Bangladesh has always been a country of impossible achievements
Every day, I used to speak to doubters. A lot of them.
I used to meet them in the seminars I attended, in meetings, online over social media platforms, and of course, in day-to-day life, whether family gatherings, or just a conversation with acquaintances or friends.
“This is impossible.” “No way we can do this.” “What does that even mean?” “That is meant for Estonia or Singapore, not for Bangladesh.”
I used to listen to some versions of those words over and over. Most of those doubts used to be about leveraging technology to move the country forward.
But defying our doubts is what Bangladesh is all about.
Bangabandhu chose to declare independence against an oppressive regime over 50 years ago this very month. At the time, no one gave us a chance. Yet we did it. And we won.
As a newly independent country, we were essentially a broken nation ravaged not only by a nine-month-long war that robbed us of millions of lives, but subsequently by a lack of institutions, widespread famine, natural calamities, and repeated assassinations and coup d’états over the next several decades.
We have, collectively, overcome each and every one of those hurdles to be the nation we are today, always climbing, always looking up, never down. And Bangabandhu’s inspiration of a “Shonar Bangla” fueled us with the necessary courage and conviction to defy our doubts.
On a more personal level, one particular story of defying our doubts always remains with me.
In 2010, the Digital Centres (which are now ubiquitous with over 8,000 across the entire country) were still in their nascent stage with hardly a few hundred of them across the country. At that time, we at a2i were still experimenting, and the centres offered only one service — digital birth registration.
Of course, the very idea of the Digital Centres seemed ludicrous across multiple fronts:
One, micro-entrepreneurs would sell government services to citizens for a small fee from the local government offices such as union parishads, paurashavas, and city corporation.
Two, the services would come from multiple ministries and agencies such as land, passports, education, social welfare, among several others, and not just the local government division which govern these offices.
Three, the entrepreneurs could bring in any private sector services that had market demand in the location.
As you may have guessed, we were greeted with the same statements and questions.
“This is impossible.” “No way we can do this.” “What does that even mean?” “That is meant for Estonia or Singapore, not for Bangladesh.”
Without support and guidance from none other than Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the story would have ended there, and the doubters would have said, “I told you so” and no defying would be in order.
A couple of years into their existence, the Digital Centres were gradually being scaled up and reached about 500 across the country by mid-2010. Our target was to blanket all 4,500+ union parishads by the end of 2012.
Suddenly, in August 2010, we learned that former prime minister of New Zealand and global administrator for UNDP Helen Clark was visiting in November, three months later. It seemed like a wonderful idea that our prime minister and she would jointly launch the 4,500+ Digital Centres during her visit, thereby making the first big splash of Digital Bangladesh on the international stage.
The cost? $45 million. The time? Three months.
Let me repeat that for clarity. We needed to raise $45 million and set up over 4,000 Digital Centres in the country, along the way dealing with scores of vendors, briefing and training all 482 UNOs who would supervise the work, and find 4,000+ IT-trained young men and an equal number of young women in all far corners of the country and train them into micro-entrepreneurs to sell digital services.
All that in a span of three months.
This was Bangladesh where a signature for a small decision took months. Naturally, the questions poured in.
“Where is the funding?” “Where is the time?” “How can you procure such a massive amount of hardware?” “Where will you find technical people to set them up in remote locations such as Bhurungamari and Thanchi and Char Kukri Mukri?” “Where will you find the IT-trained entrepreneurs, especially the women, to run these centres?” “Why will they work for zero salary?”
Yet, we did it. Defying all the odds, we did it, because we disrupted all the norms traditionally associated with Bangladesh. From decentralizing the work, to fast-tracking our communication, to empowering local administrators to make decisions, we managed to raise $45 million in three months and launch the Digital Centres in Bangladesh.
To top it all, this was two years before 3G was officially launched in the country. So, imagine thousands of Digital Centres with 2G modems, many of them hanging from treetops or rooftops to get a signal from mobile phone towers far away.
Also imagine, 950 of the 4,500+ Digital Centres not having electricity. So, solar panels were quickly procured to power the centres.
All the while a crew of over 10,000 rising above their doubts, inspired by Bangabandhu’s dream of building the “Shonar Bangla,” instructed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and guided by Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
Now, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs have delivered over 700 million services to Bangladeshis since that day, November 11, 2010, when Helen Clark sat in Char Kukri Mukri to launch the Digital Centres countrywide over video conferencing with our prime minister in her office.
What a glorious day it was!
I still speak to doubters. But far fewer. And with meeker questions.
The 482 UNOs — all who doubted in August 2010 that it could be done and all who did it three months later — are now DCs in districts and joint secretaries in ministries and directorates. They stopped doubting and have been building the Shonar Bangla from their respective positions ever since.
On March 16, 2022, a2i launched a coffee table book called The a2i Journey: Making Digital Innovation Work for the Poor and a double-book in Bangla and English called My Digital Bangladesh: a2i for Innovation at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair with Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.
These books contain hundreds of pictures and stories of transformation made possible in Digital Bangladesh. Transformation that will convert the remaining doubters into believers.
Bishhashe milay bostu, torke bohudur.
Isn’t that what we need? Isn’t that what we do?
Written By: Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i – Aspire to Innovate
