JAGANNATH UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Assignment
On
E-Governance in Bangladesh

Submitted To:
Shiblee Noman
Lecturer
Department of Political Science
Jagannath University

Submitted by:
Group –IV

Name Roll Mobile

Noorjahan B-130402006 01796775098

Hanufa Parvin B-130402018 01920072838

Bonna Khatun B-130402051 01930862800

Asma Khatun B-130402059 01624070910

Table of Contents
Tables

 Table 1

Figures

 Figure 1
 Figure 2
 Figure 3
 Figure 4

Introduction

Background

E-Governance

Models of E-Governance

 G2C (Government-to-Citizen)
 G2B(Government-to-Business)
 G2G(Government-to-Government)
 G2E (Government-to-Employee)

Stages of E-Governance

 Connectivity
 Content
 Capacity
 Capital

E-governance: Bangladesh Context

Issues and Challenges

Possible Solutions for Implementing E-Governance in Bangladesh

Conclusion

Introduction:
E-Governance or ‘electronic governance’ is basically the application of Information and
Communications Technology to the processes of Government functioning in order to
bring about ‘Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent’ (SMART)
governance. This would generally involve the use of ICTs by government agencies for
any or all of the following reasons: (a) Exchange of information with citizens, businesses
or other government departments (b) Speedier and more efficient delivery of public
services (c) Improving internal efficiency (d) Reducing costs / increasing revenue (e)
Re-structuring of administrative processes and (f) Improving quality of services. In
Bangladesh, e-governance must be ensured if we want to see Bangladesh as a
developed country.

Background:
The advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has added new
dimension to the governance arena and the concept of e-governance (electronic
governance) has gained much focus in the discourse of governance. Bangladesh is no
exception to the global trend of inclination towards ICT end e-governance has become
an area of concern within the country of late. It is very important to realize e-governance
is not only a means to increase administrative efficiency but also a tool to enhance
democracy by ensuring the citizen participation in the policy making process. It also has
to be recognized that technology is only a means to an end where the ‘end’ is citizen
welfare by an improved governance mechanism. The preparedness of e-governance is
a multifarious phenomenon that includes social, cultural, psychological, economic and
legal aspects along with the most commonly perceived aspect of
technology.

E-Governance:
Although the term ‘e-Governance’ has gained currency in recent years, there is no
standard definition of this term. Different governments and organizations define this
term to suit their own aims and objectives. Sometimes, the term ‘e-government’ is also
used instead of ‘e-Governance’. Some widely used definitions are listed below:

According to the World Bank:

“E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies that have
the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These
technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to
citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access
to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less
corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and cost reductions.”

Figure4: E-Governance tools.

Source: (Ahmed,1997)

UNESCO defines e-Governance as:

“E-Governance refers to the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the
management of a country’s affairs, including citizens’

The Council of Europe has taken e-Governance to mean:

“The use of electronic technologies in three areas of public action:

 Relations between the public authorities and civil society

 functioning of the public authorities at all stages of the democratic process (electronic
democracy)
 the provision of public services (electronic public services)”
Basically, e-Governance is generally understood as the use of Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) at all levels of the Government in order to provide
services to the citizens, interaction with business enterprises and communication and
exchange of information between different agencies of the Government in a speedy,
convenient efficient and transparent manner.
Models of e-Governance:

According to relevant literature e-governance has four major components as follows:

 G2C (Government-to-Citizen): Involves interaction of individual Citizens with

the government. G2C allows government agencies to talk, listen, relate and
continuously communicate with its citizens, supporting, in this way of
accountability, democracy and improvements to public services. G2C allows
customers to access government information and services instantly, conveniently
from everywhere.

 G2B (Government-to-Business): Involves interaction of business entities with

the government. It includes e-transaction initiatives such as eprocurement and
the development of an electronic marketplace for government helping businesses
to become more competitive.

 G2G (Government-to-Government): Involves interaction among government

offices as well as governments of other countries. Governments depend on other
levels of government within the state to effectively deliver services and allocate
responsibilities. G2G focus online communication and cooperation among the
government agencies and departments to share database, resources, pool skills
and capabilities with a view to avoiding duplication and enhancing the efficiency
and effectiveness of process.
 G2E (Government-to-Employee): Involves interaction between the government
and its employees. It gives employees the possibility of accessing relevant
information regarding: compensation and benefit policies, training and learning
opportunities, civil rights laws, etc. G2E refers also to strategic and tactical
mechanisms for encouraging the implementation of government goals and
programs as well as human resource management, budgeting and accounting.
Source (Taifur, 2006 and Valentina, 2004)
 So, conceptually it can be argued that ‘e-government’ is a prerequisite of ‘e-
governance’ while it is also one of the actors of the overall ‘e-governance’
system. For the purpose of this study these two terms shall NOT be
interchangeably used but various stages of ‘e-government’ according to different
model will be implied as the stages of ‘e-governance’. This is justified because of
the fact that achieving higher degree of e-government undoubtedly enhances e-
governance as well.

Stages of E-governance:
According to the United Nations’ E-government Survey (2008), there are five stages of
e-government evolution. These stages are as follows:
 Connectivity: A government’s online presence is mainly comprised of a web
page and/or an official website; links to ministries or departments of education,
health, social welfare, labour and finance may/may not exist. Much of the
information is static and there is little interaction with citizens.

 Content: Governments provide more information on public policy and

governance. They have created links to archived information that is easily
accessible to citizens, as for instance, documents, forms, reports, laws and
regulations, and newsletters.

Figure 2: Pillars of e-governance.

Source: (Hasan ,2011)
  Capacity: Governments begin to transform themselves by introducing two-way
interactions between ‘citizen and government’. It includes options for paying
taxes, applying for ID cards, birth certificates, passports and license renewals, as
well as other similar G to C interactions, and allows the citizen to access these
services online 24/7. All transactions are conducted online.

 Capital: Governments transform themselves into a connected entity that

responds to the needs of its citizens by developing an integrated back office
infrastructure. This is the most sophisticated level of online e-government
initiatives.

E-governance: Bangladesh Context:

Now, e-governance is a very popular phrase in the development debates of
Bangladesh. The term e-governance is known to the people by different names, for
example, to the mass it is computer, to the academics it is e-governance, to the
specialist it is ICT, to the students it is a discipline of computer sciences and to the
politicians it is digital Bangladesh. The government realizes the strategic importance of
ICT sector and had declared ICT a ‘thrust sector’ (Alam et al, 2008). Since the last
national election of 2008, the term ‘Digital Bangladesh’ has become more popular in the
nation.

 Digital Bangladesh a moderated concept of e-governance:

The very idea of a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ started as part of the election manifesto of
the present ruling party. After the landslide victory of Awami League-led great
alliance, the Prime Minister declared to transform the country into "Digital
Bangladesh by 2021” (Vision, 2021) which targets the establishment of a
resourceful and modern country by 2021 through effective use of ICT. The idea
captured the imagination of the whole, nation even without understanding th
depth or scope of the issue by the people. It generated enormous enthusiasm
among the people and they started thinking it as a magic wand that might help in
improving the poor governance features of the country and thus ensuring good
governance.

As a comprehensive term, ‘Digital Bangladesh’ means the modern philosophy of

effective and fruitful use of technology in terms of implementing the promises in
education, health, job placement, poverty reduction etc. Therefore, the
government underscores a changing attitude, positive thinking and innovative
ideas for the success of “Digital Bangladesh”. The philosophy of “Digital
Bangladesh” comprises of ensuring people’s democracy and rights,
transparency, accountability, establishing justice and ensuring delivery of
government services to each every door through the maximum use of technology
with the ultimate goal to improve the daily lifestyle of the general people.
(Hasan,2003).
Figure 3: E-Governance Process.
Source:
(Ahmed,1997)
In addition, the government of Bangladesh has taken many initiatives to practice e-
governance under the umbrella concept of Digital Bangladesh automation of internal
processes –
 (in banking sector),
 electronic birth registration system,
 financial management system/forms are available through online Hajj Web Site,
 MIS for project management and transparency
 Bangladesh law commission on the global information highway,
 personnel database
 railway ticketing,
 e-tendering, on submission of application for admission at the public and private
universities,
 publishing HSC, SSC and other competitive exam results for example BCS in the
website etc.
 Introducing e-voting: a recent initiative/debate:
E-voting is an election system that allows a voter to record his or her secure and
secret ballot electronically. The Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh has
decided to introduce e-voting in the next 10th parliamentary election political
parties agree. Journalists and members of civil society supported EC's bid to
introduce electronic voting machines (EVM) in the next general polls on condition
affirm it. They stressed the need of public opinion in its favor and initiation of
necessary measures to further develop technology used in EVM to prevent vote
rigging and ensure transparency (The Daily Star, 2011).

Issues and Challenges:

Implementation of e-governance in a developing country like Bangladesh is not out of
challenges and debates. The critical issues should be delineated and solutions worked
out properly. Here we find out some of the issues that may hinder the implementation of
e-governance in Bangladesh.
 Political issues: Political factors are very effective in government functioning,
which may hinder implementation of e-governance if interest of a group is
hampered. Political stability is important for successful implementation of e-
government in any country. But in Bangladesh this is yet to be achieved. For this
reason, implementation and continuation of any e-government project suffer
(Bhuiyan, 2011).

 Human Resource issues: To implement e-government in any country sufficient

trained human resource is a must. The quality of e-governance heavily depends
on the skill, training and performance of human resources (Bhuiyan 2011). But in
Bangladesh this is still in scarce state. Of course establishment of a number of
private university have mitigated the problem to some extent.

 Funding issues: As e-governance has a very ambitious work plan, it requires a

significant amount of fund to be invested. Timely and cost effective supply of fund
is required not only during the process of digitalization but also for the
maintenance of the projects. As we know Bangladesh is a developing country it
sometimes becomes difficult to supply so much fund for such ambitious projects.

 ICT penetration: Recently Bangladesh has achieved a good advancement in

use of ICT in mass level; especially the growth rate is impressive. But this applies
more to city than to village. However in spite of this, quite understandably owing
to our late entrance in the ICT field our PC penetration (4.5 per 1000) is one of
lowest in the world (Bangladesh Computer Society).
 Table1: ICT Presentation and Empowerment status.
Source: (Hasan ,
2011)
On the other hand mobile penetration is quiet satisfactory in Bangladesh as such
internet connectivity is also high if we consider mobile internet. There are some
30 million internet users and 98.6 million mobile users as per February 2013
update data (BTRC).

 Management of Change: The issue of management of change is the most

fundamental issue to be addressed. Use of ICT in governance is expected to
bring a revolutionary change in the functioning of government. But, it may be
difficult to manage the change, if proper planning is not made in advance.

 IT policy: The government as a whole should have a consistent IT policy that is

congenial to invigoration of IT sector and its use. Like other policy, it is difficult for
the government to have a uniform IT policy. Now we have IT policy 2009. It took
too much time to have a sound IT policy for the country. It is one of the
impediments of increasing e-governance in Bangladesh.
 Internal network: All Government offices of different ministries of Bangladesh
are not within the same network. One ministry can not share their data with
another ministry and government is not using properly the ICT in their offices. So
the implementation e-governance is not very fruitful for the public. .

 Security issues: A modern organization requires security of all kinds of ICT

assets where the government is no exceptional. Threats and attacks to the ICT
assets may come in different forms from different sources. In the case of e-
governance, the source of attacks can be internal or external to the government.
With the sharp division of the government employees, the possibility of internal
attacks should not be ruled out in Bangladesh.

 Central database problem: Bangladesh government did not design any central
database for citizen’s access using through internet. Even there is no available
information of any citizen in government offices to use any emergency situation.
For this reason government officers have to face many difficulties to identify any
person for any special reason.

 Public awareness about government portal: The majority of the government

officials and public are unaware about the e-Citizens Service application portal.
Very few percent of the government officials and general people of the country
are aware about the portal. Only few portions of the people are using the e-
governance portal.

Figure 4: Awareness about e-Citizens service application portal.

Source: (Hasan ,2011)
  Lack of Training: Trained people can play the vital role for implementing e-
governance project. Unfortunately, majority portion of government officials do not
have enough training on Computer yet. It is a big barrier for implementing e-
governance.

Possible Solutions for Implementing E-Governance in Bangladesh:

 The necessity of e-governance and e-government is undeniable in today’s world.
None can avoid the positive changes made through the use of electronic media
in governance for bringing good governance in the country. A number measure
could be taken to overcome the challenges identified in the way of successful
implementation of ICT. Some of the measures are discussed below.

 Political consensus: To have a successful implementation of e-governance in

Bangladesh it is very necessary to have consensus among political parties
regarding the issue. It should be so undertaken that there will be no change in
the policy and no alternation will be brought in any project with the change of
government.

 Developing Human resource: Development of skilled, efficient, knowledgeable

and able human resource is a key to e-government success. In all the relevant
positions of the projects skilled and able personnel should be appointed to carry
out e-government projects.

 Spread of ICT and its education: High rate of ICT penetration does not ensure
a high rate of ICT literacy. ICT education in technical and vocational institute and
private and public universities are to be spread (Alam & Hassan 2011).

 Proper Planning: Good planning is good stewardship. Success in any endeavor

requires careful preparation and planning. Without proper planning and
preparation, failure is almost guaranteed.
 Congenial IT policy and it consistent implementation: To flourish e-
government in Bangladesh the proper ICT policy should be promulgated and
these policies should be implemented consistently.

 Internet connection till village level: To gain the ICT knowledge and for
participating the e-governance activities internet connection from city to village
level is very important. Without using internet no one can access the government
web portal for their personal tasks. In the perspective of Bangladesh, this is not
so easy for government to provide internet connection till village level within short
time. So, government should encourage the private companies to provide
internet connection to the public with cheap rate. So that villagers can access the
internet easily.

 Proper training : It is very important to provide training to the all government

officers regularly. Without proper knowledge of IT of government officers’ e-
governance project will never see the real face of the project.

 Computer education mandatory for all officials: Government should do the

obligatory of computer training or computer knowledge to join any government
profession. If government makes it as a role so that all young generation must
take the computer training before applying any government job. As a result,
government will get IT trained employee which is helpful for the e-governance.

 Motivate the public to use the government websites : This is not a main aim
of e-governance only involvement government officers in the e-governance
project. Without public involvement it will not be a successful project. So,
government has to take some steps to motivate the public to use different types
of government web sites for their daily official tasks. Government can do it by
sending SMS, arranging different types of seminar, symposium, showing short
 films to the public places and broadcasting some drama and advertisement in
Television so that they know the advantages of e-governance.

 Financial solution: This is not a big problem for government to arrange fund for
establishing e-Governance project. Government can take financial support from
many foreign organizations such as UNDP, UNESCO, ADB, World Bank, EU or
other sources. Government can minimize the cost of e-Governance project using
locally made software. After all if the government wants e-governance can be
implemented economic way using self resources

 Long term planning for e-governance applications Security Issues : Security

issue is the major concern in all of aspects of e-Governance. Different types of
cyber attacks may come to different sectors of e-Governance. So, Government
should takes strong modern long term planning to protect the e-governance all
kind of websites, automation systems and software protect from any kind of
cyber crime or attacks using modern and updated technology and policy.

Conclusion:
Government is the key player in the process of e-governance. But it is not possible on
the part of the government alone to bring about the expected revolutionary change in
the field of e-governance. Government and private initiatives as well as NGOs can
contribute much towards this end. The donor agencies should also realize the need of
implementing e-governance in the developing countries like Bangladesh and can play a
proactive role in this regard. As we know lion’s share of our development budget comes
from foreign as aid, donation, loan, etc. But fund is not the only factor, what is important
here is to make a long-term plan through dialogue with experts and consensus with all
the political parties and to implement e-governance gradually. As time is passing, it is to
be remembered that bureaucracy and delay in this regard is not desirable. Otherwise
the optimum benefit from e-governance can’t be obtained. It is a matter of pleasure that
government is realizing the need for wide spread use of ICT in governance. But real
effort to materialize this end is non-existence.

References:
 Hasan,Rokon,2011,E-Governance preparedness of bureaucracy a case study

of the deputy commissioner, Dhaka.

 Hasan,Sadik,2003,Introducing E-Governance in Bangladesh: Problems and

Prospects,Chittagong.

 Taifur,SASM,Problems of E-Governance in Bangladesh.

 Alom,Jahangir,E-Governance in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects Essay

sample,Dhaka.

 Asaduzzaman,Mohammad,E-Governance Initiative in Bangladesh: Some

Observations.

 Hassan,Rizwan,E-Governance and E-Government in Bangladesh:

Performance, Challenges and Remedies, Kustia.

 Hoque,Sanaul,E-Governance in Bangladesh: Initiatives and Challenges,

Rajshahi.

 Ruksana,E-Governance in Bangladesh and the challenges, Dhaka.

 Ahmed, Imtiaz,1997,A Short History of Bangladesh: Governance and

Electoral process in Bangladesh, New Delhi, Vikash Publishing House.