpoint, this can be potentially misleading. Data Processing and Analysis: The quantitative data have been analyzed through graphic simulations and statistical analysis. Data entries have been done through SPSS software. The quantitative data have been processed through SPSS programme. Tools of data entry and analysis as well as the dummy tables have been prepared based on indicators. However, the culminating activities of qualitative inquiry are analysis, interpretation and presentation of findings. The challenging tasks of the research team have been to extract the sense from the massive data reducing them to sizable forms, identifying their significance and constructing a framework for communicating the essence of the messages they contain.

17

Chapter Two

e-Governance and Service Delivery

2.1. e-Service Delivery on the Frontline

F

or many years, the citizens of rural Bangladesh have been suffering for receiving services from the age-old traditional bureaucratic public service delivery system of the Union Council and now they have been looking for a change. In the present age of alternative service delivery options and the nearly ubiquitous presence of digital technologies, citizens have fewer complaints about government services. In the past, citizens had to encounter face-to-face interactions with government officials, a process that was intimidating for the less literate and opportune for rent-seeking. The prevailing archaic public service delivery model posed challenges for many interventions. Resistance towards change, from the bureaucracy to vested interest groups, was strong. Many innovations had to face obstacles and could not see the lights. A political commitment from the highest level was important to overcome various bureaucratic hurdles and organizational resistance to bring changes at the bottom level of local government. Access to Information (a2i) programme implemented by Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office, with technical assistance from UNDP and USAID, was started in 2007 to improve quality, widened access and decentralized delivery of public information and services. In partnership with the Local Government Division, one-stop service centres initially known as Union Information and Service Centre (UISC) and later renamed as Union Digital Centres were setup at every union council office. Among many innovations of a2i (catalyzed within the government of Bangladesh), the UDCs represent the largest infrastructure and human resource network for service delivery to the rural under-served. By introducing innovation into public service delivery system, UDCs have empowered the


local government. They demonstrated the possibility of delivering public information and services with easy, cheap and a transparent manner. The Prime Minister’s Office, the highest level of leadership took the initiative to establish 4,547 centres with internet connectivity within the range of all the rural citizens (Hussain & May, 2014). To make UDCs more competitive, many of the entrepreneurs are now trying to diversify their services. Citizens residing in rural and remote areas are now availing birth registration, land records, mobile banking, life insurance, digital photography, video-conferencing, telemedicine services, information related to education, employment and livelihood opportunities from UDCs. Challenges for introducing new services and receiving services from the UDCs are still need to be addressed by the relevant administration. Gender divide in both service delivery and receiving is a major challenge. Women are still far behind than the men. Though, in many of the UDCs, both chairman and entrepreneur have taken various steps to attract more women to come to the UDCs to receive various services. Engaging women as entrepreneur is still a big challenge for many of the UDCs. A study conducted by BRAC, shows that up to October 2014, 3.91 million (25% female) under-served beneficiaries received livelihood services from over 4,500 UDCs every month, more than 2.2 million potential migrant workers sought foreign employment through online registration by UDCs including 40,000 female migrant workers. Over 78,000 citizens (70% women) gained access to mobile banking services and transacted BDT 113 million (USD1.39 million), over 45,000 students and youth, including 70% female received computer literacy training and over 150,000 posts have been published on the UDC blog (Hussain & May, 2014).

2.2. Locating UDCs in Rural Setting The UDCs are the representation of an important nexus of service delivery decentralization, the strengthening of local governments and community empowerment. The following are the UDC features in Bangladesh at a glance: {{A

total of 4,554 UDCs providing 101 public and private services million Online registrations of prospective migrant workers {{M-banking providence to 33.4 million citizens {{2.7 million Citizens covered by life insurance {{237 million services provided {{$32.95 million earned by entrepreneurs, and {{75 million birth registration from UDC {{2.1

Many of the UDCs are furnished with modern need based technologies e.g. computer, laptop, projector, digital printers, scanners, IPS, UPS and Photostat machineries. With these successes, a2i in collaboration with 40 20


Figure– 2.1: Functional Relations among Government Institutions for UDC Performance.

agencies of the government, further launched a service portal called ‘Shebakunjo’ containing process maps and service requirements for over 400 vital services. Permanent secretaries and heads of agencies have been instructed by the PMO and Cabinet Division to simplify these services and make them available at the UDCs. Through this introduction of UDCs in 2013, entrepreneurs got valuable services to sell and expand their service portfolio further. With such expansion, a2i also started providing design (or re-design) support to the various agencies to make their services available from the UDCs. The Figure– 2.1, showing the structure of the UDC, is important to get a clear understanding about the strategic position of UDC in a broader national context and would be useful to understand the effectiveness of the UDC concept and the office. The primary objective of setting up UDCs was to address the challenges (both supply and demand-side) associated with delivering and accessing public information and services through innovative use of information and communication technology based on the following three ideas: 1. If the right government stakeholders can be appropriately mobilized, then it is possible to bring about positive changes within government. Development agencies are at times too focused on policy advocacy from the outside. There are times where objectives can be accomplished more sustainably by attempting to catalyze improvements and innovations from within. However, that requires developing a guiding coalition of change makers within the government ministries and agencies.

21

Connecting State and Citizens 2. The sustainability of many socially important services ultimately relies on institutions that are closest to the people, especially the under-served. So, it is critical to empower them and re-engineer, simplify and decentralize service delivery to make them accessible from there. The innovative use of ICTs can play an empowering role in such endeavors, and 3. It’s important not to attempt to do everything at once. At the preliminary stage, the initiative needs to focus on securing existential factors – things that are critical to the long-term sustainability of the gains made. So, it needs to prioritize, make progress in phases but always remain opportunistic and ready to embrace serendipity (BRAC, October 2014).

Initially, it was thought that the physical location of UDCs at Union Parishad (Council) premises may have positive impact on perceptions of trust and authority among citizens. But later it was found that UDCs which ran on commercial basis outside the UP premises also made the services more efficient than many of the UDC premises ones. Before the establishment of UDCs, the citizens of rural Bangladesh used to go to a sub-district headquarter 15 km away from the average citizen’s home or, the district headquarter over 35 km away and standing in long queues to get access to public information and services. For this reason, rural citizens had to incur high opportunity and transaction costs, coupled with other contingent liabilities in availing public services such as land records, birth certificates. In addition, they suffered from a system overcrowded by market intermediaries, predominantly men who acted as gatekeepers of public provisions. For most of the village people, the distance to a union council office is much shorter, typically about 3 km from an average citizen’s home. The very strategic location of UDCs in many places has significantly reduced the time, cost and visits (TCVs) for availing both public, private and government services by the rural citizens (Hussain & May, 2014). It has been a pressing need to change the local level service delivery system and to make it more transparent and people friendly. Both UNDP and USAID and other development partners pursued the agenda of changing local level service delivery systems and emphasized to strengthen the local government institutions, especially the union council. It has been considered that just pushing and waiting for increasing budgetary allocations for the union councils, and decentralizing decision making power cannot be the only strategy for bringing effective change at the local level institutions. It has been believed that the Union Council as a local body is not as effective as it could be with the result that citizens hardly visited the union councils. Local people go there to get birth registration, relief supplies and sometimes to hold shalish (local court for trials) for petty crimes. Thus the objective of establishing UDCs at the union council office was to provide information and services that people needed. It is important to mention that the a2i programme was initially designed as an e-governance project and hosted at the PMO in partnership with ministries. UDCs in Bangladesh are operating under the Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP) modality. The private sector is considered as a key partner in each of the initiatives undertaken by the UDCs. For instance, mobile banking 22


opportunities offered by private commercial banks through branchless mode of operation, has enabled many UDCs to remain financially solvent. These private banks design training programmes for UDC entrepreneurs so that they are equipped to provide the service with adequate skills and knowledge. Such an approach of engaging a gamut of public and private service providers have proven to be of high yield, helping micro-enterprises draw investment from business communities and public agencies. During its inception, the a2i was also strategic to form a number of key partnerships with private sector organizations including civil society. It was these partnerships with public agencies and private organizations that later allowed the amalgamation of public and private services respectively into the one-stop shops: the UDCs. A kind of unique partnership between the government, the development partners and the private sectors was designed to ensure more easily available services for the locals. To instill and retain government ownership, the UDCs were located inside the union council premises. The utility bills were paid from the budgetary allocation for union councils. In order to make the UDCs effective in serving people with the information and services that they needed and were willing to pay for, the private sector, in the form of UDC entrepreneurs was introduced. In order to promote gender parity, it was also decided to employ one male and one female entrepreneur in each UDC. Initially they did not have to pay for anything. All the investments came from funds provided by the government, local government or development partners. UDCs were designed to be self-sustaining, micro-enterprises that can offer fee-based access to information and services. It was also planned to run the Union Digital Centre by two entrepreneurs under the supervision of a local advisory board headed by the Chairman of union council. The primary challenge for a UDC was to instill a certain amount of ownership in the government establishment by optimizing the utilization of resources and capabilities the union councils already have. Assuming that the Chairman and members of Union Council are elected and have an office building along with some financial resources in terms of tax revenues and allocations from the national budget, the new UDCs would not require extra fund for their running. It was also designed to run the UDCs on the basis of public-private partnership to get out of the age-old traditional government bureaucratic systems of local level service delivery. Initially it was also thought to be crucial to keep UDCs nimble, responsive and innovative and keep running the UDCs more sustainably– both financially and socially. At the beginning, the idea was to setup the UDCs as delivery and access points for information based resources created by a2i. It soon realized that information and services must come from other government offices, NGOs and the private sector. It thus collaborated with the Local Government Division to sensitize the Union Council Chairman and members for ensuring that suitable entrepreneurs are recruited from the localities. The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) has been providing the entrepreneurs with basic training on computer literacy. 23


In formulating the design for the UDCs, the a2i also facilitated consultation amongst the various local level stakeholders including the Local Government Division, large NGOs such as Grameen Bank and BRAC, smaller but innovative NGOs like D.Net, and private sector bodies such as the telcos and the Bangladesh tele-centre Network. These consultations revealed the importance of involving other government stakeholders as because public information and services hold high value for the citizens.

2.3. Institutional Architecture of UDCs

a2i project of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has so far listed a total of 101 services provided by the UDCs. Among these 101 services, 37 are public and 64 are private services. Major public services rendered by the UDC include birth, inheritance, citizenship, marriage, character and other certificates, various online forms and applications, payment of allowances, passport application, visa application, online ticketing, health service, agriculture information services, pension service, bond purchase and sale and others. Private service given by the UDCs include all computer related services, mobile services, online sale and purchase, mobile banking, computer training, printing, photocopying and scanning, video recording, photography, video conference, projector renting and others (See, List of UDC Services, Annexure:1). Due to various technological innovation and development of various ICT tools, the number of UDC service has been increasing day by day. However, hardly any UDC can provide all the listed services. The stakeholders of the UDCs can be distributed under four major categories given below: The Figure– 2.2 shows the local organogram and functions of the UDCs in connection with the local bodies. The figure clearly shows that the UDC is not just a local initiative; the UDCs have central and government organogram working behind it. The UDC is a programme implemented by the a2i programme. As per the Bangladeshi system of parliamentary democracy, the prime minister’s office is at the centre of every activity. Besides, the cabinet division is the nerve centre of Bangladesh Civil Service including the UDC services and the service delivery. The Union Digital Centre (UDCs) are physically hosted in a government institution and monitored by the Local Government Division (LGD). The locally elected representatives of the people are the Union Council Chairman. Their key responsibility is to ensure that the people can access and benefit from the public services and information. Their role is crucial for finding and recruiting the most suitable entrepreneurs for their UDCs. Beside the role of the Chairman, the DC office, which carries out all the government administration in the districts, have great links with the UDCs offices, so far asking them to send their monthly reports. This helps with the functioning and monitoring of the UDCs. Lastly, an autonomous body, the Bangladesh Computer Council has the necessary expertise, infrastructure and human 24

e-Governance and Service Delivery Table– 2.1: Stakeholders of UDC. Categories

Sub Categories Service provider Businessmen

Entrepreneurs

General People

Government Officials

{{Provide government and no-government services {{Invest money to increase services as well as to improve financially {{Support own family financially and socially {{Provide ICT training to rural citizen

{{Promote services to rural citizen Social change makers {{Motivate rural people for better services {{Women entrepreneur inspire other women to become selfdependent.

Community Representatives

Village Police, Mosque Imam, Village Leaders, NGO/ Social Workers, Aspirant Migrants, Immigrant, Businessman

Other Individuals

Vehicle Driver, Fisherman, Farmer, Day Laborer, Trade Person, Haji, Students and Occupational people

Programme

Provide all technical support

Member

Undertakes promotional activity

Chairman

Encourage people to receive service from UDC and provide support

Secretary

Provide support for precise service delivery

DC

Provide support and monitor UDC

UNO

Encourages all governmental offices to provide support to UDC

Educational Institutions

Services/ Particulars

Community Clinic

{{Upload data for EMIS, BANBEIS, online registration and Exam

result

{{Aware people for family planning {{Motivate people for birth registration

Private Organization/ {{Receive services NGO /Bank {{Provide works to entrepreneurs

resources required to equip and train the UDC entrepreneurs on technology issues. The accountability and monitoring structure of the UDCs have been shown in Figure– 2.2.

The Entrepreneur: e-Service Window

For the recruitment of entrepreneurs, priority is given to the local people for their familiarity to the area and knowledge about the needs of their communities. The technological skill of the entrepreneurs is deemed very important for citizens coming to the UDCs and taking the services. For entrepreneur, it is also important that they are secured and getting enough benefit so that he/ she does not think to leave his job for better opportunity. Until now, the post of entrepreneur is not a regular government position and even the incentive 25

Connecting State and Citizens Figure– 2.2: Local Lines of Accountability and Monitoring of UDC Activities.

for an entrepreneur from the union council is too limited to reward them for effectively identifying and catering the needs of clients. The a2i team and the LGD developed elaborate and clear guidelines for the procedure to appoint UDC entrepreneurs. For the most part, skills rather than local patronage determined appointments. Since good performance of entrepreneurs in terms of service delivery was more important, patronage took a back seat and addressed the critical sustainability question for the entrepreneurs. To make UDCs more attractive by providing a wide range of technology based services, the a2i team developed a lot of animated content on agriculture – like what to do if coconut trees were infected by disease, how to neutralize the pH value of ponds, etc. The team thought that these were big problems that rural people faced and if they could learn about the solutions from the UDCs, they would benefit and be pleased. However, people took it more as entertainment rather than a serious service. They were amused since the content was animated but they held no intrinsic value. Meetings and group discussions helped the a2i team to realize that most of the rural people were already familiar with the problems and knew the solutions. In fact, their own depth of knowledge regarding the issues was far superior. 26


Initially the UDCs had not enough services to render to the people and entrepreneurs could hardly make any profit. Many of the prospective entrepreneurs moved to another job for better earning realizing that the position was not for a government job. The a2i team feared that they could not retain the remaining ones. Another contributing factor to this challenge was that a lot of people got these e-services from the local markets. The busy local markets had shops that had computers with internet connections and people could pay to have documents composed, get print out or could send emails. To face this situation, one of the important jobs of the entrepreneur is to publicize the UDCs and attract more people to seek variety of services from the UDCs. Other than the old services, many entrepreneurs included more services through their own investment to make it more sustainable in-terms of earning and facilities. Many of the entrepreneurs are also developing their skills for obtaining various trainings to be more competitive in their businesses in the locality. Considering such situations, the a2i team has also figured out that some very specific services have to be available at UDCs for which people would go there. When the a2i team was looking for something like that, the government began a major push for sending semi-skilled Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia. The government made it very cheap to send workers to Malaysia which means that overseas employment recruitment agencies became very interested. What they needed was finding the right people in the right numbers. It was decided that the application process would be done in online and only the UDC entrepreneurs would be authorized to do the registration. It thus became something that would not be available anywhere else and thousands of interested applicants went to the UDCs. This put the UDCs on the local map and people learned and talked much more about them. By the time the recruitment drive ended successfully, the UDCs had established a presence in people’s minds, gained a lot of credibility as well as huge popularity within the government. The a2i capitalized this success and later started helping other ministries to identify similar services and adding them to the UDCs’ portfolio. Thus, services like printing, birth certificates, viewing results of the schools those are qualified to receive ‘Monthly Pay Orders’ (MPOs) from the Ministry of Education and other information, for which people had to go to Dhaka or other 64 district headquarters to get access. But now people can get access to that online information easily from their locality through UDCs. Once people started to see that it was possible to access these services from close to their home, timeliness became the next priority. Otherwise, they would gradually lose interest and the initiative would fail. For example, if the entrepreneur asked the union council chairman or the deputy commissioner for a service, certain type of information or support and if they did not respond, would leave the entrepreneur as helpless. 27


UDC Blog, Cyber Sharing and Online Monitoring

An UDC blog has been opened to share various innovations of entrepreneurs, problems they face in delivering services and their solutions, and the experience they gained among the blog members. It has become a very vibrant and responsive platform for the UDC entrepreneurs and all other associated government officials. Introduction of such ‘UDC blog’ by the a2i team has created opportunity for entrepreneurs to report various situations they face in the UDCs and share their experience in the forms of cases. The entrepreneur can post a blog even stating that s/he had asked for some helps but did not get any response or there was no progress. Then, the a2i team would forward such blogs to the relevant secretary or Divisional Commissioner. The field administrations are supposed to listen very carefully to what the entrepreneurs asked for. As all entrepreneurs are connected to the blog, it became like a virtual, peer– support community. Through this blog, the entrepreneurs have got to know each other very quickly, started sharing success stories and even challenges and how they got around them. UDC blog has turned into a platform for collaborative problem solving and addressing many administrative issues much more quickly than normal bureaucratic channels of the government. The blog has already gained recognition for its significant role in increasing the opportunity for participation of all the entrepreneurs in critical evaluation of various activities, sharing of experience and ideas, identifying problems and giving solutions. According to the e-Sheba (a publication of Access to Information (a2i) of February 2016, the UDC Blog has 14,998 members, which include UDC entrepreneurs, field level officers, elected representatives, secretaries and ministers. By now, UDC Blog has a total post of 171,765 and it gets more than 250 posts every day (e-Sheba, February 2016).

Scaling up requires a careful and thoughtful combination of political will and the ownership of the bureaucratic machinery. Otherwise, any scaling up effort will come to a grinding halt at some point. Now that the 4,547 centres strongly provide services and thus delivery network has been built. As a result, the ministries and agencies are being instructed to re-engineer more and more of their services to make them available at the UDCs. This will enable lowercost service delivery for the government, reduce time, cost and the number of visits for the citizens and create self-employment for thousands of micro-entrepreneurs who will act as intermediaries, not to seek rent but to provide a very efficient last-mile service delivery layer. The a2i team regards service as the key factor for the sustainability of the UDCs (Hussain & May, 2014).

2.4. e-Services and e-Frontiers in Rural Areas The setting up of the UDCs in the rural areas of Bangladesh with the PPP modality in consideration, there are a myriad of implication which have 28


become apparent. Followings are the major findings about the UDCs and their impacts from the secondary data: {{Long-standing

demand for the right information at the right time at the right place is finally being ensured. {{The coverage of useful government and private services has been expanded beyond urban areas. {{Financial transactions have become easier and cheaper through branchless banking. A large number of rural unbanked people are getting banking facilities. {{Union Digital Centres began operations in 2009 in 30 Union Councils (UP) through partnership between Local Government Division and a2i programme. The Quick Win initiative expanded rapidly culminating in a launch in all 4,547 UPs of the country on November 11, 2010 by the honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh and UNDP Administrator. Each Union Digital Centre is operated by two young local entrepreneurs (one male and one female) under supervision of a local advisory board headed by UP Chairman. The UP provides space and utility for the centre. Local Government Division coordinates with Cabinet Division and Bangladesh Computer Council to establish the basic ICT setup including computers, laptops, printers, multimedia projector, digital camera, webcam and solar panel. The entrepreneurs are free to install additional facilities to support business growth, at the same time, ensuring that the social sustainability of the centre is achieved by delivering government information and services.

Among service partners are public and private banks (e.g. Dutch Bangla, Mercantile, Trust), life insurance companies (e.g. state-owned Jibon Bima), telecommunication companies (e.g. Robi, Banglalink) and non-govt. organizations (British Council, Ankur, and Practical Action). Some of the partners also provide software and hardware troubleshooting support (e.g. Bangladesh Computer Council- BCC, Bangladesh Computer Samity- BCS, and Technology Today). Partnering with newer agencies help Union Digital Centres sustain economically enabling them to offer a wide variety of useful services. Government agencies also benefit from the Union Digital Centre’s infrastructure and resources using them for data collection, identification of social safety net beneficiaries and disbursement of allowances. {{m-Banking

(started in 1075 Union Digital Centres) speed up financial transactions at all corners of the country, ensuring financial inclusion of the vast majority of the unbanked. {{Through Union Digital Centres, a large pool of skilled human resource to be developed specializing in Information Technology, English, Middle Eastern languages and other high-demand skills. {{Women’s lives will be greatly improved owing to the availability of government services and livelihood information closer to their homes. {{Greater participation of citizens will be ensured in local and national development as local government institutions and field administration become more service oriented.

29

Connecting State and Citizens {{Public

service delivery will gradually become more decentralized and accessible at Union, Upazilla and district levels with more and more government e-services being delivered through Union Digital Centres. {{Free flow of information will eventually build a knowledge based society.

The UDCs get technological support from a2i and financial support from Union Council. The Union Council get funding from the Local Government primarily from their ‘One Percent Earning Sector’ (Land Registration Fund of the Upazila) and from the ‘Annual Development Fund’. Every Union receives 6-18 lac takas in installments from the Upazila. Each Upazila receives 60-70 lac taka from the Ministry of Local Government in a year for their various development projects. The UDCs also receive technological supports from the government under the Information Technology Development wing. Both the DC office and the UNO office also monitor the everyday performance of the UDC and see what are the services each of the UDCs are providing to the local people. All the UDCs are required to send data about their everyday activities including the service information through an online management system. The system uses an online monitoring tool. The ICT technician and the Assistant Programme Officer at the UNO office uploads the Birth Registrations, oversees the visa checks, telemedicine and most other mentionable services provided by the UDC. There are some unions which have more than one UDC. Some of those UDCs have separate computer training centres. For every UDC, monthly monitoring reports are supposed to be uploaded by the ICT technicians and be evaluated by the assistant programme officer (education and ICT). After that all these reports are uploaded in the dedicated servers so that they can be monitored. Monthly meetings are also held at the UNO office with all the UDC entrepreneurs to evaluate the performance of UDCs.

30

Chapter Three

Study Areas and UDCs Therein

3.1. Locale and Selected Sites

F

or the purpose of the present study, 10 UDCs have been selected on the basis of certain criteria including geographical locations (Dhaka, Barisal, Khulna, Rangpur and Chittagong), ecological characteristics and the status of UDCs in terms of service delivery and earning. As both Sylhet and Mymensing belong to the same wetland floodplain region, the study team decided to take Mymensing as part of Dhaka in terms of ecological characteristics. Of all 10 UDCs selected for in-depth study, three are located in the municipality/ sadar union of the sub-district in small urban centres; five are located in the local bazaars closed to some basic amenities in the rural areas, while two are located far away from the established growth cntre in the remote rural areas. Due to time, budget, and manpower constraints, the study team could not include all the regions but tried to include all the ecological zones in the study. There are also some variations among these UDCs in terms of range of services provided by them. Some UDCs provide both public and private services and skill development trainings, while others provide public services mostly. There are some UDCs, where people get access to government and private services easily and cost effectively, while for some UDCs it is comparatively difficult to provide the services because of its distance, lack of good transportation and non-availability of various services and facilities (equipment). In terms of sustainability of UDCs, some UDCs are running very successfully with good returns for the entrepreneurs, while some are in a break-even position and others are struggling to service. Presence of skilled and friendly entrepreneurs at the UDCs and their good working relations with the Union Council Office are found very important for ensuring good services to the citizens and to get good income from the centres. All the different service features

Connecting State and Citizens Table– 3.1: Detail Location of the UDCs. Region

District

Upazila/ Thana

Location

Distance from the Upazila HQ

Moazzempur Remote Rural Area

10 km from Upazila HQ

Achargaon

Small urban centre

Adjacent to Upazila HQ

Barisal Sadar

Shayestabad

Rural area

8 km from Upazila. HQ

Gouranadi

Khanjapur

Rural area


Sadar

Small urban area


Atulia

Rural areas


Patikapara

Rural Area


Nowdabash

Rural area


Lama Sadar

Small urban areas


Faitong

Remote rural area


Dhaka

Mymensingh

Barisal

Barisal

Khulna

Satkhira

Shyamnagar

Rangpur

Lalmornirhat

Hatibandha

Chittagong Bandarban

Name of the UDC

Nandail

Lama

and characters make every selected UDC unique for the purpose of our study. For a better understanding of how UDC operates and what impacts do they have on the society, an overview of these UDCs have given below.

Achargaon and Muazzempur UDCs

Achargaon union is located in Nandail Upazila of Mymensingh District. The distance between Nandail and Mymensingh is 47 km. There are 12 unions in Nandail, and Achargaon is one of them. The Union council office is situated at 2 kilometers south from Nandail. The Achargaon UDC is situated in Nandail bazaar near the Sonali Bank’s office. Total population of this union is about 27,131 and it has 15 villages and 5 bazaars. The Achargaon UDC began its journey in November, 2010. Every day, it opens at 9 am in the morning and closes at 4 pm in the afternoon. It has a working hour of 10-12 hours a day and keeps open 7 days a week. Currently, there is one male and one female entrepreneur in this UDC. The UDC does not have any paid employees, but there are national service employees who help the UDC entrepreneurs during the daytime. The UDC has gone through 3 female entrepreneurs and 2 male ones. Muazzempur union is located in Nandail Upazila of Mymensingh district. It is situated near the Narsunda River and is a traditional union of this upazila. Through the changes in the course of time, Muazzempur union, which is consisted of 26 villages, has an area of about 26.06 square kilometers and a population of 31,554. From Upazila, people can reach Muazzempur by CNG, 32

Profiling the Study Areas

Map– 3.1: Location of Study Areas.

Auto rickshaw or Rickshaw. There is a bazaar centering the Muazzempur union. A new building of the council was established in 2006, which is now surrounded by walls from all sides. UDC office is situated at the first floor of the building. The Muazzempur UDC started its journey in 2010 along with the inauguration of the UDC programme. The UDC opens at 10 a.m. in the morning and ends at 5 p.m. 33


Atulia and Shyamnagar UDCs

The Atulia union is 11 km away from Shyamnagar Upazila of Sathkhira District. The union council is situated at the Nowbeki bazaar. Shaymnagar Upazila is bordered to Satkhira. The river Khelpatua is on the south of the union. Due to its geographical positioning, this area is very prone to natural disasters. The union consists of an area of 41.47 sq. km. It has 5 markets, 23 villages and 5 mouzas. According to the census of 2011, the population of Shyamnagar Sadar union is 33,755. It has 27 villages and 9 Mouzas. The rate of education of this union is much higher than other areas of Bangladesh. It has a literacy rate of 67%. One third of Shyamnagar Upazila is covered by Sundarbans.

Nowdabas and Patikapara UDCs

Nowdabas Union of Hatibandha Upazila is situated 5 km away from the Hatibanda headquarter. Naodabas union council office is situated in Naodabas bazaar. The total area of the union is about 8-9 kilometer. The union consists of 4 villages and they include- East Naodabas, West Naodabas, Ketoki Bari and Dhowlai. Total population of this union is about 23,000. In this union, there is a college (proposed), two high schools, fifteen primary schools and one Madrasa. Patikapara union of Hatibandha is surrounded by Tangbhanga Union on the North, Vauabari Union on the East and South and the Joldhaka Union on the west. The whole area of the union is about 22 sq. km. The union consists of 9 villages with 8 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, a Madrasa and a college. The total population of this union is about 17,800 (up until 2013). There are two markets in this Union. The first one is Shimultoli and the other one is Parulia. The Parulia Market is the biggest market in the Union. Most of the people of the union come to the Parulia bazaar for shopping.

Khanjapur and Sayesthabad UDCs

The Khanjapur Union of Gournadi Upazila is in Barisal District. The total area of the union is about 21.05 sq. km. It has 17 primary schools, three secondary schools and one Madrasa. There is no college on the union. The Union Council office is situated in the Bakai Bazaar. The Saystabad union is right by the Arial Khan River. It has an area of 16 sq. km. The population of this Union is 21,250. There are 19 villages, 19 mouzas and 2 markets in the union.

Lama Sadar and Faitong UDCs

Faitong UDC is situated in a local market outside the UP building. The UDC has a very good income as it is located in the bazaar and it works not only as UDC but also as a shop. It has the facilities for providing both public and private services. The Faitong UP was started in April 2010 and prior to that it was a part of the Ajijnagar Union Parishad. Currently, the union has 49 villages. The UDC of this union was started in the early 2013. The present 34


entrepreneur Selimol Islam has been a part of this UDC since the inception. Initially, there was a girl working with him. But she had left after few months. He has now two assistants who work for him as monthly wage basis. At present, there is no female entrepreneur in this UDC. It opens for 7days a week and gives services 8am morning to 10pm night. The Union Council office is located in Baniachori. Initially the Union Council did not pay any money for doing works but later when UDC located in Baniachori was destructed and looted by some miscreants and shifted to a rented shop in another bazaar, UDC started getting some money for their works. The Lama union is situated 100 km away from the Bandarban District. It was established in the year 1960-61. But on 17 May, 2001 the Lama was declared as a municipality by taking a large part of the Lama Union. The Lama Union Parishad is 3 km away from the Upazila Office. It is divided into two sections. The total area of the Union is 215 square Kilometers. The UDC started its journey in 2010.

3.2. Profiling the Respondents

The coverage of this study entails in five administrative divisions. Two UDCs from each of the division has been selected for the study. Qualitatively there was an equal preference given to all the divisions, however, quantitatively there were slight differences wherein the Barisal’s stake is 18%, Chittagong 22% and 20% for Dhaka, Rangpur and Khulna it is about 20%. The age limits of the respondents were ranging from below 25 to above 56 years. Respondents belonging to age group 26-40 are dominant in the study areas. The major stake has been occupied by the respondents of the age from 26 to 55 years. 75% of the respondents are married, 24% are unmarried and 1% is widowed (See, Graph– 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, & 3.4). Among the respondents, 81% belong to Muslims, 15% belong to Hindu and the rest 4% belong to Buddhist religion. A majority (90%) of the respondents are Male, while the rest 10% are female. It is important to mention that, most of the interviews were done during receiving services at the UDCs. It Graph− 3.1: Respondents by Sex.

Graph− 3.2: Age Structure of the Respondents.

35

Connecting State and Citizens Graph– 3.3: Respondents by Marital Status.

Graph– 3.4: Respondents by Religious Status.

was generally found that most of service- recipients at the UDCs were male. To include more female respondents, all the female service-recipients found available at the UDCs were purposively included in the interviews. Though many of the male recipients were purposively excluded to include at least a certain percentage of female service recipients. Among all the respondents, 88% have attended school at least for certain period, while the rest 12% have never attended. In terms of ethnic identity, the Bangali remain predominant; however, there are 3% respondents from minority ethnic groups. In terms of educational status, most of the respondents fall under the Secondary to Higher Secondary scale (from class VIII to HSC). There are few graduate and postgraduate as well. The percentage of illiterate respondents is notable (11%) (See, Graph– 3.5).The Graph– 3.6 shows the occupational distribution of the respondents under study (see Annex– 03 for details).

3.3. Attributes and Earning Potentials of UDC

In terms of providing public services, the UDCs cover a wide range of categories. However, the major service area is birth and death registration. Inheritance certificate, citizenship application and certificate remain in the second mostly rendered service by the UDCs. It is important to note that Graph– 3.5: Respondents by Educational Status.

36

Profiling the Study Areas Graph– 3.6: Respondents by Occupational Status.

Table– 3.2: The Equipments and Services of the UDCs. Equipment Available

Provided Services

Achargaon

1 Laptop, 1 Printer, 1 Modem, 1 Digital Camera, 1 Scanner, 1 Web Camera, 1 Desktop Computer, 1 Laminating Machine, 1 Photocopy Machine, 1 Projector (10 items/10 units).

37

Muazzempur

1 Laptop, 2 Printers, 1 Photocopy Machine, 1 Desktop Computer, Mobile Phone, 1 Modem, Weight Machine, 1 Projector, 1Digital Camera (9 items/10 units).

49

Nowdabas

1 Desktop Computer,1 Photocopy Machine, 1 Modem, 1 Scanner, 1 Printer (5 items/ 5 units).

19

Patikapara

1 Desktop Computer, 1 Modem, IPS, 1 Printer, 1 Photocopy Machine, 1Digital Camera, 1 Scanner, Laptop, (8 items/ 8 units).

16

Atulia

1 Modem, 1 Photocopy Machine, 1 Mobile Phone, 1 Web Camera, 1 Scanner, 1 Laminating Machine, 2 Printers, 1 Desktop Computer, 1 Laptop, 1Projector, 1 Digital Camera, (11 items/ 12 units).

35

Shyamnagar Sadar

1 Web Camera, 1 Digital Camera, 1 Modem, 1 Mobile Phone, 1 Scanner, 1 Laptop, 2 Desktop Computers, 2 Printers (One Black & White, One Color), 1 Projector (9 items/ 11 units).

34

Khanjapur

1 Laptop, 4 Desktop Computers, (1 pc was taken home by the son of the chairman) (2 items/ 5 units).

4

Sayesthabad

1 Desktop Computer, 1 Printer, 1Digital Camera, 1 Scanner, 1 Modem (5 items/ 5 units).

5

Lama Sadar

1 Laptop, 1 Desktop Computers, 1 Modem, 1 Scanner, 1 Printer, 1 Photocopy, Machine, 1 Projector, 1 Digital Camera (8 items/ 8 units).

13

Faitong

3 Laptops, 2 Printers, 1 Mobile Phone, 1 Scanner, 1 Modem, 1 Laminating Machine, 1 Digital Camera, 1 Solar Panel, 1 Multimedia Projector, 1 IPS, 2 Sound Systems Generator (12 items/ 16 units).

28

UDCs

37


there are some significant areas of service, which are yet to become popular. These include online ticketing, legal aid, and other government information. From the table mentioned below (Table– 3.2), we can get some ideas about the number of services UDC provides and the equipment facilities the UDC have. It is implied from the table (Table– 3.2) that there is a correlation between the number of services an UDC can provide and the equipment facilities the UDC has. The more equipment an UDC can posses, the more services that UDC can provide. Study findings show that Achargaon and Muazzempur UDC of Nandail Upazila, Atulia and Shyamnagar Sadar UDC of Shyamnagar Upazila and Faitong UDC of Lama Upazila have got the highest number of equipment (10 types) and they provide the highest number of services (ranging from 28-49 services) compare to the other UDCs, which have lower number of equipment. For example, the UDC of Khanjapur (equipment) and Sayesthabad (5 equipment) of Barisal have got much lower number of equipment and provide less services (4 and 5 services respectively). But the UDC of Naodabas is an exception. It has got 5 equipments but provides 19 services. In this situation of public and private services, UDCs are primarily assigned to provide the public services first. Among the 10 selected UDCs, 4 UDCs (Muazzempur, Achargaon, Sayesthabad and Khanjapur) provide more public services than the private services. UDC of Shyamnagar Sadar and Patikapara provide equal number of public and private services. The UDCs which provide private services more than the public services include Atulia UDC of Shyamnagar Upazila, Naodabas UDC of Hatibandha Upazila, and Lama Sadar and Faitong UDC of Lama Upazila. The UDC of Patikapara provides equal number of public and private services, though it provides a total of 16 public and private services. The study further reveals that higher income and higher number of services, specially higher number of private services are not based on the location of Graph– 3.7: Factors Effecting Earning Potentials from Private Sectors (Multiple Responses).

38


UDCs only, it is rather related to the availability of equipment, quality of services (friendly behavior and technical capacity of the entrepreneur), service charges for services, investment of the entrepreneur, availability of power supply and internet connection (see Graph– 3.7). The graphs (Graph– 3.8 to 3.13) given below show the relationships between location-income, location-service, investment-income, investment-service, service-income, equipment-income, and equipment-service. The findings of this study show that there is a significant correlation between the location of UDC and the income of UDC. It is evident from the findings that UDCs, which are located outside the UP building, have comparatively higher income than the UDCs located within the UP building (See Graph–3.8, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 & 3.13). It is important to note that among 101 services (37 public and 64 private) as listed by a2i, the present study team has found altogether 65 services in their study areas. The Muazzempur UDC of Nandail Upazila provides the highest number of services. A total number of 49 services are rendered by this UDC, of which 22 are public and 27 are private services. There are six new services Graph– 3.8: Investment-Income Relationships.

Graph– 3.9: Investment-Services Relationship.

Graph– 3.10: Service-Income Relationship.

Graph– 3.11: Equipment-Income Relationship.

39


Graph– 3.12: Equipment- Service Relationship. Graph– 3.13: Income- Distance (UP HQ) Relationship.

found in the study areas, which are not included in the a2i list or are included in different names. These are (1) Private Service; (2) Solar Power Selling; (3) Mobile Charging; (4) Memory Card Selling; (5) Stationeries Selling; and (6) Computer Accessories Selling. However, with these six services, the total number of services provided by the UDCs under study is 71. The study findings reveal that among all the services rendered by UDCs in general, birth registration is on the top. Other mostly rendered services include inheritance certificate, citizenship certificate, character certificate, VGD/ VGF listing, labor registration for migration, passport application, land porcha, and report writing for UP Chairman (See Graph– 3.14). Beside public services, the UDCs also provide private services. The mostly rendered private services are: photocopying, printing, e-mail, and computer compose. Some other new services like assisting people to download new mobile ringtones, mobile set service, and online CV management are also becoming popular. Some UDCs have also started providing video conference, phone call and mobile banking services. Table– 3.3: Status of Public and Private Service in the UDCs. UDC Services

No. of Services

Total number of services provided by UDCs under study

71

Total number of services (out of the a2i list of 101) provided by the UDCs (10 UDCs) under study

65

Number of services not found in the study areas as stated by a2i

37

New services found in the UDCs under study

6*

Total public services found in the UDCs under study

29

Total private services found in the UDCs under study

42

Highest number of private services found in one UDC

27*

Highest number of public services found in one UDC

22**

Note: *Muazzempur UDC of Nandail Upazila, Mymensingh, ** Muazzempur UDC

40


Graph– 3.14: Top Five Government Services.

3.4. The UDC Entrepreneurs

In the present study, total number of 10 entrepreneurs (9 male and 1 female) from 10 UDCs located in 6 Upazilas have been primarily selected for indepth study (See Table– 3.4). According to the study findings, all these entrepreneurs belong to the age group of 20 to 35. While, in terms of education, four entrepreneurs have completed HSC, three have completed Honors and the rest 3 have completed BA. Besides general education, almost every entrepreneur has some basic computer training. Some of them have received training either prior to joining or after joining. More than 50% of the entrepreneurs have been awarded as best entrepreneurs of the Upazila or District through various Digital Fairs. The study findings also show that out of 10 entrepreneurs, only 4 have been working since the inception of UDCs on 11 November 2010, while the rest 6 entrepreneurs have joined in different times. As UDC is designed for public-private partnership, it is found that except for the entrepreneur of Sayesthabad, all other entrepreneurs (9 out of 10) have some personal investment on their UDCs either for purchasing new equipment or for repairing the old equipment. They have invested their money over a period of time. The range of investment is upto 200,000 taka (See Table– 3.5). From the above table, we can get some idea about the personal investment of entrepreneurs in their UDCs. It varies from the lowest investmentof tk. 40,000 by 200,000 by Jahangir Alam of Achargaon UDC in Nandail to the highest investment of tk. 200,000 by Selimul Islam of Faitong UDC of Lama Upazila. Besides these, there is also an entrepreneur who has no personal investment in the UDC. The average personal investment of these 10 UDCs is 84,200 taka. From the monthly income of the UDCs shown in the Table– 3.5 it is understood that while with the highest investment (200,000 Taka), the Faitong UDC has got the highest monthly income (Tk. 40,000), while the Muazzempur UDC with the investment of 180,000 taka has only income of tk. 18,000 per month. It is important to note that the earning statement given by UDC entrepreneurs do not match with their real earning. Thus, the present study has a number of observations about the income of the entrepreneurs, the 41

Connecting State and Citizens Table– 3.4: Background of the Entrepreneurs. UDC Name

UDC Started

Primary Education Entrepreneur

Job Started

Achievements

Woman Entrepreneur

Achargaon

11 Nov 2010

Jahangir Alam BA (24)

2012

3 training, 1 three year diploma in computer is going on, 3 consecutive years best Upazila entrepreneur, 2times 2nd best district entrepreneur award

Muazzempur

11 Nov 2010

Tofael Ahmed (24)

Honors (Fazil)

10 Feb 2012

3 trainings, 2 times best No Woman entrepreneur (Upazila), I Entrepreneur time district awards

Nowdabas

11 Nov 2010

Mohsin Ali (34)

BA

June 2011

1 computer training

Patikapara

11 Nov 2010

Anwar Sadat Ripon (42)

Honors

11 Nov 2010

2 computer trainings, 1 Wife is shown time best entrepreneur as Woman (Upazila) and 1 time best Entrepreneur entrepreneur (district)

Atulia

11Nov 2010

Rabiul islam (25)

HSC

11 Nov 2010

2 computer trainings, Ist prize in the country for development of web portal

Jesmin Akter (BA) Cousin (part-time)

Shyamnagar Sadar

11 Nov 2010

Abdur Rashid Nantu (30)

HSC

11 Nov 2010

2 trainings

Wife is shown as Woman Entrepreneur

Khanjapur

11 Nov 2010

Hamid Akon (31)

BA

4 April 2014

3 trainings, 1 time best district award

No Woman Entrepreneur

Sayesthabad

11 Nov 2010

Anika Devnath (24)

Honors

2012

1 computer training, 1 time best entrepreneur of the district

Woman Entrepreneur as Primary

Lama Sadar

11 Nov 2010

Dilip Kanti Sen (26)

HSC

11 Nov 2010

4 trainings


Faitong

Janu 2013

Selimul Islam (23)

HSC

January 2013

More than 10 trainings, 1 time best entrepreneur of the district




* In most cases, female entrepreneurs are in paper only. They hardly come to the UDCs. During the fieldwork, we have not met any female entrepreneur in the UDCs, except for those which are run by female entrepreneurs.

statement given by the entrepreneur to the a2i, the way they share their earning with their co-workers (both male and female entrepreneurs and assistants), and the way they share their earnings with the chairman, members and secretary. Normally, the Union Parishad does not take any money from the UDCs earning, though there is a provision of paying 15-25% of UDCs earnings after 42

Profiling the Study Areas Table– 3.5: Overview of the UDCs under study Name of the UDC

Distance from Upazila

Settlement Location

No. of Services Provide

Personal Investment

No. of Equipment Item/ Unit

Average Monthly Income

Achargaon

Upazila HQ

Small Urban

40,000

37

10/11

15,000

Moazzempur

10km

Remote Rural

180,000

49

10/11

10,000

Shayestabad

8km

Rural

00

5

5/5

8,000

Khanjapur

15km

Rural

60,000

4

2/4

16,000

Shyamnagar Sadar

Upazila HQ

Small Urban

75,000

34

9/11

12,.000

Atulia

10km

Rural

60,000

35

11/12

14,000

Patikapara

5km

Rural

72,000

16

8/8

15,000

Nowdabash

5km

Rural

55,000

19

5/5

8,000

Lama Sadar

Upazila HQ

Small Urban

100,000

13

8/8

18,000

Faitong *

5m

Remote Rural

200,000

28

12/16

40,000

Note: * 35km from Lama HQ but 5km from Chakaria HQ.

2 years of operation. Most of the UDCs do many works for Union Parishad as free of cost. These include report writing, sending email, project preparation, issuing trade license, citizenship certificate, preparing list for old age allowances, widow allowances, landless allowances, and other office works. There are many instances of taking certain percentage of earning of the UDCs by the Union Parishad specially for issuing various certificates like citizenship certificate, birth certificate, marriage certificate etc. It is observed that in some UDCs, the main entrepreneurs have other primary jobs and run UDCs by other assistants and pay them on contract basis or job-wise, while in some UDCs, the entrepreneur himself works as the main entrepreneur, stays in the UDC, and employs assistants on monthly or daily salary basis. In some cases, the entrepreneur does everything by himself or herself. According to the findings of the study, the average monthly income of 10 UDCs is around 14,000tk. Among these, Faitong has the highest income of tk. 40,000 per month, while the lowest income is tk. 8,000 by Shayesthabad and Nowdabash UDC. During the study, it has been observed that for reporting purposes, entrepreneur sometime shows income from services, which are actually not rendered. For example, the Nowdabas UDC has not provided any mobile service or visa application processing service in last 3 months, but it has shown in the monthly report. The entrepreneur of Nowdabas always shows less income than the real income. The monthly statement given by the entrepreneur does not match with his real income. One betel leaf shopkeeper (Pandokandar), who runs a shop closed to the UDC inform that UDC entrepreneur and the son of the Chairman together earn much more than the stated amount. 43


In certain areas, some citizens have concerns about UDC’s charges for different services. They complains that either the entrepreneur by himself or in connection with the Chairman, member or secretary of the union parishad sometimes charge exorbitant for some government services. Mohsin an entrepreneur of Nowdabash UDC agrees that there are some complaints about their fees for different services. He says, we don’t take all the money what we charge for any public service. For example, for birth certificate I charge 50tk, of which I give 20tk to the union council. In response to a complaint about high service rates, he told the following story: “This morning a person came and took 10 citizenship certificates without paying any money. But you see it costs me. Am I not going to be a loser? But these people think, UDC is a government office and they don’t need to pay. We always face problem in taking money. Many people still don’t know about UDC, they don’t want to pay money for service”.

Monoranjon Adhikari, an owner of a computer shop in Nowdabash, Lalmonirhat has a similar type of complaint regarding charging high fees for birth certificate by the UDC. He believes: “UDC entrepreneurs should charge less because they get free equipment”.

3.5. Gender Divide of Service Recipients and Providers

In most of the UDCs, majority of service recipients are male. A few women, who need services from the UDC, mostly come during the morning and afternoon time. On the other hand, male people who are mostly busy during the day time prefer to come in the evening. There are some gender variations in terms of demand of services at the UDC. Women mostly come to the UDCs to get birth registration. Some educated women come for job application, while the young school and college girls come for opening email, Facebook, skype, imo and other accounts. Students come for admission application, PECE, JSC, SSC and other results, internet browsing, email, computer training, taking photos, printing, photocopying, downloading music and videos in the memory card, mobile servicing and others. During the primary teacher’s job application, women applicants were 10 times more than the men. For every UDC, there is a provision of one male and one female entrepreneur. But due to various reasons, a majority of UDCs don’t have active female entrepreneurs. In many UDCs, it is shown in paper that they have both male and female entrepreneurs. For example, out of 10 UDCs under the present study, only one UDC has a female entrepreneur, while another has woman assistant who works as part-time basis. Besides these two, in all other UDCs, either there is no woman entrepreneur or wife of the male entrepreneur is shown as woman entrepreneur (See Table– 3.5). It is reported that most of the female entrepreneurs do not come to the UDC except for some special occasions. The study could not find whether there is any correlation between the increase of female service recipients and the presence of female service providers (entrepreneurs) at the UDCs. 44


For example, in Faitong UDC of Lama (Bandarban), there is no woman entrepreneur but the numbers of women recipients is really significant. One reason may be the presence of some minor ethnic communities in this area. It is observed that ethnic women are comparatively more comfortable to come to the UDC than the Bengali women. Interesting to mention that in Shyamnagar Sadar UDC, there is no woman entrepreneur but it has more female service recipients (60%) than the male (40%). Like this, another significant feature is noticed in Islampur UDC of Cox’s Bazar, where a significant number of women come to the UDC to receive services, as this UDC is run by a very successful woman entrepreneur named Rojina Akter (the best entrepreneur of Cox’s Bazar district, 2016). It is considered that Cox’s Bazar is a very conservative area and there are many female madrashas in this district. A significant percentage of the young girls and women of this area maintain purdah and wear scarf or burkha (veil). The entrepreneur herself maintains purdah and she is graduated from a local madrasha. In an interview, she says, “I don’t see any problem working in the UDC and every day, I offer a variety of services to many girls and women”. Moreover, she believes that, “it is not that, as I am a woman, women prefer to come to me. It is because I give good service to them and I am very friendly with them. I help them to solve their problems, and offer them services very quickly”.

3.6. Empowerment of Female Entrepreneurs

Most of the service recipients of UDCs have the opinion that to give more services to the rural women, the presence of female entrepreneur at the centre is crucial. It is observed that the rural women prefer to receive services from female rather than male. But there is another opinion that “Men and women should not work together at the UDC. It does not look nice”.

There are some UDCs, where female entrepreneurs face some problems working with the male entrepreneur or with the Chairman. For example, in Khanjapur UDC of Gournodi, Barisal, there is no female entrepreneur now. It is because of the chairman, who does not want any female entrepreneur in his UDC. The ex-entrepreneur of Khanjapur UDC, Sathi Khanam (23), informed that “I was working with this UDC from Feb 2013–Feb 2014. During that period there was no male entrepreneur. When registration of labor for migration to Malaysia started in 2012 under G2G programme, I was given training in Barisal for conducting the interview. When I was working with the UDC, I was doing very well. I started giving internet services to the local people. During that time, I was very independent and had a good earning (tk 5-7000 per month). But when the chairman brought his nephew as entrepreneur, he asked me to resign and leave. He told me that I don’t need to come and that they don’t need me anymore. The chairman said that the women are good for nothing.” Rabiul, an entrepreneur of Atulia UDC of Sathkhira has his cousin sister working with him as assistant. Whenever he has work pressure, he calls her 45


to help him. But he has a very different interpretation about the woman as entrepreneur. He states: “This is a very backward place. Most of the people of this area cannot accept female entrepreneur. He believes: “The UDC environment is very different for women because women grow up in a very different way at home. They are also slow in their work. They can’t work like men.... There can’t be two kings in one state. Women should not be given equal rights. They may be equal in terms of education and skills but they are much weaker than the men in public functioning.”

The UDCs, where there is no woman entrepreneur or where the entrepreneur or Chairman does want woman as entrepreneur at their UDC have different opinion than the UDCs where woman entrepreneurs are working as main entrepreneurs. Anita Debnath (24), an entrepreneur of Shaysthabad UDC of Barisal Sadar, shared her experience in the following ways:

“In our society, women are not always taken positively to be an entrepreneur. But I did not face any problem from my family. They always encourage me. This inspiration helps me to move forward. Before I became an entrepreneur, people did not realize that I can operate computers. After joining the UDC, I became popular very quickly. They started treating me in a very positive way. I have not been facing any problem working as an entrepreneur. I did not have any training before joining here. I got all the training after joining. I don’t face any problem working with male entrepreneur. There is no difference of qualification in selecting male or female entrepreneur. Now I am earning about 8,000tk per month. This is not enough for me. I am trying to increase my income by advertising the UDC services.” Anita believes: “if government encourages us, gives us enough supports and advertises UDC, the income of the UDC will definitely increase”.

Rojina Akhter, another female entrepreneur from Islampur UDC of Cox’s Bazar feels proud for her services she delivers to the local people. Her service goes from doctors, teachers, labors to the students. She says, “Once there were many people, who were criticizing me but now they are my clients. They are happy with my services”.

3.7. Business Security and Satisfaction

Many of the initially appointed entrepreneurs have left UDCs by this time for various reasons. One of the main reasons is politics with the Union Council. It is said that 75% of the initially appointed entrepreneurs are no more with the UDCs. A significant percentage of these entrepreneurs could not continue due to their low earnings from the UDCs. During this time, UDCs were not very popular and services were also very limited. Many of the entrepreneurs have the opinion that the participation of candidates in the Union Parishad election in party’s name is one of the main reasons for creating misunderstanding between the entrepreneurs and the Union Parishad members. Many entrepreneurs, who were not politically supporters of newly elected chairman, later started to leave UDCs. For many of the UDCs, there has been a problem with the change of Chairman of the Union Parishad through election. In most 46


cases, the newly elected chairman does not feel comfortable with the existing UDC entrepreneur, especially if the Chairman is elected from a different party (for example, if it is a change from BNP to Awami League or vis-à-vis). The entrepreneur of Shyamnagar Sadar UDC, Abdur Rashid Nantu has also experienced such situation as an entrepreneur. He has narrated his experience in the following way: “Some problems arose when a newly elected Chairman started working in my union. The new Chairman had a doubt that I was a people of the old Chairman and I might leak out his secrecy. For his protection, he wanted to remove me and tried his best to get a new entrepreneur from his own connections. But the previous Chairman, who knew me very well and became the new MP of this Upazila, asked the Chairman not to remove me. Then he could not dare to do that. But this type of problem may arise again in the future, if any new Chairman comes again through election. We have already raised this issue to the district level meeting. Most of the entrepreneurs of the country have been experiencing such situation and they are really concern about their future”.

A majority of the entrepreneurs wants the UDC will be separated from the Union Council; entrepreneurs to be recruited by the government and will be given salary. They also want UDC to be located in the bazaar and be provided with enough equipment and other facilities so that they can give more services, work for a long period and can have a secured livelihood. There are few entrepreneurs who even don’t want salary but they want their job to be permanent and not be interfered by the chairman and members.

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Chapter Four

Frontline Narratives of Digital Services

4.1. Introduction

T

he UDCs started their journey with a promise to make government more responsive to the people and make services more accessible to them. The idea of public-private partnership was the basis of this initiative. The purpose of this initiative was to create an environment for ensuring service delivery necessary for social and economic growth of the country. The present study, undertaken by the UNDP and the a2i, deals with some purposively and randomly selected UDCs. The study has not observed all-encompassing social impacts of the UDCs throughout the country but it has tried to provide a well-constructed general idea about the social impacts that UDCs have brought about in the country. The study findings gathered through focus group discussions, in-depth-interviews and observation clearly show that the UDCs have significant impacts on the social fabric of the rural areas of the different regions of Bangladesh. It has shaken the age-old traditional and bureaucratic public service delivery systems and shifted the union council from being an only public service delivery centre to being both public and private service delivery centre. Not only this, UDC has become a place for digital resource sharing at the grassroots level and become an agent for social change. Some of the significant socio-economic impacts of UDCs are on the following areas: {{Public Service Delivery; {{Youth Employment, Education and Training; {{Employment and Empowerment of Women; {{Social Networking and Communication; {{Reducing time, cost and visit for receiving public {{Internal and International Migration.

and private services;


4.2. Public Service Delivery

The UDCs have been set up with the idea of public-private partnership at the helm of government service. The entrepreneurs in the local areas are engaged in providing services to the people. The entrepreneurs are selected from the local populace. This ensured the trust of the local people in the public-private partnership. That might be a bit exaggeration, but it paved the way for a more streamlined public service. The entrepreneurs are not government employees. They are at the same time working for themselves and for the local community. As they are a part of the people and the government to some extent, the entrepreneur has a personal stake in providing the community with streamlined government services. This has made the government services accessible and more people have started receiving government services and cooperating with government policies. In general, UDCs have more male service recipients than female. Local people have greater demand for public services than the private ones from the UDCs. Birth certificate, character certificate, inheritance certificate, citizenship certificate are most demanded services from the UDCs. Among the equipment, computer, laptop, projector, photocopier, internet modem, camera, and scanner are in more demand. The people’s expectation for services from the UDCs is increasing day by day. The bureaucratic service of Bangladesh has been a social phenomenon for a long time. These UDCs provide us with examples where the bureaucratic harassment of the people had been taken down to virtually zero, in a lot of cases at least. This decline in the bureaucratic hassle in the service providence has brought back the faith of the people to the government services. It is not simply the matter of faith of the people only. The services such as birth registration, land deeds etc. are important documents to have for a citizen. Delays and bureaucratic hassles in achieving these documents make people reluctant to receive those papers, effectively slowing down various other judicial and government services. Such tendencies will also hinder the justice process and the citizens often become unwitting victims of crime and police harassments. The decline of bureaucratic harassment in the receiving of the documentation services had brought the faith of the people back for the government services. UDCs have created the opportunity to readily receive the government services and in case of emergencies, receive the said services at a faster rate than ever before. People living in different areas have narrated their satisfaction in their own ways for receiving various public services at their doorsteps. Kumar Bishwajit Sing of Muazzempur, who works as a helper for a road contractor, feels that he has got many benefits from UDC services. He says: “Last time when I came here for my daughter’s birth certificate, it was very hard to get. I had to run from here to there for getting that. But now the UDC has become a one stop service for me and I can now save my time too.”

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Tota Mia (51), a farmer from Kopalohar village of Nandail, came to UDC for birth certificate. When he was asked if the UDC charges high for its service or not, he replied: “First time when I came here to get a birth certificate, I was given a hand written certificate and it was free of cost, but now they are doing it by computer. The entrepreneur doesn’t charge that much. If any people sow paddy seeds whole day he gets only Tk.250. This entrepreneur sits here whole day and works for us so we must pay him for his livelihood as the government do not give him any salary.”

“UDC has

become a one stop service for me and I can now save my time too.”

Another farmer from Purhori Village of Nandail Upazila named Sahabuddin (60) often comes to the UDC for various purposes. He says he has a very friendly relation with the current Chairman. He has a very high impression about UDC and finds everything good about UDC. The case of Umme Habiba (23), a student of National University from Haolapara village, may also be considered, in this regard. She stays at home permanently and attends classes and examinations from home. When she needs to apply for any job online or needs any computing, she comes to the UDC. She says: “If UDC would not exist, I would have to face many troubles in sending my application for jobs and to do my computer related works. UDC has made my work easy and I want that in future UDC will be more active and give more services to the rural people”.

There are other narratives, which paint a picture of the new era of the government services. They also show the potential of the PPP modality and If UDC would its usage in the service sector of the government. The following case would corroborate the impact not exist, I of the PPP model in the UDC services. Jowhor would have Lal Malo (service recipient), a fisherman from faced many this area has a very favorable view about UDCs. He was interviewed when he was just receiving troubles in a birth certificate from the UDC. He expressed sending my his satisfaction through the following words, “I application for have never thought that we can have this kind of service from a UDC. I could have my birth jobs.” certificate printed, just like that, no delay! This saves both my money and time”. Another shrimp farmer came to the UDC to have his inheritance certificate. He says that the process was troublesome before but now, with the help of the UDC, the process has become very easy. Beside the service recipient perspective, the perspective of the service provider is also important to get the inner picture of the UDC. The opinion of the entrepreneur of Achargaon gives (this is just a random UDC, it must be noted)

“

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some ideas about the PPP and government service relation and what the merging of these ideas can do. “I could have The Achargaon UDC began its journey on my birth 11th November, 2010. UDC opens at 9am in the certificate morning and closes at 12pm noon. At noon, it printed, just gives a break for two hours from 2pm to 4pm. The UDC is open for almost 10-12 hours daily and like that, no 6 days a week. At present, there is one male and delay! This one female entrepreneur. Besides these two entresaves both my preneurs, there are two alternative entrepreneurs. There is no salaried employee in UDC but there are money and two national service employees who help for work time.” at daytime. Until last few years, a total number of 6 (3 males and 3 females) entrepreneurs worked for this UDC for different period of time. The narrative of the entrepreneur of Muazzempur UDC gives us some ideas about the activities of UDC, where UDC entrepreneur and Chairman, Member and Secretary have a multi-dimensional relationship and a wide range of interest. Many of the UDCs are now passing through various hindrances, obstacles and challenges. The mostly discussed obstacle is the cold relationships between the entrepreneur and the Chairman. Nevertheless, the following narrative of an entrepreneur gives us a very positive notion about such relationship. When the entrepreneur of Muazzempur UDC was asked about his Chairman, he replied, “Very good, he is very friendly. If any complaint comes, the chairman tries to solve the problem as soon as he can but if any financial problem arises the chairman does not deal with that. I must solve that problem on my own”. In a similar response, the entrepreneur of Achargaon, Nandail states: “An agreement was signed in last 18th February, 2016 regarding my employment as entrepreneur of this UDC for 3 years. Our Chairman and Upazilla executive officer appointed me as an entrepreneur. I did a 6months computer course and then joined as an entrepreneur in this UDC. At present, I am having a 3years diploma course in computer. If I did not have these trainings then I would not be selected Sometime as an entrepreneur. The trainings are helping me a lot we are under in providing services to the people at the digital centre. Actually, this profession is such kind profession where pressure to you can learn something new every day. I have been manipulate learning every day after joining in this UDC. And if get any more chance for getting trainings on web the birth designing and networking, then I would be able to registration become a skilled freelancer also. For increasing UDCs income, we have to do more publicity. I personally did of the some publicity through giving leaflets and doing some Rohingyas.” campaigns in various ways. After doing that the situation was a bit changed”.

“

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The UDCs, no matter how successful and innovative, are subjected to political and social realities of the country. The shifts in political power structures change the rural bureaucratic officials and overall the dynamics of political and social relations play a major role in the life of the UDC entrepreneurs and the function of the UDC. Salauddin Akbar (Ex-entrepreneur, now runs a training centre and a shop in Cox’s Bazar) is one such entrepreneur who is a victim of an unexpected event of the UDC functions: “When I joined this UDC in 2010 as an entrepreneur, Mr. Mujibur Rahman was the chairman of this union. He was the general secretary of the Cox’s Bazar district Awami League. In 2011, when Jilongja was divided, Giasuddin Mithu became the chairman. Then the BNP goons started creating problems. They conspired to have me out of the UDC. And that conspiracy came to fruition in 2014. They started a business regarding the birth registration. But I did not want to be a part of those unethical works. So, they removed me from the UDC. I am very good in computer. Other UDC entrepreneurs know about my computing skills. Many of them call me to help them. Thus I am still working with the UDCs.”

The above narrative shows us the darker side of the UDC machinations. If we try to narrow our scope, we find some small but significant quotes from various entrepreneurs, which can serve as the discourse regarding the dynamics of the UDC operations: {{“The operational secretaries and the chairmen are

often very rude to us.” get no monthly wages for our work” {{“We want to get rid of the bad management of secretary and the chairman” {{“They tell us to manipulate the birth registration of the Rohingyas” {{“We

The Rohingya issue is a political and economic hot bed of corruption. There is a huge money grabbing operation going on centering the Rohingyas and the largest beneficiaries of such corrupt activities are the local politically powerful people. Anyone who wants to stop this gets in trouble. The entrepreneurs (interviewed in the Digital Fair held in January 2016 in Cox’s Bazar) came up with various ideas to solve the problems of the UDCs. They suggested: {{“a2i should directly have a monitoring and supervision

role for birth registration process” should be a standardized fee system for all the UDCs across the country”

{{“There

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“Many of the UDC entrepreneurs are kin relatives of the respective UP chairmen. Some other cases, Chairman appoints his ‘own man’ as entrepreneur.”

“UP secretaries have some conflict of interests with the entrepreneurs, in many UDCs.”


When coming face to face with such bureaucratic problems, politics and the instances of clashes between the UDC entrepreneurs and various selected government bodies and officials, we may take into account the statement from the relevant government officer at Cox’s Bazar District. His statement offers us the narrative from another continuum of the UDC spectrum: “The chairmen are the high-profile people of the local government. They deal with various decisions and meetings. Many of the chairmen have family relations with the UDC entrepreneurs. May be 1 in 20 UDCs, Chairman appoints his ‘own man’ as entrepreneur. There might be some mental distance between the secretaries and the entrepreneurs in 20% of the UDCs, as in some UDCs, entrepreneurs have caused low earning of union secretaries, who have job that has constant relocations. In many UDCs, secretaries have some relationship problems with the entrepreneurs”.

He also praises about the UDC and its functions. He alludes to the Libya war crisis when the migrant workers were sent back home. The Syria government was offering compensations to those workers but many paper-works were needed through availing the internet facilities. In this situation, the UDC came forward to help them to lodge their application for getting compensation. Many families could receive large amount of money as compensation because of the help of UDCs.

4.3. Youth Employment, Education and Training

The UDC services are not limited to public and private services. The UDCs provide computer training as well as offer vocational training. These vocational experts have brought about another social change in the rural societies of Bangladesh.

The UDCs are providing training to the youth to acquire skills in areas which is enough to get employment or to gain self-employment. Among the provided trainings, computer literacy is one of the most popular. The trainings have helped the youths to turn their lives around. According to the e-Sheba (February 2016), over more than 100,000 (0.1 million) students and youth have received computer literacy training from 3778 Digital Centres. The UDCs are also playing significant role in getting them jobs overseas. UDCs also help them to apply for passports and to pay the fees. According to e-Sheba (February 2016), over 2.2 million rural aspirant migrants including females have been registered electronically to seek employment in different foreign countries. An a2i publication reports that a total number of 5000 online applications have been done for passports and fees for 3000 passports have been given electronically through the UDCs (e-Service, May 2015). The entrepreneur of the Khanjapur UDC alludes to his experience and work in the following way: “I have been able to provide service to the people completely by dint of my experience. But if we want to turn our UDC into a training centre, we need more equipment.

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Frontline Narratives of Digital Services Now I take photos by mobile phones and scan them. I rent computers to work. If I can provide total digital services at the UDC, people will prefer to come here rather than go to the market. I have submitted a requisition letter to the chairman. However, the chairman has not yet released the money. The government has asked us to invest our own money, but I cannot do that, because it is government’s work. If I can have more help from the government, I can make this UDC bigger. I wish to turn this into a bigger training centre from where I can send students to the youth training centres. And If I had more computers, I could have utilized my students and technicians to provide more streamlined and quick services.”

The story of another entrepreneur Named Jan e Alam (Khanjapur UDC, Gouranodi, Barisal) is a sad one. On his long-winded story, he talks about his childhood full of hardships. His unwillingness to study and consequent unsatisfactory SSC result coupled with the poverty of his family forced him to work during his HSC education as a hostel canteen worker. This was also very hard for him. The story after the completion of his degree was another one of hardship. He failed to get any job at any place. He stated that in the reality of Bangladesh, without the existence of well-connected and powerful kin, getting a job is impossible. His attempts of serving the people by joining the BGB remained largely unsuccessful. Then, coupled with his dedication to serve the people and above average education, he joined the UDC as an entrepreneur and he has finally found his place. The UDC has provided him employment and purpose in his life. The internet via the UDC has brought about a social mobility in the lives of the rural people that was never seen before. The world of jobs, university education, and government services have become open to them.

“When the application for Malaysia migration was being done, I was trained from Barisal to take the migration applicant interviews. After the work was done, the Chairman called me and told me not to come any more. He also said that his nephew was going to take over the duties after me. Although it is in the regulation that a female entrepreneur must be present, the chairman does not want a female entrepreneur. He thinks that women are useless. When I joined the UDC, there was no service provided. I got myself trained and started the UDC anew after 2-3 months. Then when I lifted the centre to a better shape, they asked me to go. I was of no use to them then” (– Assistant Entrepreneur, Khanjapur, Gouranodi, Barisal).

Because of the presence of UDCs in the rural areas, the rural youth can now search and apply for jobs online even though, if living in the remote areas. The university admission forms are now filled online and then sent out to the universities. Job applications are also done online. This is a revolutionary change, which has created an environment for the youth to give a drive to change their life, what one could not think even a few years ago. Similar is the situation of the migrant workers, as they have to apply for visa and passport online. The overseas workers are now receiving necessary documents from their host country within the shortest possible time. The UDCs have brought the world within the grasp of the rural people. 55


The UDCs have also opened up new opportunities for youth in the shape of training. Md. Rabiul Islam, a student of first year at the Shyamnagar Degree College says: “I first met Nantu when I was a student of the 12th standard. He asked me about my computer literacy. I told him that I do not even know what that thing is. Then he asked me to get training from this UDC for a few days. I followed his advice and now I can type both Bangla and English and can surf the net as well”.

UDC services have significant impacts in the hilly areas of Bangladesh. The disadvantageous ethnic communities of Bandarban are now getting access to the computer facilities of the nearby UDC. Woo Eey Mong Marma who received computer training from the local UDC, is now working as an assistant at the same UDC. He says that people belonging to different ethnic groups had received computer training from UDC. Sathi Khanom, a former entrepreneur of the Gouronodi UDC, is an educated person now studying in the 3rd year of her BA honors course. She joined the UDC in 2014 as an entrepreneur by contacting the present UP Chairman Akon Siddikur Rahman. Initially she did not have any expertise to work there. But after she had training from BRAC with the assistance of BRAC employee Shree Dipankar, she started excelling in the work. If she had any problems, Dipanakar was always there as a support. Before Sathi, another woman named Kaisul Khanom was the entrepreneur but she left after her wedding. Sathi was very happy getting a job as a young entrepreneur. It opened the horizon of her life. During that time Sathi had a very different experience with the UDC. She expressed her experience in the following way: “When I was at the UDC, I was self-reliant. I used to earn 5000-7000 tk per month. I had not that much expense as well. The Chairman, Member, Secretaries all behaved with her. However, when one nephew of the Chairman joined the UDC as entrepreneur, the UDC collapsed. When I was at the UDC, there were 5 computers. Among those, a laptop and a desktop were taken home by the son of the Chairman” (– Sathi Khanam, Ex-Entrepreneur, Gouranodi).

The Faitong UDC has garnered the gratitude of the youth there. The Faitong UDC is located in a very remote area of Bangladesh. Simply because of the distance, many places like Faitong lose access to various opportunities of modern livelihood amenities. There are various reasons for this as well, but the question of distance, in this day and age can be very easily answered. The UDCs have brought that answer very close to the door step of the people in remote areas of Bangladesh. From the statement of a student, Touhidul Islam of Faitong area, it becomes clear: “I thank the government for the UDC services. The backward people like us now have a new opening for internet services because of the UDCs. The Faitong UDC has made the life of the young people of this area easier. The works for which I need to travel to Chokoria and Lama, now can do here. I can now apply for jobs online, look for university education.”

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The entrepreneur from the Nowdabas UDC in Lalmonirhat, Mr. Mohsin Reza says that the UDC has made education easier for the young people of this area. He mentions that his younger brother and his friends often visit UDC to apply for university admission and job. He says that his UDC has many service facilities and the young job seekers can now download the application and apply online from here. It saves their money and time. Another assistant entrepreneur from Patikapara has the same opinion regarding the services provided by the UDC to the local students and young people. According to him, “We get many students for our computer training programme during the 3-months gap after the SSC exam. Students are now aware that they need knowledge about computer to get a better job. For example, Farzana is learning computing here even after completing her masters. Besides, there are many young people and students who come to me to open Gmail and Facebook accounts. I have opened a lot of Gmail and Facebook accounts for locals. Most of those people do not know about computer but use Facebook from their phone” (– Riyad Patwari, Assistant Entrepreneur, Patikapara UDC, Lalmonirhaat).

The present UDC entrepreneur of Patikapara in Lalmonirhat Anwar Sadat Ripon has a rich history of involvement in Politics with the Awami League. He has experience of arranging meetings and other work with this political party. Incidentally, when he joined the UDC as an entrepreneur, Awami league was in power. As a young entrepreneur, Anwar Sadat Ripon is happy with his job. As he says, “my job as an entrepreneur allows me to help and mingle with all sorts of people in the society, what is even not possible by people like the chairman and his office. I am very happy with my job. My wife and my parents feel proud about my position” Many of the entrepreneurs can now see a huge prospect of providing various skill-development training to the rural youth by the UDCs. Many UDCs have already started various computer related trainings from their UDCs. Hamid Akon (31), an entrepreneur of Khanjapur UDC of Goaranodi, has the opined that there is a huge demand for computer training in this area. According to him, “UDC can be a good centre for developing computer skills among the rural young people”. He says, “I am planning to start a computer training centre. I have already distributed leaflets in different schools. I am now waiting for permission from the Technical Education Board. My UDC is supporting me to get me that”. He believes introducing more training on free lancing, graphic designing, data entry, web designing, out sourcing and others would have immense positive impacts on youth employment. Farzana Begum, a Masters student of National University from Nowdabash of Lalmonirhat strongly believes that our villages need to be developed in order to develop our country. She says, “UDC is changing our villages. See, even living in a remote village, I can now get computer training here. This is because of UDC. The UDC trainer is very kind here. He does not say anything even If I make a mistake. He tries to teach me very patiently”. 57


4.4. Female Employment and Empowerment

Establishing a digital centre in every union with at least one-woman entrepreneur along with a man is very much aligned to the vision of Digital Bangladesh. The more number of women receive training on computer hardware and software use and troubleshooting from the rural areas, the more they will be linked to the rural people through their service centres. No doubt that through the Digital Literacy Training Programme, women will gain expertise in digital centre activities and provide local people with hardware and software support. The a2i’s recent partnership with the Microsoft has created further opportunity for rural women to gain IT support through providing IT skill development training to at least one-woman entrepreneur from each UDC. It is believed that as women are an integral part of our society and if they can be promoted by providing them with IT training, many of the other rural women can then move from employability to entrepreneurship, and will be capable to integrate technology into their daily and professional lives. Thus, women will eventually turn into service engineers. The Bangladesh government has been promoting female employment for a long time. Nevertheless, the social reality remains different in towns, metropolitans and the rural areas of the country. The picture of female employment is not very favorable in the rural areas of Bangladesh. The UDCs were planned as a part of the development discourse of Bangladesh. It was designed in a way which would provide employment for women. According to the organogram of the UDCs, there should be two entrepreneurs in the UDCs: one male and one female. The male-female employment was there to ensure womens’ access through the UDCs. From our research, we uncovered instances of such incidents. The situation of women employment is changing in the rural areas of Bangladesh. They are even doing well in their responsibilities, proving that female employment is not just some window dressing for political and election campaigns or some propaganda of the western countries. Given the equal opportunity, women will rise to the occasion using their own agency and initiative. The UDCs have become a social platform that screams silently for the equal employment opportunities for women. Not only this, it is also gradually acculturating the rural people to the idea of female employment. Within a very shortest period of time, the UDCs have been successful to create a good environment for male and female to work together. There are hundreds of UDCs, where female entrepreneurs either working with their male assistants or with their male supervisors. In many UDCs, it has been found that both male and female entrepreneurs are working together and are attending successfully to their male and female service seekers. UDC has now become a good example of creating an environment for both men and women to work together at the rural level and help to remove the age-old barriers of women to come out from their traditional boundaries. There are many examples that 58


can be cited from all over the country, where women have become empowered through their engagement with the UDC activities. This is not only through working as entrepreneurs but also as recipients of the UDC services. Both UDCs and women vis-à-vis are working as agents for breaking the social barriers of progression. Both UDCs and women are facing challenges but there are many stories of success around the country. The journey of Rojina Akter as an entrepreneur of Islampur UDC of Cox’s Bazar was not an easy one. Having completed her primary education in a Madrasa (traditional Islamic schooling), she completed her BA, MA and B.Ed. by her own earning. It was possible because of her role as an entrepreneur at the Islampur UDC. Did she receive any preferential treatment as she was a woman or because she had close relatives in the UDC? To know about that we can follow a statement of Rojina: “When I first started working as an entrepreneur, my mother was the member and my uncle (Monjur Alam) was the chairman. I was selected as the entrepreneur among 17 candidates, by virtue of my qualifications. Then in 2011, a person named Abdul Majed came as a new Chairman, who had no interest in the work of the UDC. Still we contacted the UNO office; brought in some equipment. Without getting any financial support and cooperation from the Chairman, we built up the UDC from scratch with the sweat of our own brows. And that UDC what you can see has still been running very successfully. When I started my job, people used to gossip about my role at the UDC and my work with a male entrepreneur.”

This was the proud statement from Rojina Akter. She is a prime example of what a UDC can do to bring change. Her journey was not an easy one. Nor did she have to receive any other training for the running of the UDC. She had received a training of 6 months on the technical aspects of the database. She also had training on Microsoft word and Excel for 3 months. She had received 15 days long and another 7 days long out-sourcing training. Besides these, she had also received training for the entrepreneurs in Cox’s Bazar for 10 days. When she had started as a new entrepreneur, she had faced many challenges and resistance from society. People did not shy away from talking ill of her choice of profession. The empowerment of the female sometimes comes directly from the employment of women. The UDCs have provided the women with employment and access to their personal income. These have contributed greatly to the independence of the women. Nevertheless, if we look closely at the narratives and make a few cross-checks another social change will become clear to us. The UDC provides such an employment opportunity that people associates with power, people associate the UDC with the local government structure. This associates women directly with power. Moreover, this sight shakes up the rural discourse that women are disassociated with power and instills the new discourse in lieu of the old one. As women are becoming a part of the UDCs, they are providing the people with government services with marked honesty and great efficiency. The 59


general discourse, of course made it challenging for the women to be a part of the UDCs, but the situation soon changed after they have had the chance to show their aptitude in work. The female entrepreneurs from the UDCs soon became iconic characters in their locality. Their decisions and opinions started carrying weight. They started getting invitation to local tea-discussions. The males started accepting their views and the younger females started opting to become more like them. The female entrepreneurs became idols and symbols of female empowerment and development. Thus, UDCs have created a social platform for women empowerment. The narrative of Sathi Khanom, a former entrepreneur of the Gouronodi UDC clearly gives the feeling how women started getting empowered through UDCs, though there were some mismanagements and nepotism. According to Sathi, working with UDC was a breakthrough in her life. She says, “I learned many things working with the community and getting training from various organizations. I felt empowered and self-reliant because of my earning. When Chairman’s nephew came as entrepreneur replacing me, the UDC started losing its image and capacity to provide services”. This narrative is all about the abuse of power. Toyoba Begum of Joarianala UDC of Ramu Upazila of Cox’s Bazar is also a direct victim of power abuse. She had been part of the structure and she did everything accordingly; however, things did not end well for her. The UDC entrepreneurs were asked to manipulate the voter registration systems. They were asked to increase the age of underage girls so that they can be married off while they are still in child age. Toyoba Begum was all against such corrupt actions. She did her part to prevent such corruption as well. She was booted to the ground by corrupt bureaucracy. In her own words: “The operational secretary was a woman but the Chairman did not even pay heed to her. While the voter list update of 2014 was going on, I was asked to include people as voter by increasing their age on paper. I was even pressured to do that. I complained to the ADC. The ADC came down to investigate. A month later, the chairman, through the Dofadar asked me not to come to the UDC. Then I went to office, took a few things that belonged to me and left.”

4.5. Social Networking and Communication

The UDCs have connected women to the world of e-commerce. The women are using Facebook and other social media to conduct online business. The businesses are connecting the women with larger social frameworks. The women of rural areas are being exposed to the urban culture of Bangladesh via the internet. E-commerce is playing a large role here. The UDC entrepreneurs are bolstering their income through e-commerce and they are showcasing the backward places of the country to a global context. The female entrepreneur from the Sayestabad UDC is a classic example of a success story of the UDC. Started off during her days of BA course, Anika 60


Debnath joined the UDC as an entrepreneur. She had a contract from the a2i and she signed it after impressing the chairman and the UNO in an interview. She had a 3 months certificate in Computer Application course under the technical education board. She was happy with her experience at the UDC and was willing to work there until she gets married. Because of her work, she has become a known face in the area. She has become a self-dependent earning woman in a rural society of Bangladesh. She says that she did not have a leg up while joining the UDC. She came to know about the opportunity and came to work as an entrepreneur. She also did not face any obstacles joining and working in the UDC. After she had joined the UDC, she received relevant training in Barisal. Now Anika Debnath has an earning of about Tk.7000-8000 per month. This earning is good enough for a person but not for a family. Therefore, she thinks that the earning has to be increased. Hard work and the collective assistance are believed to be the key factors to increase earning. She had taken it upon herself to advertise the UDCs. She is telling people the success stories of the UDC and telling them that the UDCs are a fast medium of getting work done. The internet speed remains a problem for Anika. She also tells us that the male populace is the main service recipient of her UDC services. And among the male service recipients, the services of birth registration, voter ID registration, and the successor registration are the most popular services provided. The smaller number of computers also hinder the service speed, Anika says. It prevents her to provide computer training to the local youth. She thinks that the government should run advertising campaigns for the UDCs and provide direct help for the entrepreneurs. She thinks that the survival of the entrepreneurs is the key of turning Bangladesh into a digital Bangladesh one. Another success story of a woman entrepreneur involves incarceration in a foreign land. A person from the union was jailed in Saudi. He needed his birth registration documents by the night. The family was in a rush to provide those documents in a short period. And the bureaucratic system of Bangladesh was not a very promising venture. However, Rojina and her UDC came as rescuer of the troubled family. She prepared and sent the necessary documents overnight to the respective authorities and that action alone was enough to save an innocent man from incarceration abroad. The man and his family will forever remain grateful to Rojina, and the changed face of public service in Bangladesh brought forth by UDC and the a2i programme. Rojina Akter, a female entrepreneur, is more active and, to some extent, wants to perform their responsibility with sincerity and honesty what many of the male entrepreneur, secretary on the chairman/ member sometimes does not like. They want them to work according to their wishes. For some cases, the Union Council members even do not like to work with female entrepreneur. Rojina further says that in many UDCs there are no active female entrepreneurs. This is because, the political and social situation are something not forward to the female entrepreneurs. 61


This is the story of Rojina Akter, the indomitable entrepreneur from Cox’s Bazar. She had made the UDC job a success, with her hard work and dedication. She did not just stop as being successful. Above all, she had also brought happiness to the people of her Union. When she was asked, Rojina gushed with stories one after another. One incident tells us the story of a gentleman who was planning to visit Saudi Arabia for Hajj and then meet his migrant sons there. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could even bring his plans into fruition. Rojina used video call technology so that the gentleman’s sons could be part of the last rites from Saudi. When the sons returned to their homes, they expressed their sincere gratitude and happiness for being able to join their father’s last rites from abroad. Rojina has also ushered in an era of online shopping for the girls of the village. She has bought dresses from online via Facebook. She had bought clothes for girls summing up to 2700 Taka during Eid. Altogether, she had bought 14 dresses. Girls from other unions even come to her UDC for services. She also helps uneducated and less educated women to open skype and imo accounts so that they can talk to their husbands working abroad. The girls come to her UDC searching for jobs in online. She also prints photo using data cables. Rojina says that people take their photos with their smart phones and then bring it to the UDC to have them printed.

4.6. Time, Cost and Visits (TCVs)

Since its inception in September 2006, the Access to Information (a2i) programme has been playing a vital role in leveraging ICT in transforming the public services so that the citizens can receive the services at minimal Time, Cost and Visits (TCV) from the government offices specially the Union Councils. The ministries and agencies of Bangladesh are now being instructed to re-engineer more and more of their services to make them available at the UDCs. This will enable lower-cost service delivery for the government, reduce time, cost and the number of visits for the citizens and create self-employment for the local youths. The impacts of UDCs can be assessed by using the parameter of time, cost and visits (TCVs) required for getting the services now than compared to the past. It is found that after the introduction of UDCs, people in various remote areas of Bangladesh can now go to their nearest UDCs and get multiple services from one point at less cost and time with less number of visits than the past. The TCV is an integral part of the PPP modality upon which the UDC had been designed. In order to assess the impact of the UDCs, we will have to be able to judge the UDCs as per the changes in the Time (T), Cost (C) and Visit (V) reduction in the process of receiving services from the UDCs. It is found that after the introduction of UDCs, people in various remote areas of Bangladesh can now go to their nearest UDCs and get multiple services from 62


one point at less cost and time with less number of visits than in the past. It means TCVs of the rural people has been reduced by manifolds in receiving services from the UDCs at their doorsteps. A general conceptual description of TCV (time, cost and visit) has been given below: Time: How much time does it take to go to the service centre or how much time do they spend in getting the services in the centre? If the service centre is close to the people, if it takes less time to go to the centre and if the service providers are trained, use modern technology in providing the services quickly and give multiple services from one point; again, the service seekers can get required services within less time. Cost: the cost for getting services include the travel cost for going to the service centre and coming back home and cost for buying the services. If the centre is closed to the people, it becomes less expensive for traveling and if a number of services are in one office or centre and if it is subsidized by the government (rent for space, equipment, electricity, internet and others), price or charge become less. Visits: If services are given from far away, and the number of services are not manifold in the same centre, people need to visit a number of places to get their required services, and they need to visit several times to get those services from several places. Even if the services are not technologically advanced, service providers are not trained and keen to provide the services quickly, people need to visit more times to attain services. Before the introduction of UDCs (Union Digital Centres), all the union council offices used to provide birth registration and citizenship certificates and those were prepared manually by the secretary of the union council. Now, UDCs are not only providing those 2/3 public services but have extended their range to more than 100 public and private services. Comparative TCV analysis of ‘Computer Training Service’ and “Passport Service’ done by a2i shows that for both services provided by the UDCs, there was a significant reduction in the time, cost and no of visits for the local people. According to the analysis, for computer training service, there was 47% time and 72% cost saves, while the number of visit remained the same. However, for passport service, there was a 73% time saves, 88% cost saves, and the number of visit drops down to 50%. However, the Lama UDC has also yielded great impacts on the TCV reduction of the people. The Bandarban district being a hard area to traverse, the impact of the TCV cost was resoundingly felt there. There are some problems in receiving the government services. For many certificates, the signature of the chairman is required, while sometime, he remains absent from the UDC. In this regard, Suruzzaman says, “I have applied for a birth certificate a month ago. Today is my third visit this month. The other days, Secretary said that the chairman did not sign. Now, they are saying that they have given this to UDC to write. The UDC is saying that they have network problems. Moreover, I am spinning right round. Till now, 63


it has cost me around Tk.500”. In another instance, Jowhor Lal Malo from the Shyamnagar UDC of Satkhira has similar opinion on TCVs related to the UDCs. He says that, “I have never thought that we can have this kind of service from a UDC. I could have my birth certificate printed just like that, no harassment. And this is saving both my money and time”. Arif, a student of Bahadurpur village of Muazzempur Union in Nandail, has of the same opinion about benefits of UDC. According to him, the local people have been highly benefited as a result of UDC and people are very satisfied because of its good service. The UDC saves their time, money and labor.

4.7. Internal and International Migration

Bangladesh has about 10 million temporary and permanent migrants (skilled and un-skilled) in more than 100 countries. It receives more than $15 billion a year as remittance sent by the migrants. It is now the 2nd largest source of foreign currency earning next to the export of RMGs. The aspirant migrants of rural Bangladesh always suffer from different middlemen for getting passports, doing health checkups, getting visa and work permits. Manpower exporters, travel agencies and various intermediaries have been maintaining a vicious circle for exploitation of the innocent rural young people who are looking for migration to overseas. There are so many painful stories of losing everything by rural young people for trying to go abroad through various ‘Dalals’ (agents). In most cases, manpower exports are done through various agencies and for some cases, agencies are given export quota by the government. Upon establishing UDCs, the government took an initiative to recruit workers through UDCs and got a tremendous response from the rural young people as it significantly changed the whole scenario of exploitation by various agents in the name of migration.

Migrant Workers and their Families

As a part of the bilateral action, Bangladesh and Malaysia signed an agreement at Government-to-Government (or G2G) level in 2013 to formalize the migration procedure. UDCs were first utilized to facilitate migration under this G2G agreement at a limited scale with a very limited capacity. Only two services, namely registering willingness and secondly, download and print. The G2G process followed a flow chart. At first G2G instruction and information was circulated in the media followed by the online registration at the UDC. Aspirant migrants received registration card and ID number from the TTC and then completed their fingerprints and photo-taking from the same centre followed by IOM sponsored medical tests. Then the selection committee sent the information to the Bureau of Manpower Exporting and Training (BMET) in Dhaka and BMET sent the lists to Malaysia. Then, it was the Malaysian government’s decision to allow workers, matching their demands to enter. A total of 10,271 Bangladeshi workers were sent to Malaysia since 2013 under the G2G agreement, against the provision of sending fifty thousand workers each year. 64


Evidence suggests that in the first year of the G2G operation (in 2013), more than 1.4 million people had registered their interest to go to Malaysia (via online application through the UDC). This database of more than 1.4 million labor force can be used as a valuable point of reference for the public and private recruiting agencies. Moreover, the selection of workers from each union has been done under a quota system, based on the demographic map. Out of the total registration, Dhaka division scored the highest registration (321,945), followed by Chittagong (139,756), Rajshahi (208,643), Rangpur (234,968), Khulna (233,410) and Barisal (72,298). All registrations were through UDCs and it shows the influence of UDC’s among the rural people (a2i, GoB). Therefore, the use of UDC for overseas migration is not only reflected through the growing number of people (1.4 million) but also the distributional equity for providing scopes for overseas migration for people from the backward or remote regions. This reflected the role of UDCs I have as local level institution for ensuring transparency in grassroots governance. opened Following this track record of creating a dataFacebook, base of aspirant migrants of different districts by union, many of the union digital centres are now Email, Skype, more enriched than the past with various need-based IMO account modern devices and machineries like computers, laptops, laser and color printers, projectors, modems, for about digital cameras, scanners, IPS, UPS and Photostat machines. In the wake of massive expansion of 600-700 Information and Communication Technology people in this (ICT)-based service delivery activities in the last few years, work of the entrepreneurs has been enhanced UDC. Many to a greater extent, though often the slow speed of them can internet connection creates some problems. The previous experience of registering aspirant now use these migrants through UDCs for going to Malaysia accounts reflects that UDCs could be used as the primary vehicle for easing the migration process by signififor getting cantly reducing the current high cost of migration under the informal channel. UDCs, which in touch are already an established decentralized entity with family and which have enough infrastructure facilities that have demonstrated a capability to provide members who government services to millions of people. This implies that the fixed investment for setting up are working a dedicated migration desk in each UDC and its abroad.” running cost would be minimal. Furthermore, there is already familiarity with UDCs on the part

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of citizens and the ‘learning costs’ of working under the new formalized system would be lower than other modalities. Many of the existing services like government forms download, birth and death registration, employment information, visa processing and visa form printing, photography, job information, English learning of British Council, e-mail and internet browsing, computer training, video conferencing, mobile banking, etc. would be useful for migration purposes. Besides this, UDC can oversee the collection procedure of the government fee for going abroad. Since the centre is expected to govern through a PPP scheme, it may also include the private recruiting agencies for providing various services such as ticketing, training and other services. According to ILO (2013), the official process of migration to various countries starts with registration and one has to go through 16 steps to complete the migration process to reach the host country. Through the UDCs, some of the steps can be curtailed and ... with some of the steps can be done at low costs (such as overseas advertised job, registration, online fill the help of up of passport form, online job search, providing the UDC, information related to training opportunities). In addition to the reduction of steps and cost minimigration has mization, UDCs would help aspirant migrants to save high transportation and accommodation cost become easier and loss of wage when applying for migration. and more Beside registration for migration, UDCs can also extend their services to online training of systematic. various languages (Arabic, Korean, Mandarin, The UDC France, German etc), safe transfer of remittances, to provide access to information with particular helped many emphasis on safe migration (such as database for government sanctioned recruiting agencies, datayoung people base for private recruiting agencies, cautionary to register advertisements/campaign about the consequences of unsafe migration, etc.). online to

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be chosen for going to Korea under the EMS system of employment.”

UDCs can now open a special ‘migration help desk’ with a specialist on migration process, where there will be an online database for potential scopes of employment for all categories of workers abroad; a database of all the current migrants of each of the union (name, age, education, country of work, type of job, overseas address, name of the company, salary, local address etc.) and from where aspirant migrants can do the online registration process for migration, visa form printing, visa application submission and visa processing, 66


application for passport, medical checkup and police clearance. The UDC can also create a database for government sanctioned recruiting agencies, private recruiting agencies, database for union specific aspirant migrant workers with their skill specifications to ease the process of search and matching, and give an online cautionary advertisements/campaign about the consequences of unsafe/ illegal migration. Furthermore, to ease the migration process, UDCs can also create a central database on socio-economic, cultural, and political information of common destination countries, offer online training on Middle Eastern languages, create online based safe transfer process of remittances, can provide training opportunities for skill development of migrant workers and other migration related services.

Labor Migration: Facts from the Field

“In 2012, we campaigned for registration to go to Malaysia under the G2G programme. … We saw huge enthusiasm among the aspirant migrants.”

Many UDC entrepreneurs have gained experience of registration of labor for foreign migration. In 2012, when labor registration for migration to Malaysia was declared, the entrepreneurs were involved in registration and interview. Many of the UDCs did mass campaign by using loud speakers (mikes) in the area to bring young aspirant migrants to the UDC for registration. Many of the UDC entrepreneurs not only do registration, but also do other works which have significant impacts on migration and the migrant families. Rojina, a female entrepreneur of Islampur UDC of Cox’s Bazar has happily described her success in promoting migration through her UDC. She says,

“I have opened Facebook, Email, Skype, IMO account for about 600-700 people from my UDC. Many of them can now use these accounts for getting in touch with family members who are working in different countries. Now everyday, at least 10 local people talk to their migrant family members through Skype and IMO. I arranged video conference to show the dead body of a village man to his three sons, who were overseas. I always help people to send their photos, voter ID, birth registration certificate, and other documents to Malaysia, Saudi Arab, Dubai and other countries, and People send different types of document from overseas to me for their families through email”.

An ex-entrepreneur of Jilonza Union of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazila named Salahuddin Akbar described his satisfaction of serving the local people specially migrants and their families. He narrates a very pleasant story of an elderly 67


woman who happily received the service from him. He mentions how the old woman expressed herself when she came to the UDC: “My son works overseas. I have not seen him for a long time. I really want to see him. I have heard that if anybody comes here, you can arrange to talk to overseas workers. How long I am going to survive. I want to talk to my son. I want to see him. I will pray for you, if you can show me my son. Then the old woman started crying. I, then, asked her not to worry about that. Let’s see how I can help you. The old woman then gave me a mobile number. I made an overseas call and after a few minutes, I linked her son over Skype. She became so happy. I had a very proud feeling about this. Finally, the lady took my mobile number and said she would contact me again to talk to her son over phone”.

Another entrepreneur from Moazzempur has a very happy feeling for helping a huge number of rural people registering for migration/overseas employment in last 2012. He says, “There were 5 people who got the final selection to go overseas and they are now passing a very happy time with their families”. The entrepreneur of Atulia UDC, in a similar context, has narrated how he got involved into and helped people to migrate to Malaysia. He states his experience in the following ways, “In 2012, we distributed leaflets and campaigned (using loud speakers) for registration for migration to Malaysia under the G2G programme. We were given training for doing this registration and interview. We saw huge enthusiasm among the aspirant migrants. Some of them were asked to participate in the lottery and go to Malaysia”.

The entrepreneur of Shyamnagar Sadar UDC named Abdul Rashid Nantu has a very proud feeling for helping migrant people. He states that many people come to the UDC to register for migration to Malaysia. He does the registration for many people. One of them went to Malaysia and he is now earning BDT 40,000 as salary per month. Tarek Ajij, who works for the Lama Sadar UDC, states that he has opened many Facebook, IMO, and Viber accounts for the local people of his area, especially students and people who have migrant family members. Rojina Akhter, a female entrepreneur from Islampur UDC of Cox’s Bazar, also shared similar experience. She established contact between the migrants and their families through Facebook, IMO (Middle East and Europe), Viber, Whatsapp, Kakao Talk (for Korea). People exchanged photos, arranged video conference, received remittance through mobile banking etc. She is proud to share a specific case of receiving blessings for giving a special service to an old mother (80).The mother had 3 migrant sons working abroad and she had a dream to see her sons face to face. It has been too long she had last seen her sons. She said she could not even remember their faces. With her advanced years, she fears for her longevity and she wanted to see her sons again. They cannot leave their jobs in the foreign countries, and neither can they afford to come back home for a short visit. The situation was becoming ever hopeless. No contact for a long time has made the old mother derelict. This all changed with the help of the entrepreneurs of the UDC, a laptop, an internet 68


connection and a skype account. The laptop was carried to the old woman and all of her sons contacted through video call. It was a tearful reunion which happened because of the UDC’s initiative and the entrepreneurs’ ingenuity. This resulted in a appreciative statement of a mother from Islampur of Cox’s Bazar district, “I pray for the UDC with all my heart”. A migration story of Sathkhira gives a very different outlook about the role of UDC in changing the vicious cycle of exploitation of rural young people by various migration agents and the middlemen. Remote rural areas of Sahtkhira have seen a revolutionizing effect in migration because of the UDC. The Korea worker migration provides us with a great insight into this. For millions of rural people, migration has always been a risky endeavor. People tend to lose everything in the process, end up in situation like slavery, in worse for wear habitation system, inhuman working conditions and the list goes on. However, with the help of the UDCs, migration has become easier and more systematic. The UDC helped many young people to register online for the chance to become a migrant worker. Online registration allows many young people to be chosen for going to Korea under the EMS system of employment. The results of the preliminary selection through lottery are sent to the applicants through email. These documents provide the aspirant migrant workers with a chance to go to Korea with less cost and less hassle. However, Babul (24), son of a local farmer, has a success story of going to Korea under the EPS system through online registration and processing of application from the local UDC. Spending an amount of less than BDT one lac altogether for his migration to South Korea as a factory worker, Babul’s earning is now more than BDT one lac per month. His migration to Korea has drastically changed the fate of his family.

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Chapter Five

Making and Mediating Social Change

5.1. Introduction

T

he UDCs assist citizens to access government information and services. The aim of the UDCs has been to enable “citizens to easy and cost-effective access to livelihood information and services that affect their daily lives” (UNDP, n.d.a). The UDCs have access to government forms and relevant information through a log-in system, and are equipped to assist citizens to obtain some application forms (college and university admissions, job application, passport, voter ID), filling up relevant forms and submitting them online. Especially where literacy is poor, then assistance with filling up forms and submitting necessary documents by the help of someone else is very important. The entrepreneurs of UDCs can now provide the citizens with these services (including photocopying, scanning, taking passport photograph etc.) which allow the citizens to complete the application process in one visit. UDCs are set up as public-private partnerships (PPPs) with local entrepreneurs. Apart from managing the initially provisioned space (for example a room at the UP office), equipment and training, the local entrepreneurs are responsible for operating the UDC and making it sustainable through arranging other equipment and facilities under public-private partnership model. The entrepreneurs provide three types of services: government services, e.g., birth registration, examination results, etc.; information services, e.g., health, agriculture, etc.; and commercial services, e.g., m-banking, life insurance, training, photocopy, etc. (UNDP, n.d.a). As a strategy to help UDCs achieve sustainability, the government has engaged its various entities to enable UDCs to increase their services (e.g., m-banking, agricultural extension services, insurance, etc.). The UDCs are effectively acting as platforms for other complementary services, which can have spillover effects


(bringing in more customers and raising awareness, etc.). The approach in this case is the public-private partnership. Such approach has the purpose of fulfilling the popular discourse of development; the economic growth combined with creating the political and service situations necessary for the growth. By this time, UDCs are very much present in every union of Bangladesh and the social impacts of UDCs on the local community are also very much visible in various forms. The present study clearly reflects a number of very strong impacts on the social fabrics of different regions of Bangladesh in their own geographical, social and economic contexts. The most important one is the process of developing and practicing good governance at the grassroots level.

UDCs and the Good Governance

The existence of the UDCs in different areas of Bangladesh must be seen in the context of social spaces of the community. Their social existence has social repercussion for the communities too. As the UDCs are set up in all the unions of Bangladesh of all the districts, the social impacts of UDCs are also nationwide. As this is a monitoring project taken up on behalf of the UNDP and the a2i, this project deals with purposively and randomly selected UDCs. This report has not observed the all-encompassing social impacts of the UDCs throughout the country, but has provided a well-constructed general idea about the social impacts the UDCs have brought about in the country. From our observations, the UDCs in Bangladesh have various impacts on the social fabric of the regions.

The UDCs have had a great impact in the socio-cultural phenomena of bad governance in the political plain of Bangladesh. The concept of good governance means an ideal governing system that is inevitable for political, economic, social and cultural development of a country. Ideal governing system means the ideal orientation of a state that works best to achieve self-reliance, sustainable development and social justice and the ideal functioning of government that operates most efficiently. According to UNDP, ‘Good governance, with other things, ensures participation, transparency and accountability.’ It is also effective and equitable. It promotes the rule of law. Good governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision making over the allocation of the development resources. The UNDP has identified five basic principles of good governance (UNDP 1977), which are as follows: {{Legitimacy

and Voice: All men and women should have a voice in decisionmaking either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their intention. {{Direction: Leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development.

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Making and Mediating Social Change {{Performance:

Institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders and institution produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources. {{Accountability: Decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public. {{Fairness: All men and women have opportunities for the maintenance of their well-being and legal framework should be fair and enforced impartially, particularly the laws on human rights.

The UDCs might not have achieved all the aspects of good governance, but from the data, it is clear that they are moving towards the goal at a very steady pace. Along with the PPP modality in place to help the UDC activities, we have found that the UDCs are in a pivotal position to turn the tide of governance and public service in Bangladesh. The UDCs have become a milestone in achieving easily accessible public service via the private-public participation model, which has been considered as the basic principle of the good governance identified by UNDP.

5.2. Entrepreneurs on Social Change

The entrepreneur of Atulia UDC, Rabiul Islam (25) can easily see the change in his area due to the presence of UDC. He narrates his own understanding in the following ways: “I can see the change in the area. Before UDC started, people of this area had no idea about computer. Now they are not only using computers but also using smart phones. I was the first person who brought here smart phone. I introduced computer and smart phone in this area. Even now there are many people who cannot use smart phone. They come to me. Many students from the local schools and colleges come here to get computer training. I am using 3G net work. Other people have also started doing that. I feel good when I see village students are getting interested in learning computer, using laptop and browsing internet. Is it not a massive change for a rural society?”

Rabiul Islam, entrepreneur of Atulia UDC, considers his job as social service rather than mere business, as he says:

“I am happy that I am helping the young people of my area. I help them to open email and facebook account. Many people don’t know how to operate a computer, I give them training. Many students and young people come to me to learn about using smart mobile phones. I teach them how to use facebook in the mobile phone. You see Farzana Aunti (MA), who has completed her master degree, is learning computer here. After sitting for SSC exam, many students come to my UDC to learn computing. I get more students during the last three months. More than 40 students have received computer training from my UDC. I have a dream to develop a very big computer training centre for our students”.

Abdur Rashid Nantu, an entrepreneur of Shyamnagar, Sathkhira believes that UDCs are not only providing services to the rural people but also inducing some values among the service recipients’ and service providers. Nantu says: 73

Connecting State and Citizens “The people of the society teach us value. They treat us well. They respect us. It is true that we do not get salary, yet we get chair (status). As entrepreneur, we can now attend the meetings at different levels and speak. When we walk on the road, people greet us. This is ‘love’. This is the ‘change’, what UDC has brought about in the rural society”.

Nantu (Shyamnagar, Sathkhira) says that, “After being an entrepreneur, I have learned many things about computer. Now, I can do various types of computer-related works. I think it was my right decision to be an entrepreneur. I love my job. I don’t want to change my job. I am happy that I am working with my own people”. He further says: “I am very happy with my present situation. I gained a lot after joining here. Initially, I had a very low earning but I managed to survive, as I had no financial pressure from my family. Now, I have good earning and I am bearing the educational expenses of my two brothers. My family and relatives, all like my job. I feel I am a successful entrepreneur. I got 1st prize for developing the UDC web portal. Before becoming an entrepreneur, nobody knew me as I was very introvert. Nevertheless, after joining the UDC many people started to know me. I think, by this time, every single people of this village know my name. They put me in a good book”.

Tofail Ahamed (Moazzempur, Nandail): “I not only give service from my UDC but also visit different educational institutions of the area for publicizing my UDC. Everyday I receive 40-50 phone calls. People call me to know about UDC services. They give me call to solve their computer and mobile related problems. I am happy that I am serving my village people”. In another instance, Md. Jahangir Alam of Achargaon, Nandail says, “I am happy that I am an entrepreneur. I am not only working as an entrepreneur, I am also serving my people. I feel proud for that. People from all the corners treat me very well. I attend various meetings at different level of administration. I keep my UDC open for 7 days not for doing business only but also to give services to my people, who are I am mostly the farmers”. Anwar Sadat Ripon, an entrepreneur of satisfied with Patikapara UDC (Hatibandha Upazila, Sathkhira) my job... I very proudly states: “I have received best entrepreneur award in the year 2015. I believe that I am can involve placed well as a digital soldier. Most of the people myself in think that I am a computer expert. Everybody respect me. They believe I am more expert than various social another computer operators as I can do a wide range of work.” He further says; activities of

“

“We don’t get salary from the government. Many people don’t accept it or don’t like it. Some people take it negatively. They think it is better to get another job where I can get some salary. I am using various

74

this area.”

Making and Mediating Social Change technologies. My children will be more expert in using technology than me. Young children are using laptop. They know about modem, printer, router etc. I am satisfied with my job as from the UDC I can involve myself in various social activities of this area.”

There have been growing dissatisfaction among some of the entrepreneurs as well. They blamed that many of chairmen and members’ attitude is still not positive. Tofayel Ahmed (24), an entrepreneur of Moazzempur UDC in Nandail states, “I feel both good and bad working at the UDC. Sometimes political leaders, Chairman, and their relatives scold me for taking fees and sometimes attempt to assault me. The UP members, who know nothing, often use very irrational words and misbehave with us on various issues. Even, in many occasions the chairman and members do not want to pay for their work”.

5.3. Service Recipients on Social Change

The study findings reveal that the UDC has a significant impact on the rural society of Bangladesh. Many of the UDC service recipients believe that UDC has thrown a challenge to the century old traditional public service delivery system in the rural area of Bangladesh. UDC has taken various modern and technical services from urban to rural societies. They say: “Now we are not only getting public services from the UDCs but also getting various private services”. They think: “UDC as one stop service centre at the Union level has brought a revolutionary change in our remote rural areas”. Due to introduction of UDCs in the rural and remote rural areas, people are now digitally connected with the global communities. Village has now transformed into ‘global village’. Rural people can now get more than 100 services at their doorstep, what was unthinkable even just couple of years ago. Mizanur Rahman, a school teacher of Dharmer Now we Char of Islampur Union in Cox’s Bazar expresses his happiness in the following ways: are not only

“

“I specially thank Sajeeb Wazed Joy for taking initiative to establish UDCs in every union of Bangladesh. It is a revolution. It is one of the great successes of the government. We the people of Islampur are now getting many benefits from the UDC. Now a day, we don’t need to spend long time for getting services from the UP, what we needed in the past. The present entrepreneur of our UDC Rojina Akhter is very good and experienced. Local people are very happy with her service”.

Mohammad Sadek, a Community Clinic Facilitator and service recipient of Islampur UDC of Cox’s Bazar, has expressed his satisfaction in 75

getting public services from the UDCs but also getting various private services”


the following words, “after joining here, I went to UDC for various purposes. Report writing, email, and scan, all I do at the UDC. If there is no UDC here, I have to go to Cox’s Bazar. I go to UDC for my job application too”. Another UDC Service recipient named Jahangir Alam (30), a carpenter of Dhargaon village of Achargaon Union has of the following opinion about the UDC and its entrepreneur, “We are the rural people, we can’t understand everything. If we come to him for any service, he explains to us, he does our job. UDC has made services easier. Whenever we come to him, tell him our name and address, he starts doing our work. If UDC does not work, we have to again run after members and choukidars (guards)”.

Although some of the service recipients complained about high fees and charges for different services, yet Umme Habiba (23) of Achagaon UDC, holds different opinion on this issues, as she says, “I am a student of national university. I go to the UDC for doing my computer works, preparing and sending my job applications. If I want to do these works in other shops, they charged me more. UDC charges less than other shops and it gives less hassels”. UDC has diversified impacts on the rural society. It has not only reduced the people’s hassels only, but also reduced the time, cost and visits for receiving services from the union council. Bishawnath Baidya (40), a carpenter of Shyamnagar Union gives his comment in the following way, “I always come to the UDC. Today I have come here to get an inheritance certificate. I’ll get it here quickly. Nevertheless, in the past, we had to go to Union Parishad many times and spend so much money. We had lots of sufferings. Now it has become very easy. You see, I am getting it here in one day. Thus, I am saving money and time”.

Humayun Kabir, one of the residents of Faitong union, expressed his compliment about the entrepreneur and the UDC services. According to him, the entrepreneur serves him with priority. He says, “in the past, to do these types of work, we had to spend 40taka just to go to Baniachora. Now I can walk to the UDC from my residence and I can save both my money and time”. He also believes: “UDC can now run without government support. Because by this time, the UDC has become very popular among the local people and these people will defiPeople are nitely come to the UDC to do their works”. now willing While there are some complaints about the fees, the UDC charges, to the service recipients, to pay for an entrepreneur of Moazzempur (Nandail) named the quality of Tofail Ahamed has shared a very different experience from his real life. He says, “one day a person services they came to my UDC to send an Email. He would cost 300-400 taka, if he had to go to Nandail. I helped receive.” him to send that email from my UDC. I was supposed to charge 20tk for that, but he gave me

“

76

Making and Mediating Social Change

300tk. He was very happy with me for sending his email so easily”. However, the entrepreneur of Achargaon UDC, Md. Jahangir believes that if UDC can provide good services, it will have good impacts on the society. According to him, the rural people are now willing to pay for the quality of services they receive. He goes on, “Now a day’s people want to get more service from the UDC. In the past, people had to run after police, member, chairman, secretary for 4/5 days for a birth certificate. Now they can have this in one day from the UDC. Sometimes, people give us more money than the set price. Sometimes, I get Tk. 150-200 extra from the customer. I believe it is because of their satisfaction.”

In most cases, people are happy with the fees the UDC charge for services. However, some people still think that UDC should not charge any fees for services. They think it is government’s centre and it should be free. While many other people think that UDCs save their money and time and reduce their sufferings. There are some people who are even ready to pay more than the other shops, if they get good services. There are many service recipients in the country, who are very happy to stand beside the entrepreneurs because of receiving good services from the UDCs and the entrepreneurs.

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Chapter Six

Citizen’s Evaluation and Satisfaction of Digital Services

6.1. Introduction

I

t is mentioned earlier that the UDCs have been running in almost every Union Parishad of Bangladesh since 2010. It has started with an objective of quick delivery of public services to the rural people. Nevertheless, by now, many of the UDCs have been quite successful in delivering with various private services too. The private service delivery from the UDCs has been initiated by a2i under “Public-Private Partnership” model to encourage entrepreneurs’ ownership in UDCs. Due to investment of both the government and entrepreneur in UDCs, many of the UDCs have now emerged as “one stop service delivery centre” at the grassroots level. There are many UDCs, which now provide either more public services than the private services. A citizen’s evaluation and satisfaction survey has been conducted among 200 randomly selected service recipients (exit-poll) of 10 UDCs (high, medium and low performance UDCs on the basis of monthly income) in 5 upazilas of 5 districts located in 5 ecologically diversified divisions.

UDCs have also been selected from small urban, rural and remote rural areas to see the variations in terms of extension of both public and private services. The citizen’s evaluation and satisfaction survey (using the scale) on the agreement and disagreement regarding various aspects of services primarily reveals that UDCs have very significant impacts on the rural societies of Bangladesh. The overall agreement (strong and moderate) about the socio-economic impacts of UDCs is more than 90%, while there is a significant disagreement (45%) (strong, moderate disagree and unsure) about the sustainability of UDCs, if certain issues are not duly addressed. The citizen’s evaluation and satisfaction survey primarily looked at the following issues: (1) Relevance of


UDC Services; (2) Effectiveness of UDC Services; (3) Efficiency of UDC Service Providers; (4) Impacts of UDC Services; (5) Sustainability of UDCs; and (6) Satisfaction about the UDC Services. Based on survey findings, a brief analysis of each of the above-mentioned issues has been given below.

6.2. Relevance

The evaluation and satisfaction survey findings show that the UDC services are highly relevant to the individual, village and the community and the country’s development needs. Majority of the respondents (98%) have agreed that the UDC services are relevant to their present needs. There is not a single disagreement about the relevance of UDC services to the needs of the individual. Though there is only 4 respondents who are not sure about the relevance of UDC services to their needs. 96% of the respondents have the opinion that the UDC services are relevant to their future needs and relevant to the needs of the villagers and communities, while 98% of the respondents have agreed that UDC services are very relevant to the needs of the development of the country (See Graph– 6.1).

6.3. Effectiveness The evaluation and satisfaction of the survey gives a very clear idea regarding the effectiveness of UDC services in terms of quality, charges, time, skills and the helping mentality of the service providers. The findings show that there is a significant agreement about service quality (more than 90%), service charges (more than 80%), time for receiving services (more than 80%), skill of service providers (more than 85%), helping mentality of the service providers (more than 90%) and waiting time for receiving services (more than 85%).

Even with a very insignificant disagreement, the disagreement is comparatively higher in the case of charge for services (17%), waiting time for receiving Graph– 6.1: Relevance of Services.

80

Citizen’s Evaluation and Satisfaction of Digital Services Graph– 6.2: Effectiveness of Services.

services (12%) and the regular time required for services (15.5%). The overall findings show that the UDC services are very effective. About 90% of the respondents are happy with service quality, charges, time, skill and helping mentality of the UDC entrepreneur (See Graph– 6.2).

6.4. Efficiencies A majority of the respondents (more than 80%) have agreed that the waiting time and cost for UDC services are significantly lower than the earlier times. However, compared to these two areas, the agreements for the case of unnecessary bureaucratic hassles and sufferings, management structure and its staff appropriateness in relation to their activities and the facilitation of the implementation of UDC activities by the local people and Graph– 6.3: Efficiency of UDC Services.

81


Graph– 6.4: Impacts of UDC Services.

the administration are quite less. More than 25% of the respondents for each of these cases have the some concerns. They strongly disagreed, moderately disagreed or are unsure (See Graph– 6.3).

6.5. Impacts The citizen’s evaluation survey findings clearly show that UDC has a very positive impact in improving the lives and living standards, and livelihoods. UDCs save time and financial resources of the rural people. More than 90% of the service recipients agreed on these issues. But a significant number of recipients have concerns or disagreements about the role of UDCs in raising awareness among the local people (20%) and helping women, differently able (PWD) people and other vulnerable groups (30%) (See Graph– 6.4). Graph– 6.5: Sustainability of the UDC Services.

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Citizen’s Evaluation and Satisfaction of Digital Services

6.6. Sustainability of UDC

A majority (more than 90%) of the service recipients agree that UDC activities will contribute to the long-term development of the society and the local people will get long-term benefits by receiving services from UDCs. However, quite a significant percentage of citizens are really concerned about the sustainability of UDCs without government and external supports. 59% of the respondents (strongly disagree, moderately disagree or unsure) think that UDC will not be able to exist without the government and outside supports. More than 75% of the respondents have the opinion that UDC does not let the local people or the communities know about their future activities and planning. A majority of the respondents (more than 80%) also have disagreements about taking suggestions of community people into account in setting up UDC, planning and decision-making (See Graph– 6.5).

6.7. Citizen’s Satisfaction on UDC Services

A majority of the UDC service recipients (about 90%) are happy with the assistive behavior, helping attitude and attentive hearing of the UDC management staffs. Nevertheless, there is still a little dissatisfaction about waiting hours for UDC services (about 12%). The service recipients have more dissatisfaction about getting appointment for next visit (18%), getting proper explanation of their problems (16%), issuing papers/documents by the entrepreneurs (32%), response time to fulfill service requirements (26%) and unnecessary bureaucratic hassles and sufferings (42%) (See Graph– 6.6). In summary, we can say that UDCs have a very positive socio-economic impact on the rural society of Bangladesh. From the opinion of the service recipients, it has become clear that UDC services are very relevant to the needs of the people, community and the country’s development. It has significant impacts in the improvement of lives and livelihoods of the rural people. Graph– 6.6: Citizens’ Satisfaction on UDC Services.

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Chapter Seven

Conclusion

7.1. Overview and Findings

E

-Governance lies at the interface between two major global shifts: the information revolution and the governance revolution. These two revolutions separately, have changed the way societies are functioning and the ways societies are governed significantly (Heeks, 2001). The present research provides simple yet critical findings that despite some limitations; the e-governance initiatives through UDCs have demonstrated clear and laudable benefits to both citizens and government officials. It has the potential to reduce time, cost and visit for delivering services at grassroots level. In many UDCs, the service delivery modes have been significantly improved, gradually becoming hassle free and immune from the reign of intermediaries. Many of the UDCs are now equipped with various need-based modern digital devices and equipment like computers, laptops, laser and color printers, projectors, modems, digital cameras, scanners, IPS, UPS and Photocopy machines, solar panels, and others. In the wake of the massive expansion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based on service delivery activities, the working capacity of the entrepreneurs has also been largely enhanced. Besides the success stories cited above, digital services and e-governance initiatives in Bangladesh through the UDC are encountering challenges related to a lack of e-readiness infrastructure. This is one of the main barriers to achieve the functioning of the e-governance initiative through UDC as well as implement the growing expectations of the citizens. The great expectation among citizens is that the UDC would promote e-governance at the frontline, which requires many backend administrative reforms. However, lack of e-readiness can contribute to both lack of and failure of e-governance initiatives. Several generic areas have been identified for assessing the strategic preparedness for


Figure– 7.1: Challenges of e-Governance and e-Service Delivery.

Source: Modified and Adopted from Heeks 2001.

e-governance in Bangladesh (see Figure– 7.1). A number of limitations have been identified to take necessary steps for upgrading the status and functions of UDCs in the future in terms of service delivery. These include: {{Bangladesh

would need to develop legal and regulatory framework to support e-governance initiative, {{Bangladesh does not have adequate data management and records keeping systems and other work procedures to facilitate the move towards e-governance. Hence, data management and record keeping systems should be improved. {{Human resource development infrastructure, especially within the public service sector, to support and sustain e-governance initiatives should be upgraded. {{There are also ‘mindset’ gaps including general resistance to change, lack of customer-orientation, resistance to data-sharing etc. (See, Heeks, 2001) {{Appropriate computing and telecommunication infrastructure in the rural areas of Bangladesh must be enhanced. {{Public awareness and interest in e-governance initiatives should be upgraded further. {{Management and skill development training for the Union Parishad members should be improved to eliminate different operational barriers for implementing the e-governance services successfully.

In the light of the aforementioned principles, the strengths and challenges of the UDCs observed during the fieldwork are shown in Table– 7.1. 86

Conclusion Table– 7.1: Strengths and Challenges of UDC performance. Strength

Challenges

{{ UDCs have turned into one-stop service

{{ The entrepreneurs are often unsure of

{{ UDCs located in the remote rural areas

{{ People working with the UDC are not

centres and information hub for the rural people.

their terms of employment and long-term employment security.

are providing relatively more services than the UDCs located in the small urban centres or Upazilas.

always clear about the goals of the UDC.

{{ The

entrepreneurs and the local government leaders are not always on good working terms.

{{ Local entrepreneurs are gaining trust.

{{ UDCs are now offering increased number

{{ The entrepreneurs are not often clear

{{ UDC

{{ The slow speed and interrupted internet

of private services at a competitive price.

about their rewards.

are gradually contributing employment opportunities in rural areas.

connection and frequent power failure are significant challenges for delivering quality services.

{{ Rural people are gradually well aware of

UDC services.

7.2. Recommendations Policy Recommendations

Policy Roadmap and Strategic Planning: A national level policy roadmap and strategic planning is required for shaping the future directions of e-service delivery in Bangladesh. This roadmap should define milestones and guidelines on the ways e-services will be delivered and provided in the future. Indications on required legal and regulatory frameworks legislative actions are essential to ensure the rights of the citizens. Stakeholder engagement both during all the stages of policy-making and implementation processes is recommended as necessary. Together with the regional and local authorities, all planning processes regarding e-service delivery need to be streamlined, in participation with all line public service delivery channels through a combination of top-down and bottom-up planning. E-service delivery should be included and cross-referenced with other national policies and wider development planning of the government. Legal and Regulatory Framework: A legal and regulatory framework needs to be in place including the relevant legislative provisions to regulate IT systems for electronic data exchange and management of IT infrastructure in rural settings. This arrangement will ensure the efficient functioning of UDC activities and of the existing systems for electronic data exchange. This will also permit all exchanges of information between beneficiaries and authorities responsible for service delivery by electronic data exchange. This will simplify administrative procedures and the development of procedures and tools for monitoring and evaluation as well. 87


Institutional Arrangements and M&E: The UDC should further consider and address sustainability aspects, including increased community ownership and financial sustainability. Different models for sustainability (e.g. establishing of FFS networks, commercialization of services and diversified income-generating activities for the UDC to become self-sustaining) and stronger collaboration and harmonization with different extension service interventions of the GoB should be explored. Programme intervention is needed to strengthen the UDCs to enhance the provisions of services in association with a wide range of government and non-government agencies by connecting the UDCs based on web platform. In addition, cooperation and co-ordination among the local government institutions would play significant role for better service delivery from the UDCs. Strengthening peer-training networks may also be considered a key element in sustainability. When the M&E framework is not properly designed or in place on time, this limits the opportunity for continuous extracting of learning and experiences from present state of public service delivery with the aim of improving the services provided. In relation to planning future a2i interventions, it is recommended to carry out assessment of experiences and best practices for designing the M&E frameworks for different service areas of the UDC. It is also required to establish a common performance monitoring system based on selected indicators. Public Accountability and Grievance Redress: Public accountability is essential to modern democratic governance and rests both on giving an account and on being held to account (Stewart 1998:132). Open, transparent and accountable governance of UDC is an imperative precondition for community-oriented public service delivery. Therefore, public accountability aspect of UDC management is important for preventing the abuse of power and ensuring the achievement of efficiency, effectiveness and transparency. Moreover, grievance redress mechanism needs to be in place for efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. The study recommends to take into account the three aspects of grievance handling: how they are received, how they are resolved, and how they are prevented. Service Delivery Capability: The study assessed the performance of UDC based on two kinds of parameters: the results achieved by UDC, and the manner in which these results have been achieved. On the broader scale, the study also focused on actions taken by a2i programme to enhance its delivery capability by strengthening the inputs that go into better delivery such as quality of strategic planning, human resources, information management, etc. related to UDC performance. However, the study recommends that a2i programme should take initiatives for better resource utilization for improved infrastructure, technology usage and human resource management for enhancing UDC performance and improving public service delivery. Existing underutilized UDCs should be taken under various skill development training programmes (beyond basic computing skills, it can be the 88

Conclusion

technical trainings, SME development training, agricultural extension training and others) in order to improve their financial viability. Various local need based training programmes can be arranged to meet the needs of the private sector in order to help improve job prospects of semi-urban and rural youths.

Programme Recommendations

A2i programme may initiate both regional and local level interventions following a decentralized and integrated approach. This focus will ensure significant impact in mobilizing limited resources and enable them to document lessons for scaling up. Most of the activities supported by a2i should be based on demands from communities and local governments. A2i programme’s further intervention may comprise different components to facilitate the achievement of UDC approach to service delivery at the local level. A2i can take further initiatives to build capacity for quality service delivery and governance of UDC as outlined below: Capacity Building and Leadership: A2i programme can initiate capacity-building programme to train local level leaders in developing plans for UDC and managing them and pulling local level plans together into regional plans. The focus should be on building communities’ capacity to take charge of their own development with specific focus on: {{Awareness

raising aimed at increasing a sense of community ownership and motivation for development e-service delivery infrastructure in rural Bangladesh. {{Information systems to facilitate identification and monitoring of problems, {{Education to improve understanding of e-service delivery and e-governance, {{Training to establish technical and critical skills, and, {{e-Service delivery to improve access to basic public services.

A2i programme may take to role of facilitator ensuring that community members can access important knowledge, information, and services as well as provide effective supports to communities to express their concerns and priorities to higher levels of development management and planning. Existing underutilized UDCs should be taken under various skill development training programmes (beyond basic computing skills, it can be the technical trainings, SME development training, agricultural extension training and others) in order to improve their financial viability. Various local need based training programmes can be arranged to meet the needs of the private sector in order to help improve job prospects of semi-urban and rural youths. Employment Services through UDC: One of the most compelling development goals in Bangladesh is poverty reduction, which can be effectively addressed through creating productive employment opportunities. E-service delivery can contribute to exiting efforts to address poverty and unemployment. A2i programme can provide online information services to job seekers and vulnerable groups, especially in rural areas of Bangladesh. A2i can also provide online 89


vocational and technical training, and develop entrepreneurial skills. However, an employment service system can be developed to provide ICT-based assessment, tracking and screening of job opportunities for the unemployed. The roles and effectiveness of UDCs have to be extended by providing more migration services such as foreign language training, safe transfer of remittance, safe migration (such as access to information on safe migration, access to database for government sanctioned recruiting agencies, database for private recruiting agencies, cautionary advertisements/ campaign about the consequences of unsafe migration, etc.). Financial Supports to UDC: Financial services are required to expand service provisions of UDC. Moreover, UDCs require finance for regular maintenance and replacement of technical equipment. Bank loan with low rate of interest can be provided so that entrepreneur can increase service provisions and make profits. Providing User-Centric Services: More need based services should be introduced in different UDCs in consultation with the local people. Services, which are in demand such as land certificates/ tax, general case diary/ complaint to police, online passport/ visa, telemedicine, online consultation with upazila doctors, agriculture information/ services from upazila, mobile banking, courier facility, pressure measuring, weight measuring, khariz application, video recording, free lancing training, national ID card correction, passport application, various banking services, payment of different government allowances, graphic designing, data entry, web designing, out sourcing and others can be introduced in more UDCs. Communication Campaigns and Awareness-Raising: This study aimed at assessing impacts of UDC and citizens’ satisfaction on e-service delivery suggest the importance of the level of trust in shaping community peoples’ use of and satisfaction e-services. A higher level of trust in the use of internet as well as in government and administration of public services increases satisfaction on e-services. Therefore, it is important for a2i programme to account the possible issues of public concerns such as data security, privacy and identity management. Moreover, the usability and perceived benefits of the provided e-services should also be communicated to people through awareness raising. A2i should pay attention to these matters by ensuring that e-services are well placed on different internet search platforms, providing targeted communication campaigns and confirming the end-user that e-services are beneficial for them in terms of time savings and user-friendliness. Grassroots level publicity needs to be done to raise awareness about how the rural poor can really harvest benefits from UDCs and e-services. Gender-Inclusive Approach: UDC can be effectively leveraged for generating women’s employment opportunities and economic empowerment. This can be done by providing and enhancing three types of e-services: (1) online provision of information on job opportunities for women beyond the limits of their local economy; (2) online skills training for female jobseekers; and 90

Conclusion

(3) online distance learning. The delivery of information services to women, in an accessible language and format, would develop enabling conditions for women’s economic empowerment. Gender equality and role of female should be enhanced. It appears that, in most of the UDCs, the position of female entrepreneurs is either empty or not well functioning. Such gender asymmetry in entrepreneur recruitment needs to be addressed to ensure effective functioning of UDC. e-Health, m-Health and Telemedicine: ICT applications offer the potential to change the health care system by empowering citizens with medical information and knowledge. e-Health and m-health, use of ICT and mobile phone in administering health care, have grown rapid popularity in many parts of the world. Telemedicine opens up the possibilities of accessing health care from distant or remote places through the use of ICT tools. Telemedicine has been successfully implemented in several developing countries, including Bhutan, Ghana, Indonesia, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and South Africa (United Nations, 2010). Capacities of ICTs and mobile phones are rapidly expanding to extend unprecedented opportunities to improve the health of people living in underserved remote areas lacking adequate health care facilities or medical staffs. UDC can be the most efficient and effective way to reach out to the wider population in rural areas of Bangladesh with health care services.

91

References

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96

Appendices

Appendix– 01: Glossary Term

Definition

Access

Assesses how easily the community can obtain a delivered service (output).

Appropriateness

Assesses how well services meet client needs and also seeks to identify the extent of any underservicing or overservicing.

Cost Effectiveness Assesses how well inputs are converted into outcomes for individual clients or the community. Cost effectiveness is expressed as a ratio of inputs to outcomes. Descriptors

Descriptive statistics including the size of the service system, funding arrangements and the environment within which government services are delivered.

Effectiveness

Reflects how well the outputs of a service achieve the stated objectives of that service (also see program effectiveness).

Efficiency

Reflects how resources (inputs) are used to produce outputs and outcomes, expressed as a ratio of outputs to inputs (technical efficiency), or inputs to outcomes (cost effectiveness).

Equity

Assesses the gap between service delivery outputs or outcomes for special needs groups and the general population. Equity of access relates to all citizens having adequate access to services, where the term adequate may mean different rates of access (depending on need) for different groups in the community.

Inputs

The resources (including land, labor and capital) used by a service area in providing the service.

Output

The service delivered by a service area, for example, a completed episode of care is an output of a public hospital.

Connecting State and Citizens Term

Definition

Outcome

The impact of the service on the status of individuals or a group, and the success of the service area in achieving its high-level objectives. A service provider can influence an outcome but external factors can also apply.

Process

Refers to the way in which a service is produced or delivered (that is, how inputs are transformed into outputs).

Program effectiveness

Reflects how well the outcomes of a service achieve the stated objectives of that service (also see effectiveness).

Quality

Reflects the extent to which a service is suited to its purpose and conforms to specifications.

Technical efficiency

A measure of how well inputs are converted into service outputs. Technical efficiency reflects the ratio of outputs to inputs. It is affected by the size of operations and by managerial practices. There is scope to improve technical efficiency if there is potential to increase the quantity of outputs produced from given quantities of inputs, or if there is potential to reduce the quantities of inputs used in producing a certain quantity of outputs. (Source: Modified and adopted from SCRGSP, 2018)

98

Appendices

Appendix– 02: List of UDC Services Government Services 1. Birth Registration in online

2. Writing reports according to the 3. Providing health services needs of the Chairman through Upazila Health Complex

4. Online Application for Porcha

5. Online registration for abroad going workers

6. e-Purji service

7. Online application for passport

8. e- Ticketing (Air)

9. Stamp sales service

10. Passport fee payment

11. e- Ticketing (Train)

12. Sale of public notice

13. Electricity bill payment

14. Receiving holding tax

15. Logistics support in various government organizations

16. Online application for electricity 17. Online driving license meter application

18. Online application tax identification number

19. Data entry (BBS)

20. Online driving license renewal application

21. Updating old voter list

22. Computer training under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board

23. Life Insurance

24. Providing various public information from service portal

25. Agricultural Information service

26. Online application for bond sale 27. Application for pension (Social Welfare Department)

28. Citizen charter application

29. Online application for tender

30. Preparing certification

31. Heirs charter application

32. Online application for teacher’s pension

33. Postal Cash Card allowances (Department of Social Services)

34. Character charter application

35. Online application for teacher’s assistance trust fund

36. A variety of legal services

37. Tele medicine-Skype

Non- Government Services 38. Online visa application

39. Electronic and Electrical Product Sailing Services

40. Mobile ringtone download

41. Visa checking

42. Online fashion, gift item sales service

43. Video conference

44. Computer compose

45. Essentials product sales service in online

46. Photography

47. Printing

48. Online sale of local products

49. Video Recording service

50. Scanning

51. Older products purchased online services

52. Video Editing service

53. Photocopy

54. Older products purchased online services

55. Service through Service Camp

56. Laminating

57. Online Ad Management Services 58. Service from National Tothyou Online CV management service Kosh

59. Mobile banking service

60. Online promotional service

99

61. Fisheries information service

Connecting State and Citizens 62. E- mail

63. Product shipment service (Curier)

64. Livestock service

65. Internet browsing

66. Product delivery service (Courier)

67. Computer sales service

68. Computer training service

69. Utility bill payment service (Agent banking)

70. Computer hardware sales

71. Rent of multimedia projector

72. Account opening (Agent banking)

73. Land / mobile phone calls

74. Online job application

75. Saving and withdrawal of cash (Agent banking)

76. Sales of mobile SIM

77. Mobile servicing

78. Application for different kinds of loan (Agent banking)

79. Learning English Under the British Council

80. Computer servicing

81. Opening DPS Account (Agent banking)

82. Telemedicine (Ayesha Memorial)

83. Product purchase in online

84. Application and Payment (Agent banking)

85. SMS based maternal health advisory service

86. Product sale in online

87. Distribution of remittances sent 88. School, College and University from abroad (Agent banking) Admission

89. e- ticketing (Bus service)

90. Receiving clearing check (Agent 91. Various exam results banking)

92. Application for different types of loan

93. Apply for credit and debit card (Agent banking)

94. Outsourcing

95. Developing database for govt. school

96. Easily transferring money to another bank account (EFTN)

97. Receiving of Application for internet banking Fund transfer

98. Preparing ID card

99. Flexiload

100

Appendices

Appendix– 03: Services Provided by the UDCs under Study. UDC

Equipment

Provided Services Government Services

Non-Government Services

Faytong

2 laptops, a printer, one scanner, one solar panel, one multimedia projector (due to an altercation outside the UDC by thugs, apart from a laptop all other equipment were destroyed)

1. Various government forms 2. Result of public examinations 3. Applying universities via online 4. Birth-death certificates 5. Citizen certificate 6. VGD list

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

Mobile banking Computer training Photo Internet browsing Email Job information Visa application and tracking Video Conference Renting projector Print Scanning Photocopy Flexiload Phone call Mobile charging Memory Load Selling Cosmetics Selling stationaries Selling computer parts Selling mobile phones Selling Memory Cards Selling Mobile parts

Lama

1 laptop, 1 desktop, 1 modem, 1 printer and an out of order photocopier.

1. Birth and death Registration 2. Citizen Certificates 3. Inheritance application 4. Labor registration for migration

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Photocopy Computer compose Scanning Computer training Email Internet browsing Data entry Rent Multimedia projector Online job application

Khanjapur

1 PC, 1 Printer, 1 photocopy

1. Inheritance 2. Birth Certificate

3. Photocopy 4. Printing

Sayestabad

1 computer, 1 1. Birth Certificate Printer, Camera, 1 2. Citizen Certificate scanner 3. Inheritance Certificate

4. Computer Compose 5. Photo

Noudabas

1 desktop, 1 modem, 1 scanner and 1 printer

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Online registration Visa Checking Citizen Charter Inheritance Certificate Citizen certificate Passport application Birth Certificate Agricultural Info. VGD/VGF list

101

Print Photocopy Scan Photo Facebook Exam Results Email Internet browsing Compose Renting multimedia projector


UDC

Equipment

Patikapara

1 desktop, 1 citicell modem, 1 IPS

Provided Services Government Services 1.

Birth & Death Registration Citizen Certificate Inheritance Application Labor Registration VGD/VGF listing

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Photocopy Computer Compose Scanning Computer training service Email Internet browsing Rent Multimedia Projector Online Job application Visa checking Photography Print

1. Birth and death registration 2. Land Porcha Citizen Certificate 3. Electric (Pollibitdyut) Bill Payment 4. Agricultural Information service 5. Citizen Application 6. Inheritance Application. 7. Character Certificate 8. Report writing demanded by up chairman. 9. Computer training under technical board 10. E-Tender Submission 11. Different legal aid 12. Telemedicine skype. 13. Providing medical service by upazilla health complex. 14. Stamp Selling service 15. Logistic support of different government organization. 16. Id card preparing of government school 17. Different Government information from Service portal.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Photocopy Computer compose Scanning Lamination Mobile banking (bKash) Computer Training service E-mail Internet Browsing. Data Entry Rent Multimedia Projector Online Job Application Computer Servicing Online CV Management Visa Checking Video Conference Application for electric meter Updating Voting Information Photography Video recording service Video editing service Print

2. 3. 4. 5.

Achargaon

1 laptop, printer, camera

Non-Government Services

102

Appendices

UDC Muazzempur

Equipment 1 laptop, 2 printers, 1 photocopy machine, 1 out of order computer

Provided Services Government Services 1. Birth and death registration 2. Land Porcha (RS) 3. Passport Application 4. Citizen Certificate 5. Electricity (Pollibiddut) Bill Payment 6. Agriculture information Service 7. Citizen Application. 8. Inheritance Application. 9. Character Certificate. 10. Report writing demanded by up Chairman. 11. Labor Registration for migration 12. Receiving holding taxes. 13. Life insurance (Jibon Bima Corporation) 14. Online application of teacher education trust. 15. Different legal aid 16. Telemedicine, skype 17. Providing medical service by upazila health complex. 18. Logistic support of different government organization. 19. Online TIN Application. 20. Preparing database for JSC Student. 21. Different government information from service portal. 22. VGD/VGF Listing

103

Non-Government Services 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

Photocopy Compose Scanning lamination Mobile Banking (Bkash, DBBL) Computer Training Service E-mail Internet browsing Data Entry Online Job Application Mobile set Servicing computer servicing online product purchasing Online Product selling Electronic and electrical Product selling service Online fashion, gift item selling service Online CV Management service. Pischiculture information service Visa Checking Video Conference Application for electric mater Updating voting information Photography Video Reading service Video editing service Solar Power selling Print.


UDC Atulia

Equipment

Provided Services Government Services

1 photocopy 1. Birth and death machine, 2 registration active printers. 2. Citizen Certificate 2 computers, 1 3. Agricultural laptop, 1 projector information services 4. Citizen Application 5. Inheritance Application 6. Character Certificate 7. Computer training 8. Labor Registration for migration 9. Life Insurance (JibonBima Corporation) 10. Pension Application for retired Teacher 11. Online Application of teacher education trust 12. Providing medical service by Upazila health complex 13. Preparing data base for JSC Student 14. ID card preparing of government school. 15. Fertilizer Service. 16. Different government information from service portal. 17. VGD/VGF Listing

104

Non-Government Services 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

Photocopy Computer Compose Scanning Lamination Mobile Banking (bKash) E-mail Internet Browsing Data Entry Rent Multimedia Projector Online job Application Online Management Service Online cv Management Service Visa Checking. Video Conference Application for electric Meter Photography Video Editing Service Print

Appendices

UDC Shyamnagar

Equipment 1 laptop, 2 computers, 2 printers (1 black and white, one color), 1 projector

Provided Services Government Services 1. Birth and Death Registration 2. Land porcha 3. Pasport Application 4. Pasport fee 5. Citizen certificate 6. Agricultural Information Serviec 7. Citizen Application 8. Inheritance application 9. Character certificate 10. 10.Report Writing demanded by up Chairman 11. Labor Registration 12. 12.Pension application for retired teacher 13. Different legal aid 14. Tele medicine skype 15. Providing medical service by Upazilla Health Complex 16. Logistic support of different Government Organization 17. Online tin Application 18. Preparing data base for J.S.C Student 19. VGD/VGF Listing 20. 20. Different Government Information from service Portal

105

Non-Government Services 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Computer compose Scan Email Internet browsing Visa Data entry Multimedia Projector rensting Online job application Visa Checking Print Video Conference Photography Application for Electric Meter Updating the voter info.


Appendix– 04: Data Tables. Table: Occupational Background of the Respondents. Occupational Categories

Occupation

Number

%

Business

Businessman, Entrepreneur, Former Entrepreneur

42

21

Wage Earners

Carpenter, Cobbler, Daily Laborer, Driver, Mason

18

9

Private Service

Journalist, NGO Worker, Private Service

15

7.5

Teacher

College/school/computer

20

10

Students

School, College, Technical

30

15.0

Local Govt. /Leader

UP Chairman/ member/ secretary, Village Leader

14

7

Farmer

Agro-Based Wage Earners, Farmers from different class

36

18

Unemployed

5

2.5

Government Service Govt. Service

4

2.0

Others

16

8

200

100%

Doctor, Housewife, Migrant Worker, Imam

Total

106

Index

A Access 1, 2, 7, 8, 14, 19, 28, 62, 93– 96 Affordability 14 Overall access 14 Timeliness of access 14 Access to Information 1, 2, 7, 8, 19, 28, 62, 93– 95. See also a2i Accountability 10, 26, 73, 88, 94 Accountability and Monitoring 26 Achargaon 15, 16, 32, 37, 38, 41– 43, 51, 52, 74, 76, 77 Affordability 14 Al-Khatib, H. 10, 93 Allocative efficiency 14 Al-Sebie, M. 5, 94 Andersen, K. V. 10, 93 Appropriateness 14 Arah, O. A. 11, 93 Asbroek, A. H. A. 11, 93 Assistant Programme Officer 30 Atulia 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 68, 73 Awareness-Raising 90

B Backus, M. 6, 93 Bakshi, R. K. 4, 93 Bandarban 15, 16, 32, 35, 45, 56, 63 Bangladesh ii, 1– 5, 7, 8, 11, 19, 20, 22– 24, 28, 29, 34, 49, 50, 54– 56, 58, 60– 62, 64, 72, 73, 75, 79, 83, 85, 86, 93– 96

Bangladesh Civil Service 24 Bangladesh Computer Council 23, 24, 29. See also BCC Banglalink 29 Baniachori 35 Barisal 15, 16, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 45, 46, 55, 61, 65 Shayestabad 15, 16, 32, 43 BCC 23, 29 Beneficiaries 20, 29, 53, 87 Besley, Y. 3, 93 Birth certificate 43, 44, 50– 52, 63, 64, 77 Boyne, G. A. 11, 94 BRAC 20, 22, 24, 56, 93, 95 British Council 29, 66 British tradition 3 Bureaucratic processes 1 Burkha 45 Business Security 46

C Cabinet Division 21, 29 Capability 88 Capacity Building 89 Case studies 11, 14, 16 Chittagong 15, 31, 32, 35, 65 Citizen 79, 93, 95 Citizens 1– 10, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 31, 44, 50, 62, 66, 71, 83, 85

Index Ciurea, C. 10, 95 Cluster sampling 15 Coate 3, 93 Colonial legacy 3 Computer literacy 20, 23, 54, 56 Conceicao, P. 3, 95 Conceptual framework 11 Cox’s Bazar 15, 45, 46, 53, 54, 59, 60, 62, 67– 69, 75, 76

e-Service 1, 8, 9, 11 e-Service Window 25 e-Sheba 28, 54 e-Society 7 Esty, D. C. 4, 94

F Facebook 44, 57, 60, 62, 67, 68 Fairness 73 Faitong 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 41– 45, 56, 76 Focus group discussion. See FGD

D Data collection 11, 14, 29 Data Collection 15 Data entry 17, 57, 90 Data Processing 17 Decentralization 10, 20 Delnoij, D. M. J. 11, 93 Denhardt, R. B. 3, 94 Developing countries 1, 4, 94 Development 5, 6, 21, 30, 93– 96 Dhaka 15, 27, 31, 32, 35, 64, 65, 93– 95 Digital photography 20 Di Maio, A. 5, 93 Doinea, M. 10, 95 Domains of performance 12, 13 Duclos, J. Y. 13, 94 Dutch Bangla 29 Dynamic efficiency 14

G Gasco, J. L. 10, 94 Gender divide 20 Gender-Inclusive Approach 90 Good Governance 4, 72, 95 Gouranadi 15, 16, 32 Khanjapur 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 54, 55, 57 Government of Bangladesh 1, 2 Grievance Redress 88 Grindle, M. S. 4, 94 Gustafsson, P. E. 13, 96

H Haque, M. S. 4, 94 Hasan, S. 4, 94 Hatibanda 34 Nowdabas 34, 37, 42, 43, 57 Heeks, R. 6, 7, 85, 86, 94 Henriksen 10, 93 High Performance 15 Hood, C. 3, 94 Horizontal equity 13 Human resources 1, 24

E e-Administration 7 Economy–Efficiency–Effectiveness 12 Effectiveness 6, 12, 14, 80, 81 Access 1, 2, 7, 8, 14, 19, 28, 62, 93– 96 Appropriateness 14 Quality 14, 93 Effectiveness assessment 14 Efficiency 5– 7, 9, 10, 12– 14, 59, 88 Allocative efficiency 14 Dynamic efficiency 14 Technical (or productive) efficiency 14 e-Governance 1– 8, 22, 85, 86, 93– 95 e-Health 91 Elliman, T. 5, 94 Entrepreneur 20, 23, 25– 28, 32, 35, 39, 41– 47, 50– 62, 67, 68, 73– 77, 79, 81, 90, 91 Equipments and Services 37 Equity 13 Horizontal equity 13 Vertical equity 13, 14

I ICT 1, 3– 8, 24, 25, 29, 30, 62, 65, 85, 95 ICT infrastructure 4, 8 Information, Communication and Technology 1. See also ICT Inputs 12, 13, 88 Inputs–Outputs–Outcomes 12 Institutional Architecture 24 Intermediaries 1, 22, 28, 64, 85 International journals 14 International Migration 49, 64

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Index Internet browsing 44, 66 Internet connectivity 20 Irani, Z. 5, 94 Islampur 15, 45, 46, 59, 67– 69, 75 Ivan, I. 10, 95

Lodge, M. 3, 94 London, C. S. 6, 95 Low Performance 15

J

Malaysia 27, 45, 55, 64, 65, 67, 68 M&E 88 Medium Performance 15 M&E framework 88 Mercantile 29 m-Health 91 Migrant worker 69 Minges, M. 8, 95 Mobile banking 20, 22, 24, 40, 66, 68, 90 Mode of service delivery 2 Molina, H. 10, 94 Monitoring structure 25 Monthly Pay Orders 27. See also MPO Moon, M. J. 2, 4, 95 Muazzempur 32, 33, 37– 42, 50, 52, 64 Mymensing 31 Nandail 15, 16, 32, 38– 41, 51, 52, 64, 74– 76

M

Jahan, F. 9, 95 Jibon Bima 29 JSC 44

K Karokola, G. 5, 95 Kaul, I. 3, 95 Khanjapur 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 54, 55, 57 Khelpatua 34 Khulna 15, 31, 32, 35, 65 Satkhira Shyamnagar 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 47, 56, 64, 67, 68, 73, 76 Atulia 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 68, 73 Klazinga, N. S. 11, 93 Koziol, M. 3, 94

N Nandail 15, 16, 32, 38– 41, 51, 52, 64, 74– 76 Narrative analysis 16 Narrative method 16 Narsunda River 32 NGO 25 Nowdabas 34, 37, 42, 43, 57 Nowdabash 15, 16, 32, 43, 44, 57 Ntiro, S. 7, 95

L Labor Migration 67 Lalmornirhat 15, 16, 32 Hatibanda Patikapara 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 57, 74 Lama 15, 16, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 41– 43, 45, 56, 63, 67, 68 Leadership 89 Leftwich, A. 9, 95 Legal and Regulatory Framework 87 Le Goulven, K. 3, 95 Level of participation 16 Level of satisfaction 16 LGD 24, 26 Likert Scale 16 Livelihood strategies 15 Llopis, J. 10, 94 Local government 2, 5, 8, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 54, 59, 87, 88 Local Government Division 2, 8, 19, 23, 24, 29. See also LGD

O Okot-Uma, R. W. O. 6, 95 Online registration 20, 25, 64, 66, 69 Ordinal data 16, 17 Outputs 6, 9, 12– 14 Overall access 14

P Patikapara 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 57, 74 Performance assessment 11, 12 High Performance 15 Low Performance 15 Medium Performance 15

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Index PMO 21, 22, 24 Policy Roadmap 87 PPP 8, 22, 28, 51, 52, 62, 66, 73, 95 Prime Minister’s Office 2, 7, 19, 20, 24, 93. See also PMO Productivity 7, 14 Psychometric response 16 Public Accountability 88 Public institutions 1 Public-private-partnership 22. See also PPP Public service 1, 8, 9, 19, 44, 49, 50, 61, 73, 75, 86, 94 Public service delivery 1, 8, 9, 16, 19, 49, 75, 87, 88, 94 Public service delivery systems 1, 8, 49 Purdah 45

Satkhira 15, 16, 32, 34, 64 Shaymnagar Atulia 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 68, 73 Shyamnagar 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 47, 56, 64, 67, 68, 73, 76 Saxena, K. 6, 95 SCRGSP 11, 12, 13, 14, 95 Semi-structured interviews 14. See also SSI Service delivery 1– 9, 11, 19, 20, 22– 26, 28, 30, 31, 49, 62, 65, 75, 79, 85, 86, 94 Service delivery system 1– 3, 9, 19, 22, 75 Shalish 22 Sharma, S. S. 5, 95 Shayestabad 15, 16, 32, 43 Shaymnagar 34 Atulia 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 68, 73 Shyamnagar 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 47, 56, 64, 67, 68, 73, 76 SME 89 Social audit 11, 12 Social Change 71, 73, 75 Social impacts 11, 49, 72 Socio-political environment 11 Solar panel 29 Sonali Bank 32 SPSS 17 Srinivasan 3, 94 SSC 44, 55, 57, 73 Stakeholder 7 Stewart, J. 88 Strategic Planning 87 Strategic plans 1 Structured questionnaire 15 Study Area 14 Sundarbans 34 Sustainability 80, 82, 83, 93

Q Qualitative data 15 Quality 14, 93 Quality of services 2, 6, 9, 39 Questionnaires 15, 16

R Rahman, S. M. A. 4, 53, 56, 75, 93, 95 Raihan, A. 8, 95 Raina, R. 8, 95 Rangpur 15, 31, 32, 35, 65 Lalmornirhat Hatibanda Nowdabash 15, 16, 32, 43, 44, 57 Patikapara 15, 16, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42, 43, 57, 74 Rawls, J. 13, 95 Regulatory Framework 87 Reliability 14 Representativeness 14 Respondent 16, 35– 37 Review of secondary data 14 Rhodes, R. A. W. 3, 95

T TCV 62, 63 Technical (or productive) efficiency 14 Telecommunication 29, 86 Telemedicine 91 Time, Cost and Visits 62. See also TCV Timeliness of access 14 Training programme 57 Transaction cost 1

S Salam, M. A. 3, 4, 95 Samdani, G. 8, 95 Sample population 17 San Sebastián, M. 13, 96 SARC 6, 95 Satisfaction 46, 79, 80, 83

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Index

U

V

UDC 7– 9, 14– 16, 20– 28, 30, 32– 36, 38– 47, 49, 50– 69, 71, 73– 77, 80– 83, 85, 87, 93, 95 UDC Performance 11, 21, 87, 88 UISC 8, 9, 19, 93, 94 UNDP 2, 7, 8, 19, 22, 29, 49, 71– 73 UNESCO 6 Union Council 2, 19, 22– 24, 30, 31, 34, 35, 46, 47, 61. See also Union Parishad Union Digital Centre 2, 11, 19, 23, 24, 29, 30, 63, 93, 95. See also UDC Union Information and Service Centres 2, 94. See also UISC Union Parishad 22, 34, 35, 42, 43, 46, 76, 79, 86 United Nations 91, 93, 95 UNO 25, 30, 59, 61 USAID 2, 7, 19, 22

Vagias, W. M. 16, 96 Validity 14, 15 Vertical equity 13, 14 Vintila, B. 10, 95

W Wagenius, C. M. 13, 96 Welch, E. W. 4, 95, 96 Wolfson, M. C. 11, 96 Wong, W. 4, 95, 96

Y Yngström, L. 5, 95 Youth Employment 49, 54

Z Zafarullah, H. 4, 9, 96 Zainudeen, A. 8, 96

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