works as an Additional Deputy Commissioner in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. He was awarded a PhD degree in 2016 from Flinders University of Australia after completion of a thesis on Union Digital Centre. He has been an author on a range of scientific papers and book chapters.
This paper examines the financial sustainability of the Union Digital Centers (UDC) in Bangladesh in terms of entrepreneur’s monthly income. In order to mobilise additional resources and harness efficiency gains for providing rural people with digital information and services and generating entrepreneurship the government have engaged home grown youths under public-private partnership (PPP) in the project. Contrary to the expectation, many entrepreneurs earn vary minimum and are forced to depart the venture leaving behind the promise of the telecenter disrupted. In the context of precipitating dropouts from limited income understanding and predicting a sustained level of income attain significance. This study aims to identify factors that have influence on the variability of entrepreneur’s income. For collecting data from involved partners it surveyed 538 entrepreneurs online and interviewed other management stakeholders. Since all entrepreneurs could not be reached through the internet 19 of them are interviewed in-depth along with relevant management officials and local representative of the UP from 16 UDCs of 4 districts. It defines the sustained income as 5001 (USD 65) and above Bangladeshi Taka per month and predicted it using the binary logistic regression. It ascertains the major enablers of sustained income and the interrelationship among them that evolve from the interplay of partners. The study finds that most UDCs are somewhat reasonably supported with the basic ICT equipment, while others are adorned with advanced equipment, to provide a range of services including certificates, e-government and commercial type. However, the level of equipment and services across centers varies depending on the extent of assistance from the government, the UP and the entrepreneurship of the private partner. The scale of inputs from public partners and the entrepreneur’s investment have been found to be associated with the number of people including disadvantaged visiting these centers for services. All these variables are associated with the income of the entrepreneur with different magnitudes. The hypothesis that partnership components such as infrastructure and service inputs, entrepreneurial capacity along with people’s participation all have a significant part in explaining the monthly sustained income is tested using the binary model and found to be partially supported. The author argues that some of the inputs still could not make any significant contribution due to the lack of effective involvement of relevant partners. But to ensure financial sustainability of all UDCs and to prevent the dropouts of entrepreneur’s the increase in units of these factors can play a significant role.
This paper evaluates opportunities and challenges of the Union Digital Centre (UDC) project, a Bangladeshi telecentre initiative, based on a Public-Private-People’s Partnership (PPPP) scheme. It investigates how each of the stakeholders contributes. In the face of many closures, it is a timely contribution. A stakeholder management framework focused on telecentres is used to understand stakeholder behaviour and to provide a hypothesis about the contribution of each to the operation. This study surveyed stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, central government officials and local government representatives. The roles of stakeholders are discussed and opportunities are identified for external support from government bodies to support the operation of UDCs. The potential demands and benefits of a massive client base are also examined. Application of a structural equation model highlights that current progress hinges more on external support and people’s participation than on entrepreneurial investment. The dependency on philanthropic support, combined with problems in stakeholder engagement, poses challenges to entrepreneurship development, a feature necessary for sustainability. To engage them, effective interplay of relevant stakeholders is required.
In recent times non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh have witnessed massive growth in size, budget and scale of operations. They enjoy growing support from international donors and operate outside the direct control of the government. Their handling of the massive funds aside, increasing involvement of NGOs in economic, social and at times political spheres has given rise to widespread concerns about their accountability including their relationships with the government, donors and the community. This article examines and analyses various dimensions of NGO accountability in Bangladesh. Drawing on evidence from the Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)*two of Bangladesh's largest and the most successful NGOs*the paper argues that NGO accountability in Bangladesh has been more rhetorical than real. It shows that while formal accountability measures are in place, they suffer from a range of inadequacies and shortcomings. Consequently NGO accountability has remained weak and ineffective in relation to major agents such as the government, donors and the clients. The article further shows that some of the recent developments, such as the proliferation of NGO operations, government organisation (GO)ÁNGO collaboration and the growing involvement of NGOs in commercial activities, have imposed further limitations on their accountability to key stakeholders.
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