Building a Digital Nation:Transformational Change

and Scaling Up

Anir ChowdhuryPolicy Advisor

Access to Information ProgrammePrime Minister’s Office

Bangladesh

May 13, 2013

Bangladesh Context: ‘Glass Half Empty’

Income: $700 GDP per capita, 30%+ under $1/day

Literacy: 50% Bangla (English insignificant) Electricity grid: 40% of area under grid, very

unreliable! Solar increasing

Service delivery Not need responsive Complicated/fragmented process Extremely male biased Endemic corruption and ‘rent-seeking’ Client-patron relationship

Bangladesh Context: ‘Glass Half Full’

• Social: Facebook, urbanization

• Economic: PPP Policy

• Technological: Mobile, internet

• Legal: ICT Act, RTI Act

• Political: Highest level, new

young leadership

• Government Readiness:

mindset change, data centre,

new IT-savvy recruits

March December0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

1,4M

2,8MFacebook, 2011-12

3 Key Issues for Service Improvement

Service Delivery Model• Complicated

Process/Forms/ Notarization

• Face-to-face delivery

Capacity of Civil Servants• Change management and

innovation is limited/discouraged

• Private sector in the last mile is absent

Enabling Environment• Public registers (people & assets) to

target, validate, & monitor service• Digital data/information to support

decision• Comprehensive policies and laws

Understanding root causes of service inefficiency

Improve Service Delivery to the Underserved

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

― George Bernard Shaw

Reached Agreement

Focus on Innovations that lead to Service Delivery Improvement

Continuous improvement

1. Time2. Cost3. No. of visits4. Expected

quality

Preventing Digital Divide: Citizens Access Points in 4,500+ UPs – True Bottom-Up Development

Birth and death registration

Examination results

Government forms download

Job information Visa application

and tracking Digital

photography Computer

training

Mobile banking

Life insurance English

training centres

Payments for government services

Tax collection Remittance4.5 mil users/month

USD 600K/month

Start with the underserved first!

One-Stop Service in all 64 DC Offices

Certified copy of land records delivery increased by 40%

Time for citizens reduced from several weeks to 2-5 days

Decision making time reduced by 80-90%Transform services and provider

behaviour

UN Chiefs Inaugurating 2 Landmark Initiatives in Bangladesh

International recognition and involvement

Comprehensive National e-Service System (NESS)in 16,000 offices in 2 years

Apply

Receive notification & Track progress

Retirement of e-Governance

e-Governance

Service at Doorsteps

Business Process Re-engineering

(BPR)

Service Process

Simplification (SPS)

Information Portals in all 64 DC Offices being Extended to 24,000 Govt. Offices

Utilize Right to Information Act

e-Service, e-Office and NPF

Bangla Content a Priority

• 100,000+ pages • Agri, health, edu, law and

human rights, disaster mgmt, tourism, employment

• 300 orgs (govt., for-profit, non-profit)

Enable massive Bangla content development

People don’t have desks!

Focus is on ICT to Improve Education, Not ICT Literacy

Transform education, not IT education

All 300+ primary, secondary,

vocational, madrassa textbooks online

Thousands of teachers share content through a

dedicated portal

Improving Maternal and Child Health

TV Assisting in Human Development

Mobile Banking: Developed/Developing Country Contrast

Developed: nice-to-have

Developing: must-have

Strong inter-bank payment systems

Extensive bank branches Ubiquitous ATM and POS

networks High credit/debit card

penetration High availability of

internet banking.

Weak inter-bank infrastructure

Limited number of bank branches

Limited ATM and POS system

Limited internet but high penetration of mobile devices

Problem with current mode of mobile banking:

1. The bank account holder must own a mobile phone – prohibitive for the very poor

2. Transaction cost if prohibitively expensive for small transactions

i-Banking Cash-In and Cash-Out

through mobile & prepaid Bank Cards

through UISC Cash Agents & POS Terminals

i-Payments G2P: social safety net payments P2G payments: utilities, all forms

of challans Person-2-Person fund transfers /

remittances

i-Commerce B2C & C2B services: buying

seeds, fertilizers, bus tickets, paying for medical services at upazilla health complex, etc.

i-Insurance Micro-insurance for life,

disability, crops, etc. Access to proper risk

management tools over mobile devices

i-Credit Micro-credit at lower

transaction cost lower interest

Comprehensive Financial Inclusion (i-*)

Results in 3 years

33M e-services from UISC

36M birth registration electronically

USD16M earnings for UISC entrepreneurs

0.8M e-applications processed in district HQ

1.1M land records delivered electronically from district HQ

49M results of public exams over internet,

33M over SMS

2.7M admission applications through SMS

in 32 public universities, 400 colleges, 70 medical colleges

3M students (by June 2013) learning from multimedia content developed

by 16,000 teachers

UNDP Poster Competition 2012

Develop Capacity andCatalyze Transformational Change

“I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.”

― Henry Ford

Develop Capacity of Thousands ...

• Leadership mobilizationInterested Honourable Members of Cabinet and Secretaries

• Process simplication & change mgmt.

e-Gov Focal points (Addls/Jt. Secretaries), DCs

• Implementation & Technical capacity

UPZ Chairmen, ADC, Quick Win focal points, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNOs),Deputy Director (LG)

• IncentivesInnovation Award

Target groups

• 500+ elected representatives

• 2,000+ civil servants

• 9,000 Entrepreneurs

• Media

• Citizen

• Private Sector and NGOs

• Demand Creation• Information Officers, Journalists, UISC

Entrepreneurs, Citizens

• Awareness Development• Innovation fair (divisional fair is on the card)

e-Governance Focal Points to Innovation Teams

Introduced the role of e-Governance Focal Points in every Ministry (50+)

Rigorous learning sessions containing visioning sessions, debates, case study analysis, service simplification exercises

Action research through Quick Wins

Recent Government gazette to form Innovation Teams in each Ministry (50+), each directorate (400+), each district (64) and each sub-district (487)

Info Centres in Union Parishads, Farmers’ Clubs

Upazilla doctors providing tele-consultation

Computerized land management

Tracking social safety nets

Disaster early warning through mobile network

Teacher training and e-Learning

100+ ‘Quick Wins’ launched. Another 600 in the Pipeline

Encourage baby steps. Allow failure!

Quick Win Beginning Now

e-Purchase Orders (e-Purjee)

20,000 farmers2 sugar mills

200,000 farmers15 sugar mills

e-Service Centres in Rural LGIs (UISC)

2 UPs4 entrepreneurs

4,500+ UPs9,000+ entrepreneurs4.5m citizens/monTk. 5 crore/mon income

Multimedia classroom and teacher-led content

7 schools22 teachers

By June 201423,315 schools70,000 teachers

1. Increase confidence of govt officers2. Allow risk-taking for innovations3. Partner with private sector and NGOs

Quick Wins Scaling Up

Grassroots Blog Enabling Country-wide Problem Solving, Citizens Empowerment, Break-down of traditional admin hierarchy

200+ e-Services 100+ govt. agencies 50+ companies

Creating a Sense of Positive Competition among Ministries and Promoting International Branding

30 countries 200 speakers 150 exhibitors 7 country

pavilions 17 awards

Start with informal incentives like recognition

Planning and Coordination from the Top

Leadership

Enabling Env

Services

• Quick Wins/ Innovation Labs

• Large e-service projects

• Bangla content• Demand

creation

• Ownership development

• Process Simplification

• Digital Strategy• ICT Policy, Law,

RTI Act• PPP Policy • e-Architecture• Population

registry

Execution from the Bottom(Field admin, LGIs)

Education Police Welfare Transport Tax

RevenueMunicipal BodyDC OfficeEnvironmentElectricity

Joined-up government

Cost savings

Improved service

Connected Citizens

One-Stop ShopHarassment,Time, Cost

Citizens will NOT go to services, services will come to citizens

Build the Enabling Environment

“I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.”

--Winston Churchill

Horizon Scan and Vision Documents

Horizon Scan 2007

HEAL Vision documents 2008 Health Education Agriculture Local Government Civil Service

Visioning was far more important than the vision documents

ICT Policy 2009, RTI Act 2009

SharedVision

Social Equity

Support to ICTs

IntegrityHealthcare

Productivity

EmploymentCreation

Environment

Education &Research Strengthening

ExportsUniversalAccess

10 development sectors306 action items for all govt agencies

Strategic Priorities for Digital Bangladesh Report 2010

Development• Education• Agriculture• Health• Justice• Law Enforcement• Land & Water

Resources

Sectors• Social Safety Nets• Disaster Management,

Environment & Climate Change

• Commerce & Investment

• ICT Industry

Enablers• Connectivity• Banking & Finance• Parliament• Local Government • Civil Service• Youth• PPP• Policy & Legal

Framework

‘Strategic Priorities for Digital Bangladesh’ aims at identifying the role of technology in socio-economic

transformation by 2021.

Mainstreamed into National Planning in 6th 5-year plan (Sector policies like Education, Health, Rural

Connectivity, PPP)

Policy for ICT Infrastructure: Rural Connectivity Guidelines 2010

Institutions Broadband Rollout ProjectionOrganization Total 3 yrs 6 mon 12 mon 24 mon 36 monGovt. (district + upz) 12,000 12,000 12,000 Thana 500 500 500 Local Government (urban) 350 350 350 Local Government (rural) 4,500 4,500 4,500 Secondary School 19,000 19,000 3,000 7,000 5,000 4,000Secondary Madrasa 9,500 9,500 1,000 2,000 2,500 4,000Colleges 3,500 3,500 250 500 2,750 Primary School 80,000 10,000 500 500 4,000 5,000Health Complex 1,000 1,000 1000 Community Health Clinic 18,000 18,000 1,000 3,000 14,000Post Office 8,500 8,500 64 482 1,000 6,954TOTAL: 156,850 86,850 23,164 11,482 18,250 33,954

National Population Register

Police services

Education

Birth registration

Health

Voter ID

LicensesSocial safety

nets

Loans

Taxes & VAT

Legal services

Immigration

Labor

CCDS 2012 and NPR 2015: Interoperable e-Service Platform Across the Government

A2I’s Approach:Ready, Shoot, Aim …

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”

― Allen Saunders

4 Vital Realizations for Transformational Change

1. Focus on the citizens, not on the provider

2. When thinking about technology, think outside the ‘computer’ box

3. Catalyze transformational change management

a. By using innovation as entry pointb. By leveraging existing relationships

4. Forge strong public-private partnerships

Citizens call a helpdesk directly

Citizens come toCommunity e-Centres Helpdesk answer Citizens

questions

Information workers go to citizens

Realization 1:Citizens will NOT go to services, services will come to citizens

Web, email

MailRadio TVCounter Call Center Cell PhoneSmart Phone

Why design e-Services around desktops when users don’t have desks?

Realization 2: Must think outside the ‘computer’ box

Realization 3: Top-Down Planning, Bottom-Up ExecutionPerformance Dashboards, Innovation Teams

Technology

ProcessPeople

•20% Technology

•35% SPS (Service Process Simplification)

•40% Transformational Change Management

•5% Luck!

Innovation

Leadership Teams

People

Private

Public

Technical Assistance / Resources from Development Partners

Realization 4: Partnerships create multiplier effect

• 50 service partners• 300 content partners• Thousands of crowdsourcers• $100M+ mobilized• Need to mobilize $1.5B

3 Notable Disruptions: Taking into Account and Taking Advantage of …

Tipping point?

Govt. Innovation

Labs

Social Networking

Crowdsourcing

Closed Grassroots

(UISC) blog with 14,000

members

Teachers’ Portal with

8,000 content

700 Quick Wins with

100+launched, Many

scaled up

a2i Innovation Cycle: Built in hindsight

Generate

Incubate

EvaluateUpdate

Replicate

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

― Steve Jobs

Shared visioning through participation Breakthrough thinking through Innovation

lens Leapfrog execution through partnerships

What can A2I experience provide to other countries through

South-South partnerships?

Knowledge Sharing

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is.

A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”

― Wayne Gretzky

Thanks