Questions/Answers

Traditionally, the Bangladesh government has always used a top-down approach in policy making. Scarce resources were allocated in different priority areas defined by central government where local needs were often unloved. Priorities of the local communities couldn’t be channelled to the top-level policy makers as people couldn’t reach the government authorities with their demands and problems. Local level government institutions faced difficulties to convince the higher authority for officially acting on a local problem required prompt action. Moreover, many of the public institutions remained unaccountable and ineffective in their service providing job due to the absence of proper monitoring mechanism. Non-inclusive public institutions treated the service-seekers as outcasts and services as benevolence. People were also used to this relationship and they usually kept themselves far from the public offices unless an emergency situation arises. There were limited scope for expressing grievance and dissatisfaction about public services and the culture of ‘patron-client relationship’ made it almost impossible to get their grievance redressed. a2i is supporting the Bangladesh Civil Service to harness the power of social media to: 1. Discover creative ways to attain effective citizen engagement in the process of improving public service delivery 2. Establish a peer-support platform to encourage the spread of ideas and interaction among experienced senior civil servants and junior officers with innovative ideas and ambition 3. Institutionalize and manage the practice of citizen-centric innovation by breaking down hierarchical barriers across all ministries, departments and agencies. To date, around 20 million citizens have been engaged through 5,000+ government offices that now have their own citizen facing Facebook pages. Moreover, all 64 districts have opened DC Office Facebook pages.

Bangladesh is a country with a central government system and local government authorities at different tiers. But, Top-down approaches in Policy making was widely used in Bangladesh. Scarce resources were allocated in different priority areas defined by central government where local needs were often unloved. Priorities of the local communities couldn’t be channeled to the top-level policy makers as people couldn’t reach the government authorities with their demands and problems. Local level government institutions faced difficulties to convince the higher authority for officially acting on a local problem required prompt action. There were numerous opportunities for the corruption and bribery, especially in the case of social safety net activities where eligible candidates were often excluded from the list as the selection process of could be manipulated in different ways. Limited voice of even aware and educated citizens regarding those issues made the situation hopeless regarding citizen’s engagement in decision and action of public institutions. The government institutions in Bangladesh are now using the power of social media to empower the stifled voices and allow civil servants to directly engage with citizens, share information and deliver services more quickly and effectively than ever before.

Social Media, a novel and popular digital platform, has connected people in a virtual place where public offices and citizens within the localities can share information, commence discussion, contribute in decision making and support actions through connecting community people. Thus, this initiative leverages the pervasive and cost-effective nature of Facebook as a means to empower civil servants with the platform and skills they need to improve the quality of public services and reduce inefficiencies in their delivery for underserved citizens in Bangladesh by making their institution inclusive. Public institutions have discovered creative new ways to attain effective citizen engagement in the process of improving public service delivery. Identification of root-level problems by the community people made the quick solution to the problems possible to a significant extent. This initiative encouraged institutionalization and management of the practice of sustainable, citizen-centered innovation by breaking down hierarchical barriers across all ministries, departments and agencies.

Social media is identified as an important tool for government service delivery and public-service engagement. There are varieties of social media application that can be used by the government departments for different purposes such as public hearing, departmental coordination, and public service innovation, experience sharing and problem solution. It is also widely recognized that the social media empowers the citizen asking questions to government and thereby it can help strengthening democracy. Now more than 150 thousand government officials and over 100 thousand citizens interacting with each other on a regular basis through 800+ public Facebook pages and closed groups. Top bureaucrats including the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary are engaging with mid and field level officers in spontaneous conversations about citizens’ problems, ideas on potential solutions that they have. Given this growing use of social media in government offices, popular social media platforms are being gradually transformed into powerful communication tools for reaching and engaging with parts of the community that traditional communications struggle to reach. Facebook is being used as a forum for discussion, problem solving, idea sharing and even grievance redress among public officials.

The initiative was effective because of the Government’s emphasis on providing digital services for all. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of officers and citizens are raising issues, collaborating and sharing ideas and experiences about public sector reform and facilitation of better service delivery through numerous public Facebook pages. Under a2i’s catalytic facilitation, popular social media platforms are being gradually transformed into powerful communication tools for reaching and engaging with parts of the community that traditional communication channels struggle to reach. The practice has affected tremendous impact on people’s sense of empowerment and ability to be active participants at both social and political levels. For example, in last six month Department of Social Services has delivered more than 200 Social Safety Net allowances through Facebook. Due to the usage of Facebook, time, cost and number of visits of both service recipients and service provider has been reduced tremendously. Usually in previous procedure, it will take approximately 24-48 days whereas in the existing system of using Facebook it takes only 24/48 hours.

The case of Jail canal which has been recovered from the encroachers demolishing illegal structures on the basis of public request posted in Barishal Problems and Prospects facebook group has benefited a lot of people of Barishal town. It has created voice of the community people who suffer from problems and need urgent initiatives. Tangail Louhojong river cleaning drive removed Illegal structures and freed it for common people of the locality. Because of the publicity many people took off their be-longings and went away at their own will. People who didn’t have anywhere to go, were kept under a project of “Asrayon”. They have been given facilities from the government. Green Revolution campaign in Trishal, Mymensingh district, with was expanded, with trees, including of timber, fruit and medicinal species, provided to all schools and colleges. As a result, on October 1, 2016 the people of Trishal made history by planting over 300,000 saplings in one day. The strategic use of Facebook really turned the movement in to a success. This was an output of the initiative which contributed hugely for environment and, of course, for the people.

This initiative is based on creative and innovative idea of using existing and popular platform to reinvent the policy and decision making process and developing inclusive public institution. Existing convenient ICT based platforms made the inclusion easy, the virtual engagement is lot easier and more convenient for both the institutions and the people. In this initiative problem could be identification by community people, in a bottom-up approach, who knows best about the problems, as well as the solutions. They can provide community resources much effective and necessary than government budget. This initiative significantly reduced the response time, regarding both discussion and action, of government authority through effective consultation with community people in solving local problems. It has developed a real-time overseeing mechanism which allows the top level policy-makers to take necessary decisions and to monitor the progress. This initiative is consuming minimal additional resources but ensuring multiple aspects of inclusive, accountable and effective public service institutions.

When the initiative started it was first-of-its-kind among all developing countries. Later similar types of initiatives have emerged in many other countries. While social media has traditionally been used merely for conducting public awareness campaigns (a very traditional, one-directional approach) and counting the number of ‘Likes’ or ‘re-Tweets’, government agencies in Bangladesh, with support from a2i, are now increasingly using this platform to proactively engage with citizens, share information and deliver services more quickly and effectively than ever before. Public institutions also discovered creative new ways to attain effective citizen engagement in the process of improving public service delivery. Identification of root-level problems by the community people made the quick solution to the problems possible to a significant extent. It established a modern peer-support and mentorship platform to encourage the spread of ideas and interaction among experienced senior civil servants and junior officers with innovative ideas and ambition which forced the non-inclusive public institutions to be more inclusive. This initiative encouraged institutionalization and management of the practice of sustainable, citizen-centered innovation by breaking down hierarchical barriers across all ministries, departments and agencies.

Facebook is being used as a forum for discussion, problem solving, idea sharing and even grievance redress among public officials. The overall architecture is based primarily on:  64 open pages – one for each of Bangladesh’s 64 districts - that are accessible to citizens; and  1 central page named ‘Public Service Innovation Bangladesh’ – that is accessible only to civil servants and meant to be a closed space where they can freely discuss issues around improving public services. The success of this model has already encouraged over 5,000 offices of many ministries, directorates, sub-district level government offices and even frontline service providing agencies to also open up their own accounts. Secretaries and District Administrators regularly hold ‘Social Media Sanglaps’ (consultations) through YouTube channels to connect with field level officials and citizens’ representatives and work on urgent issues of public interest such as food adulteration and child marriage. It is the government offices which are allocating financial resources to hold such events, but other than that the only resource that is being used is human resources.

Yes

a2i is a Public Service Innovation Lab established by and within the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh with support from UNDP. An unprecedented, deep level of ownership by the government is thus built in from the outset. Moreover, the core strategy behind opting for Facebook as the platform of choice was its frugality and scalability. To ensure that the critical work to establish a modern system to redress citizens’ grievances, break down hierarchical barriers in communication, and create a peer-support and mentorship network within civil service to nurture a culture of citizen-centric public service innovation did not rely on funding for the a2i program and was thus sustainable. As the Facebook page maintenance usually doesn’t require much resources and the problems were solved either using already allocated resources or mobilizing local resources engaging the communities, this is an increasingly popular thus sustainable initiative. The success of this model has already encouraged over 5,000 offices of many ministries, directorates, sub-district level government offices and even frontline service providing agencies to also open up their own accounts.

Use of social media by different ministries and other government agencies under this initiative will foster the other SDGs and targets within. For example, Green Revolution and canal and river cleaning drives will contribute in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; Sustainable Development Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. Furthermore, Department of Social Service can contribute especially in achieving Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere and Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

a2i is a Public Service Innovation Lab established by and within the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh with support from UNDP. An unprecedented, deep level of ownership by the government is thus built in from the outset. Moreover, the core strategy behind opting for Facebook as the platform of choice was its frugality and scalability. To ensure that the critical work to establish a modern system to redress citizens’ grievances, break down hierarchical barriers in communication, and create a peer-support and mentorship network within civil service to nurture a culture of citizen-centric public service innovation did not rely on funding for the a2i program and was thus sustainable. As the Facebook page maintenance usually doesn’t require much resources and the problems were solved either using already allocated resources or mobilizing local resources engaging the communities, this is an increasingly popular thus sustainable initiative. The success of this model has already encouraged over 5,000 offices of many ministries, directorates, sub-district level government offices and even frontline service providing agencies to also open up their own accounts.

Yes

Qualitative research techniques and desk studies have been applied to evaluate the acceptance of Facebook as a credible means of communication by the civil servants and a case-by-case evaluation has been done on major change movements initiated as a result of use of Facebook within the government. Online questionnaire survey was done on senior and mid-level government officers, UDC entrepreneurs, teachers, government Facebook account administrators, and citizens. Simultaneously, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted on citizens to evaluate the rate of use of Social Media and their level of acceptance of this as an established tool for redressing grievance and driving social movement to make large scale change.

The desk studies have revealed that there are around 5000 Facebook pages among the government offices with followers ranging from civil servants to citizens. The FGDs have revealed that citizens are in general very positive about the effectiveness of Facebook in transferring their voice to the government. There is some hesitation among citizens and civil servants alike about writing posts, but the situation is improving with the institutionalization of the use of social media as a grievance redressal tool within the government.

a2i is the facilitator from the Prime Minister’s Office of the Bangladesh government’s innovation agenda, Digital Bangladesh. It works as an innovation intermediary through a whole-of-government approach – that is, rather than limiting itself to certain ministries and government organizations, it brings together all relevant stakeholders and supports, suggests and curates their work to catalyze truly unprecedented transformations in service delivery. Supported by UNDP, a2i deliberately remains a catalyst in all initiatives and actively nurtures ownership among change champions from within all ministries, the Cabinet Division, Parliament Secretaries, the Government of Bangladesh’s Chief Innovation Officers and their Innovation Teams, district and sub-district administrative heads, representatives from local government institutions and the Digital Centre entrepreneurs. Together, they form a2i’s guiding coalition which plays a crucial role in ensuring that service reforms are successful and sustainable. Alongside a2i’s strategic collaboration with Facebook, it is also developing partnerships with a growing number of international organizations such as Google, Telenor, Mozilla and several reputed international universities and foundations known for their innovative technological and social research. It is a government led initiative but the primary stakeholders, the people, were extensively involved in each phases of the initiative including design and implementation. People with different stakes were engaged in different stages to make the public institutions inclusive and effective in prompt problem solving. Citizen Journalist including Women, community people active in social media, community leaders were core stakeholders of this initiative.

Even though 94% internet users in Bangladesh use Facebook, there is still a majority who does not know about the existence of government Facebook pages and even more citizens do not know how civil servants are using social media to solve social challenges. This situation can be improved though extensive promotion from the government. There is still some fear among civil servants about posting messages in virtual platforms. Initially, absence of definite communication decorum for government officers on the use of social media made the idea confusing and public servants were reluctant to use the virtual platforms. Social media guideline was developed to define the scopes and modalities of official use of social media.