BTN: Consultation meeting on Mission 2011 strategy document

Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) organised a consultation meeting on mission 2011 Strategy document on 30th March, 2008, at BTN conference Room. The meeting was chaired by Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury, Chairperson of Bangladesh Telecentre Network. Ananya Raihan, General Secretary of BTN presented the keynote paper titled ‘Bangladesh Telecentre Network: An Inclusive Platform for Building Sustainable Information and Knowledge System for the Poor and the Marginalised -A Roadmap for Mission 2011’. Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury, Vice Chancellor of BRAC University and Advisor of the Bangladesh Telecentre Network was present at the occasion. Over thirty BTN members were present at the consultation to make it inclusive and effective.

In the introductory speech Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury briefed the participants about the importance of strategy document. Chowdhury said that after launching of Mission 2011 by the Honourable Chief Advisor of the Caretaker Government, the strategy of achieving the declared target of having 40,000 telecentre across the country become necessary. People even BTN members were in a dilemma about how this wishful target is going to achieve. That is why BTN felt the necessity of having a strategy document showing the roadmap of achieving the target. The idea was first shared at the first Annual General Meeting of BTN and then it was decided to work on the proposal and present it to members to make it a real inclusive document.

Ananya Raihan highlighted the key issues of the document in his presentations. Raihan said that having telecentre was a declaration from the government as it was reflected in the government’s poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP). Furthermore, in World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) plan of action the government of Bangladesh made several commitments to fulfil that declaration. Unfortunately, very few attempts were made from the government except deploying computers in educational institutions and setting-up of some training institutions. But, the core issue of accessing information through public access point was remaining untouched.

In his presentation Raihan focused on five basic principles of the Mission 2011 strategy document, which are:

· Inclusiveness that reflect the inclusion of all stakeholders for coordinating and promoting the common purpose of building an information and knowledge system for all citizens, particularly for the poor and marginalised
· BTN promotes diversity of approaches and models of telecentres
· Sustainability is one of the key principles, which is promoted by the BTN
· Poverty alleviation is the national aspiration of all citizens. No activities are justified, if they do not play any role in reducing gap between rich and poor. The telecentre should play role in poverty alleviation
· All activities of BTN will lead towards reduction of cost of operation by a telecentre and enhancement of income opportunities through content and service provisioning.

Raihan presented the current telecentre penetration and shared the potential penetration scopes in the country. As of March 2008, a total of 1097 telecentres have been identified. It is expected that the number would increase further when the mapping exercise will be completed. It is important to note that, majority of the telecentres are based in growth-centres (78.67%), whereas community-based is only 11.12%. Other major category is school-based (9.3%). These three categories comprise 99% of the telecentres. Rest one percent are in libraries, union-parishad offices, and in colleges. These and other potential venues are not yet explored. Another important feature of current deployment is domination of private sector, which is unique in the world. The roadmap is based on identification of potential venues of telecentres or information and knowledge system. The preliminary exercise identified 55367 potential venues for establishment of telecentres.

The roadmap for accomplishment of the Mission 2011 is for creating 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 BTN has set two distinct but inter-related objectives:
· 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
· 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.

After the presentation, Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury facilitated an open discussion. All BTN members attended the discussion. Major outcomes of the open discussion are:
· The strategy document should have a clear picture on how to roll-out 40,000 telecentre and separate the strategy part and action plan part of the document
· Role of BTN members should be clear in the document
· Negotiation strategy with potential stakeholders needs to be highlighted in the document
· Action plan to achieve the strategy should be realistic, as we may not handle lots of stakeholders at a time
· Role out of 40,000 telecentre should be divided yearly and it would be wise to put fewer targets in first two years and put rest in the later years. It is because BTN should focus more on negotiation and effective dialogue with potential stakeholders
· At the beginning locations or places where ICTs are available like schools, NGO offices etc should be given priority as very little attempts like providing contents and connectivity and ensuring public access to those spaces can easily convert it into telecentre.

In his concluding remarks, Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury focused to have a national data gathering system for telecentre to identifying existing penetration as well as potential locations. Professor Choudhury recommended to incorporating a GIS based data gathering system. Besides, Professor Choudhury gave importance to clarify the benefits of BTN members to be involved in such network. He thanked all participants for their valuable inputs.

Participants of the meeting:
• Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Vice-Chancellor, BRAC University
• Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury, Chairman, BRACBd Mail Network Ltd (BBN)
• M. Asaduzzaman , General Secretary, SDNF
• Ananya Raihan, Executive Director, D.Net (Development Research Network)
• AHM Sultanur Reza, Additional General Manager & Head of CIC, Grameen Phone Ltd.
• Nazrul Islam, National Country Director, Relief International, Schools Online, Bangladesh
• Kashfia Ahmed, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, WIN Incorporate
• Abdur Rob, Team Leader, Markets& livelihoods programme, Practical Action
• Salahuddin Akbar, Executive Director, SEBA
• Kamaruzzaman, Programme coordinator, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio & Communication (BNNRC)
• Md. Ataur Rahman, Head of Training & Project, Grameen Communications
• Md. Nurunnabi, Assistant Manger, VP, Grameen Telecom
• Nasrin Akter Lipi, Technical Officer, VP(CIC Operation), Grameen Telecom
• Henry Roy, APO, YPSA
• Md. Rakibuzzaman, Sales Team Manager, Sales & Marketing, BRACBd Mail Network Ltd (BBN)
• Mitul K Saha, Director, Agri-Business, Win Incorporate
• Lutfe Kabir, Project Manager, Grameen Communications
• Md. Masum Billah, Telecentre Reference Desk Coordinator and Deputy Director, D.Net
• Mahmud Hasan, COO, Bangladesh Telecentre Network(BTN
• Ferdousi Akhter, Program Manager, Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN)
• Farha Sharmin, Program Associate, Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN)