Category – E-BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE
Tothyo Tori – BANGLADESH
DESCRIPTION
CARE Bangladesh with support from Grameenphone began this unique project to provide communication services to people in remotest parts of Bangladesh. It made sense to use boats as the service centres as they are the only reliable mode of transportation for most of the year in the Haor region, a wetland ecosystem in the north eastern part of Bangladesh. Hence the initiative was named ‘Tothyo Tori’ or information boats as the boats serve as information hubs for the people residing in these rural communities, providing them with the opportunity to learn, share and communicate with the world.
There are currently four information boats in operation, and they travel up and down the villages on a fixed schedule in the Sunamgonj and Kishoregonj districts. A typical boat is equipped with computers for accessing the Internet, photocopiers, printers, scanners and more. Periodically, depending on the local demand, the boats also organize health camps to provide primary healthcare services to the community.
EVALUATION
According to the WFP (World Food Programme) Poverty Atlas 2005, the Haor basin is one of the poorest and most vulnerable areas of Bangladesh. Chronic widespread poverty has denied the people of this area access to basic services such as health and hygiene, medication, information,water and sanitation, markets, etc. The Tothyo Tori project has been the first step towards bringing these marginalized communities in contact with the rest of the country and providing them with these essential services.
The one big challenge that is faced often by such undertakings is ensuring a regular and cost-effective supply of power. The Tothyo Tori operation has attempted to resolve this basic problem by roping in Intel to provide solar power to these boats. As a result, two of the four boats are have already been installed with solar panels. These are sufficient for 6 hours of operation and promise to bring down operating costs significantly.
ORIGINAL TITLE
TOTHYO TORI: ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR POOR COMMUNITIES OF HAOR REGION IN BANGLADESH
PRODUCER
CARE BANGLADESH & GRAMEENPHONE
LOCATION
DHAKA, BANGLADESH
MEDIA FORMAT
CROSS MEDIA
LANGUAGE
BANGLA AND ENGLISH
WWW
WWW.CAREBANGLADESH.ORG
WWW.GRAMEENPHONE.COM
msme.com.bd – BANGLADESH
DESCRIPTION
The portal msme.com.bd has been set up by Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) as an ecommerce website to market and retail the products of micro, small and medium enterprises in certain districts of Bangladesh. BTN with financial assistance from Islamic Development Bank is implementing a project titled “The Implementation of Rural MSME Services Using ICT in Bangladesh” under its Knowledge, Information and Communication Technology for Development programme.
The aim of the project is to contribute to the social and economic development of rural communities in six districts (Bagerhat, Jessore, Bogra, Joypurhat, Noakhali and Chittagong) of Bangladesh. The overall objective of this project is to improve the performance MSMEs in these six districts. The project aims to achieve this through the development of ICT-based MSME support services delivered via telecentres.
EVALUATION
The support service for MSMEs in this project include assistance for online business registration and access to finance, simple software tools for business management, and dynamic easy-to-use online directory of suppliers, vendors, traders, business opportunities, etc.
Initiated to enhance market linkages between the producers and the buyers, this website is a crucial element of the project and the one factor which can ensure longterm sustainability and replication of this model elsewhere. To increase its reach and bring in MSMEs from other locations and economic sub-sectors, the modules will be designed and technically supported to allow for integration of new services, content and features and will have an in-built mechanism to generate, monitor, process and report customer information.
ORIGINAL TITLE
MSME.COM.BD – ONLINE PLATFORM
PRODUCER
BANGLADESH TELECENTRE NETWORK
LOCATION
DHAKA, BANGLADESH
MEDIA FORMAT
BROADBAND/ONLINE
LANGUAGE
BANGLA AND ENGLISH
WWW
WWW.MSME.COM.BD
Nepal Wireless – NEPAL
DESCRIPTION
Nepal Wireless, begun in Nangi, a mountain village in western Nepal, is a social enterprise that provides Internet access, electronic commerce, education, telemedicine and other services to a number of remote villages in Nepal, using wireless technologies. Wi-Fi has enabled many villages within the region to connect to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Lacking even basic telephone access earlier, the communications centers in these villages now provide call services, Internet access, and video conferencing facilities.
Addressing the problem of shortage of doctors in rural clinics, tele-medicine has been turned into a viable health opportunity for the rural community. Connectivity has proved to be a remarkable boon for the yak herders and farmers living in the higher reaches of the Himalayas, as the ability to contact the world, or even the next village, is transformational. According to the latest figures, more than 100 villages in 13 districts of Nepal have been connected to the network with the approximate population of the area covered by the wireless network at about 50,000.
EVALUATION
Often, bringing computer and internet to the rural areas does not necessarily translate to actual, tangible benefits for the villagers. The main cause for this is the lack of services designed for the rural environment and content suitable for such a setting. Nepal Wireless has successfully voided this pitfall by ensuring that along with the internet they also introduce services which the community members can actually use.
Through the internal homepage of the network, the villagers can post their urgent messages, local news and information. They can put up advertisements and notices about the products they want to sell or buy on the self-developed portal, HaatBazar. This facilitates inter-village communication for local commerce. There is also a Wiki forum, where people can discuss about different technical issues and information of the network.
ORIGINAL TITLE
NEPAL WIRELESS
PRODUCER
NEPAL WIRELESS
LOCATION
NEPAL
MEDIA FORMAT
BROADBAND/ONLINE
LANGUAGE
ENGLISH AND NEPALI