Citizen’s Voice
Description
In Bangladesh, most people are not satisfied with the basic supply and utility services provided by the government agencies. Furthermore, most people are not aware of their civic rights. On the other hand, the service providing agencies have many limitations like lack of human resource, logistics and adequate infrastructure. Across the world citizens feedback are recognized as an important dimension of the assessment of public services. Making a bridge among the people and the service providers can easily resolve these problems. This Web Portal is an internet-based platform equipped to receive citizens’ opinions and reports via a range of options using mobile phones and the web. Citizens can now participate in quality of service reporting by sending their text, video, or voice messages from mobile phones, or directly uploading them to the portal via web. The website partners with media and civil society groups to address the first hand reports of the citizens and work together with the service providers towards improvement of public service. The target audience of the web portal are: Different public service providers Journalist & Media (local and national level) Client of the specific services (citizens and communities, civil society members etc.)
What we deliver
* A platform to submit users opinions on public services * Opportunity for the public service providers to comment on specific issues * local news and followup reports * geo-mapping of categorywise user submitted reports and contents (audio, video, text and images)
Whom we deliver
150 Volunteers and staffs of the project. The portal is open to everyone.
Why is the project unique?
The project is being implemented by a right based organization (PSTC) and is independent of the government and any other agencies. It gives the initiative more independence to run as a watchdog and perform without interruption or political influence. The fact that it uses mobile phones to crowd source citizen’s information and to address these issues with the help of media and civic society partners – is quite unique in Bangladesh.
Roadmap
Think about Bangladesh, the eighth most populous nation in the world with a young population (60% under 25). The literacy rate is below par (54%) and 31% population are below poverty line. Bangladesh has a high percentage of rural population (more than 70%). How do you roll out services for most of them when in the rural areas there are poor infrastructures. Many villages do not have electricity, let alone internet. There was a time Bangladesh was way behind in the digital divide index. People thought it would be nearly impossible to provide internet communication in the rural areas. But the proliferation of mobile technologies changed all. In 2003, only 1.3 million Bangladeshis used mobile phones. But in 2011 March the number surpassed 73 millions, a staggering number. Oddvar Hesjedal, chief executive officer of GrameenPhone Ltd. Said that the number could be doubled by 2015. The mobile phone call rate has come down from 10 cents to 1 cent per minute due to intense competition. The mass marketing of $20 Chinese mobile phones have made this tool available to people of every income group. The mobile phone area coverage is almost 99% in the country. Now people can communicate from almost every corner of Bangladesh. And the most encouraging aspect of this coverage is that most of the providers provide cheap internet. The internet penetration in Bangladesh is 6% and about 70% of users connect through mobile using modem. There is no other tool like mobile in Bangladesh which can reach to masses. Already many are leveraging this technology. SMS campaigns are becoming increasingly popular – now from government to election candidates or disaster committees use sms messages to augment their propaganda. The another area which is being less utilized is crowdsourcing via mobile. Through inexpensive sms or sending attachments of images via cheap internet bandwidth people can send message, opinions easily to each other or to platforms. Online social networks like Facebook and Twitter are growing increasingly popular. Now there are blogging tools via email and SMS. If there are enough crowdsourcing platforms like these then the opinions of the citizens, especially those who are on the other side of the digital divide can be gathered. These opinions will be an important source of the democratic dialogues between communities and the authorities.
Contact
Dr. Nitai Kanti Das
Population Services and Training Center (PSTC)
30, Shahid Shangbadik Selina Parveen Shorak (103 New circular Road)
Dhaka, Bangladesh 1217
URL/Website – http://www.nagorikkontho.org/portal/
nagorikkontho presentationfinal.ppt
Citizen’s Voice
Platform For Communities
Citizen participation in improving public service through ICT
Like every other country, the citizens of Bangladesh are entitled to different free and fee-based public services. These services include essential ones like education, health, energy and communication. A large section of population depends on these public services due to their low purchasing power and other limitations. Every Bangladeshi citizen has the right to those services. These citizens’ rights have been addressed in the Constitution of Bangladesh. The nature and scope of these services have been outlined in the citizen charters of the respective organizations. The general population can know about those services from these citizens’ charters.
Many citizens of Bangladesh are not aware of the public services available and their right to use these services. The level of awareness on these issues is very low, especially in the disadvantaged and marginalized sections. Experience shows us that when they become aware of these services and engage in the process, the quality of service goes up. If citizens’ participation can be ensured then the service providers can assess the needs more accurately and concentrate on improving these services. In the context of Bangladesh there is an urgent need of engaging citizens for more interaction with the public service providers.
Population Services And Training Center (PSTC), with the help of United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), has started a project which provides a platform for the citizens to voice their opinions on quality of service of the public service providers and to initiate interaction with them for improvement of services.
Goals:
– Improve citizens’ lives by improving quality of public service
– Increase effectiveness of the service providers through feedback
– Provide a democratic space for interaction among service recipients and providers through appropriate use of technology.
– Assist in strengthening democratic institutions and right based environment.
Objectives:
– To increase awareness by informing citizens about existing services.
– To create a bridge between the service providers and the recipients through effective communication using ICT.
– To motivate the citizens to establish their rights and to highlight their feedback/suggestions using citizen journalism and new media tools
– Launching an interactive website which will draw attention of the service providers.
– To establish partnership with media to highlight quality of service related issues to a wider level.
Activities:
– To make citizens aware of the existing public services.
– To communicate with the public service providers and organize workshops
– To collect feedbacks/suggestions on existing public services
– To update the web platform with information and actions to improve quality of service.
– Mobilizing volunteer groups in different locations.
– Engage social workers and civil society representatives.
– Train volunteers and civil society activists about the basic rights of the citizens and use of ICT to enable them to voice their opinions.
Expected results:
– Citizens will be aware of their civic rights. If they miss out on their rights, they will try to ensure that they get their rights.
– The informed citizens will create communities to work for improvement of services.
– The relationship between public service providers and general citizens will improve.
– Every citizen will be able to send their feedback/suggestions on different public services using mobile phone and/or internet.
– Public services will improve and be effective in vital sectors like health and education
– Through training the volunteers will learn to take more responsibility of the society and environment. Improve their ICT skills and knowledge.
– The mainstream media will communicate with the citizens and service providers and highlight these activities.
The main objective of this project is to bring the general citizens in proximity of the public service providers. The citizens need to be aware of their rights and responsibilities and this web platform will help them voice their opinions on their satisfaction/grievances, opportunities/challenges etc. General citizens, especially the trained volunteers will use basic ICT tools like mobile phones to send their feedback /information/suggestions in the form of text/voice/image/videos to this web platform. Similarly the public service providers will highlight their position and engage in dialogues with the service receivers. Through this interaction we expect an effective execution of services and a general improvement of democratic institutions and space.
