Mission2011: Building a Sustainable ICT-Based Information and Knowledge System for the Poor and the Marginalised by the 40th Anniversary of Bangladesh’s Independence
What Mission 2011 is for?
Mission 2011 is a multi-stakeholder initiative for building a sustainable information and knowledge system for the poor and marginalised by the 40th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence. The goal of Mission 2011 is to promote initiatives taken by the government, private sector, NGOs, research institutions, educational institutions, media, international and national development partners and other stakeholders for building various models of telecentres in Bangladesh so that by 2011 all citizens of the country would have access to information and knowledge centres (popularly known as telecentre) for getting communication, information and other services for improving their livelihoods and quality of life. The telecentres will have different ownership patterns, technology, target beneficiaries, service packages, and business/sustainability models.
Who is this for?
Any entrepreneur or institution can come forward to establish an information and knowledge centre. The government, private sector, NGOs, research institutions, educational institutions already have established information and knowledge centres with variety of ownership, technology, service package and business model. Some of the institutions established them directly and other in partnership with grassroots elvel institutions and individual entrepreneurs. Local initiative is the centre point of Mission 2011. For fostering telecentre movement in Bangladesh and facilitating various initiatives Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) has been established with a number of like-minded organisations. It is an inclusive network, where any individual or an institution committed to bring ICT to the doors of the common people across the country can be a member or partner to collectively promote the idea of building sustainable information and knowledge system for the poor. The network is based on the idea of maximizing the advantages of information and communication technologies (ICTs) through sharing of experiences and knowledge within the components of the organisation. It envisages addressing poverty alleviation through accessing information and knowledge by the poor as an overarching dimension of the Network’s mission.
What is the Vision of the BTN?
An inclusive knowledge society in Bangladesh, where the poor and the marginalized people get access to information and knowledge for improving their livelihood through the use of modern information and communication technologies.
Who are the Members?
The network is truly a platform of multi-stakeholder partnership, where NGOs, private sector, research institutions, academia, international and national development partners, individuals and government institutions can together advance the cause of empowering the poor and the marginalised for alleviating poverty by harnessing the power of ICTs along with other core resources. Any individual or organization who believes in the importance of telecentre as a new institution for rural Bangladesh for poverty alleviation and empowerment and desire to play an active role in making Mission 2011 a success can be a member of the BTN.
What is the Action Plan of the BTN?
The action plan of the BTN revolves around successful accomplishment of the Mission 2011, which is to promote a strong, sustainable and participatory movement of existing and upcoming telecentre practitioners through providing a range of supports, which will eventually help establish a countrywide network of telecentres for improving the livelihoods of the poor and the marginalised.
For this the BTN has set two distinct but inter-related objectives:
1. Building awareness among the stakeholders including the government about the importance of building an information and knowledge system for the poor through establishment of a network of ICT-based telecentres.
2. Supporting and facilitating functioning of grassroots level telecentres through offering a set of services, which are crucial for ensuring sustainability and scalability of the telecentres including sharing of contents.
Six taskforces have been formed with the participation of the members. The name of the task force, lead organisation and activities are:
1. Telecentre Policy Taskforce: SDNF
* Conducting research by member experts on 5 selected topics, in the process of research, organisation of 2 consultation meetings for each of the researches with relevant stakeholders;
* Organisation of 5 policy dialogues with participation of the government and development partners based on findings of 5 researches;
* Publication of policy papers based on research outputs both in hard copy and on the web
2. Human Capacity Development Taskforce: YPSA
* Conducting a study on training need assessment for lead organisations and telecentre operators and mapping available training capacity within the member organizations and beyond that
* Organisation of 2 national colloquiums for telecentre practitioners within Bangladesh
* Organisation of 1 International colloquiums for telecentre practitioners
* Facilitation of exchange of 24 grassroots level telecentre workers for one month within Bangladesh
* Guiding and Promoting toolkits, handbooks, training materials developed by member organizations and other telecentre networks
* Organisation of two trainings of trainers for trouble shooting for telecentre practitioners
3. Content and solutions Taskforce: KATALYST
* Conducting a mapping exercise of content development institutions and coverage of content.
* Organisations involved in both ‘technical’ and ‘information gathering’ will be captured. This activity is basically about to identify the available contents i.e. sourcing both on line and off-line contents.
* Providing inputs to web development team to initially highlight content development initiatives and provide structure on how to provide access to content development institutions to update information about content development;
* Conducting a mapping exercise to identify the solutions and services and their providers [like Health line of GP or Pallitathya of D Net mainly services which can be used by the telecentres].
* Providing inputs to web development team to initially highlight solutions available and provide structure on how to provide access to solutions providing institutions to update information about new solutions and services;
* Preparation of guidelines of 25 services and solutions, which telecentre operators may add to their service portfolio;
* Maintaining liaison with telecentre.org to collect info on services mainly new services and solutions which can be shared with local telecentres.
4. Technical and Reference Support Taskforce: D.Net
* Development and promotion of a common guideline for self-evaluation of performance and scope for improvement to be used by individual grassroots level telecentres;
* Conducting a mapping exercise to identify software and systems used by the telecentre practitioners and refer them to telecentre practitioners through web site and events;
* Development and making functional an online national reference desk for telecentre operators wit participation of capable member organisations.
5. Promotion and event management Taskforce: DKF
* Development of promotional materials –
* Coordination and facilitation of member organisations to organize the events identified under different taskforces;
* Leading the team for organising launching event of Mission 2011.
6. Resource Mobilisation Taskforce: D.Net
* Conducting an exercise of assessing the resource requirement ;
* Organisation of negotiations for resource mobilisation with 10 organisations for conducting activities of the BTN.
অনলাইনে ছড়িয়ে ছিটিয়ে থাকা কথা গুলোকেই সহজে জানবার সুবিধার জন্য একত্রিত করে আমাদের কথা । এখানে সংগৃহিত কথা গুলোর সত্ব (copyright) সম্পূর্ণভাবে সোর্স সাইটের লেখকের এবং আমাদের কথাতে প্রতিটা কথাতেই সোর্স সাইটের রেফারেন্স লিংক উধৃত আছে ।