Bangladesh Telecentre Network launched in Dhaka

Participants & Guests of the consultation meetin

Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) has been launched on January 13, 2007. For floating this network a consultation meeting titled ‘Towards Mission- 2011: Building Telecentre Family in Bangladesh’ was held at BRAC Centre INN, Dhaka. The primary agenda of BTN is to launch Mission 2011 under which telecentres will be set up all across Bangladesh by the 40th anniversary Bangladesh’s independence so that every villager can have access to livelihood services through ICTs. The meeting was presided over by Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury, the former advisor of Caretaker Government and Chairman of bracnet.net

Total 20 organizations, which include research institutions, NGOs, private sector enterprises, development partners participated in the meeting to form the network. Current practitioners presented their telecentre models and shared ideas about the roadmap to achieve Mission 2011. Bangladesh telecentre Network will be an open platform of partner organizations.

A steering group was formed with chairpersonship of Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury. A six member steering group was set up from the partner organizations with secretariat at D.Net (Development Research Network). Prof. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury has agreed to be the chair of the advisory board of the network. Eminent citizens will be soon invited to be the members of Advisory Board. A patron group will be formed soon also.

Nine task forces will be formed soon for implementing important activities towards achieving Mission 2011 targets. The taskforces which have been identified through consultation are:

• Electricity and Alternative Power
• Connectivity
• Content and Service Packages
• Capacity Building
• Innovative Solutions
• Technical Support
• Reference Desk
• Resource Mobilization
• Policy

The steering group will meet soon for setting up the secretariat and initiate identified activities with participation of all network partners.  It is to be mentioned that the idea of Mission 2011 was floated by Dr. Ananya Raihan of D.Net during the International workshop titled “Building Telecentre family in Bangladesh: A Workshop for Social Entrepreneurs and Practitioners.”, held in Rangpur in August 2006.

The initial list of institutions under various clusters, who have become the network partners, is:

Practitioners

• Amader Gram Project
• Bangladesh NGO Network for Radio Communications (BNNRC)
• BRACNET.NET
• Dhaka Ahsania Mission
• Digital Equity Network (DEN)
• Digital Knowledge Foundation (DKF)
• D.Net (Development Research Network)
• Grameen Communications
• Grameen Phone
• Learn Foundation
• Practical Action
• Proshika
• SDF
• SEBA
• Young Power in Social Action (YPSA)

Private and Business Sector [To be added more]

• Grameen Bank
• BRACNET.NET
• Grameen Phone
• Grameen Shakti

NGOs [To be added more]

• BRAC

Governments and Semi-Government Agencies

• To be added

Academia / Research [To be added more]

• Research Initiative, Bangladesh

International Development Partners and UN Bodies [To be added more]

• UNDP

Multi-donor Facilitating Institutions

• KATALYST
• Manusher Jonno Foundation
• SEDF

International Network/ Institutions [To be added more]

• Telecentre.org

Policy Think Tank

• To be added soon

Media

• To be added soon

The launching event of Mission-2011 will take place in March, 2007. Before that a series of consultation meetings will take place with all stakeholders in divisional headquarters.