The Viability of Union Digital Center under Public-Private Partnership towards E-governance in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

With its proven ability to connect the vast illiterate and poor rural population with the Government, telecenter based E-governance is gaining popularity in developing countries to provide information and services more efficiently and effectively by reducing time, distance and cost. Stirred by the idea, on 11 November 2010 the Government of Bangladesh established 4501 Union Digital Centers (4547 in December, 2016) under Access to Information (A2i) program with the vision of “Citizens need not go to services but services will come to them”. Equipped with necessary ICT inputs and operated by two private entrepreneurs (Uddokta) under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) program, these UDCs are delivering various information or services to the rural people from government and different provider agencies. It charges prescribed fees to meet the day to day operation costs and to generate revenue for entrepreneurs. But it has been more than five years since the establishment; these UDCs are facing significant barriers for very low rate of users’ participation and high rate of drop-outs of entrepreneurs for a variety of factors which challenges the viability (existence with the meaningful and sustainable participation) of UDC. Hence, understanding the viability factors attains significance to ensure the E-governance in rural Bangladesh through UDCs. Side by side it is also necessary to measure the level of presence of these factors to find the gap between prospect and reality. So the study tries to identify the crucial viability factors of UDC, analyze their real scenario and find the gap between them to realize the viability towards a viable UDC based E-governance in Rural Bangladesh The study is both exploratory and evaluative in nature where both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been used. It is exploratory in the sense that it tries to identify the significant viability factors in the light of rural socio-economic background and evaluative in the sense that it tries to estimate these identified factors under the present settings and services of UDC. These exploration and evaluation have been accomplished under four core chapters - service availability, service accessibility, service profitability and service guarantee to cover the whole viability factors in three phases. Regarding service availability the crucial factors demanded by the rural users are mainly related to agriculture; development programs, employment opportunities, healthcare etc. On the other hand, to the entrepreneurs’ the crucial factor for service availability is related to online presence of required information and services from different levels of Government. Regarding service accessibility the crucial factors for the rural users are related to proper publicity as rural citizens have limited or no idea about UDC and its services. They also have crucial demand for entrepreneurs’ efficiency, regularity, responsiveness which brings users’ trust on UDCs. On the other hand, the crucial factors of entrepreneurs for service accessibility is related to sustainable ICT input support; speedy internet support; strong and uninterrupted power support; and active support from UP authority. Regarding service profitability and service guarantee the crucial factors demanded by the rural users are not so important, as they are not enough conscious regarding this. On the other hand, crucial factors for entrepreneurs’ perspective are vibrant which is related to their existence. These are users’ regular and minimum presence (20-25); functioning computer training center with ample input support; assurance in job renewability (guarantee); demand budgeting and transparent disbursement; and returning marginal revenue for the services given to UP. But against the demands of users and entrepreneurs regarding service availability, accessibility, profitability and guarantee; they are getting only 20-30% of their expectations which is very meager to make UDCs viable. This limited fulfillment causes limited presence for users and limited profit and drop outs for an entrepreneur which challenges the viability of UDCs. This means the UDC is functioning in a vulnerable situation. This is high time; the related authority takes the necessary steps.