Dependency on traditional, manual data collection processes means government data is usually unavailable before it becomes outdated. This delay makes it impossible to catch and fix issues while they occur. Often times, the problem does not become apparent until it is too late to fix.

As COVID-19 pointed out so ruthlessly, government interventions need to be fast, adaptive, and highly responsive to a rapidly evolving situation on the ground.

• Who should be the target for economic or financial assistance?
• Are poor households receiving social transfers?
• Which occupational groups suffer the highest food insecurity?
• How are districts experiencing changes in per capita remittance?
• To what extent is remote education helping children from poor families during pandemic-induced school closure?
• Where is child marriage increasing?

In the face of such urgent, major policy questions, the socio-economic dashboard supports agile decision making by the government through real-time sectoral data availability. It engages research organizations, bridges public sector data and private sector data, integrates them and visualizes key findings to enable informed decision making that optimizes outcomes for citizens. Post-intervention, it also provides the means for rigorous, detailed measurement of policy impact.

This makes the socio-economic dashboard a key element of a2i’s efforts to support the government in building forward better in order to protect years of impressive development progress including the proximate milestone of LDC graduation, and the country resuming progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

In order to successfully meet the SDGs, measuring progress at a national level is not enough. We need to measure progress at the local level.

The SDG Tracker (sdg.gov.bd), was developed to enable precisely that – the localization and continuous tracking of SDGs. It is a web-based data repository for monitoring the implementation of development initiatives, strengthening timely data collection, and improving situation analysis and performance monitoring of achieving the SDGs.

Launched during the UN General Assembly in 2017 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, it helps stakeholders, be they policy makers, government agencies, the private sector, civil society organizations, international organizations, or researchers to keep track of the progress against each target of the respective SDGs, and prioritize resource allocation and service delivery accordingly.

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In the past, various sector-based indicators were monitored and analyzed by collecting data manually once a year. At present, every three months, a meeting of the National Data Coordination Committee which was formed under the direction of Hon’ble Prime Minister and chaired by the Secretary of Statistical and Informatics Division, Ministry of Planning is being held to monitor and analyze various SDG indicators through SDG Tracker and instructions are being given to various departments/agencies to update information and take action.

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Thanks to this novel institutional arrangement, the SDG tracker has gained the capability to show the sector specific development status of Bangladesh. For example, it could tell us how education was faring in Kishoreganj, or what the employment scenario in Sirajganj looked like.

• 92 Agencies from 43 Ministries are Associated

• 1226 Government Officials Have Been Trained

• 177 Indicators Data Have Been Availed out of 231 Indicators

MPs in Bangladesh are not simply lawmakers enacting legislative duties but also act as local development champions for their respective constituencies.

This distinction is vital in Bangladesh. A voter from Bandarban does not vote based on the laws he thinks his MP would act. Rather, the voter expects them to aid in local development, be it the need for improved public health facilities, the quality of schools, requirement for a bridge or advice on the allocation of social safety nets.

‘My Constituency’ is a unique data platform developed by a2i, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat and UNDP Bangladesh. It builds on the foundation of the SDG Tracker and creates a localized lens of development that enables MPs to know both the development progress and the development targets set nationally, while simultaneously helping shape those targets and achieve progress locally, in their respective constituencies. It also supports the overall progress of the SDG agenda of the central government by enabling decentralized monitoring of area-based development.

Launched in 2020, the My Constituency provides the latest information for MPs to take informed decisions backed by data. It encompasses data of 10 inclusive themes, including education, poverty, and health, along with 86 total indicators, all designed to provide MPs with up to date, SDG-aligned, local and aggregate, national development data.

• 86 Indicators

• 10 Thematic Areas

• 25 Ministries/Department Connected

For millions of marginalized people and communities living in the world’s biggest flood-prone delta, Bangladesh’s annual floods pose a serious risk.

The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), under the leadership of the Ministry of Water Resources, with technical support from a2i and Google developed a system that predicts when and where flooding will occur—and keeps people safe and informed.

By processing BWDB’s existing 5-day flood forecasting data, Google uses AI-powered Hydrologic modelling to provide more precise and granular forecasts of various types – including safety advice with contact details for emergency services and supplies, and even harvesting advice – as well as warnings through improved flood maps to the local community. The system works on an instantaneous basis, providing three days to three hours warning before the onset of floods. Another key value addition is the interpretation of the technical forecast into language that is easily comprehensible.

However, relative to the population of Bangladesh, the number of Android phone users in remote areas is still low. To address this, there is ongoing discussion with mobile networks to find a way of sending predictions via text messages.

Getting past the Covid-19 pandemic called for a combined effort from all sectors. Developed at the height of the pandemic, the ‘National COVID-19 Data Intelligence Platform’ has been one of the country’s most effective interventions to stop the spread of the virus. Designed with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the platform is a Collective Data Intelligence System that brought together private sector, civil society, academia, media and development partners from around the world to form an unprecedented partnership and establish a novel, Collective Data Intelligence System that enables: 

1. Syndromic surveillance 
2. Mortality surveillance
3. Contact tracing
4. Epidemiological modelling
5. Health response planning and management

The system, through the use of advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools, analyzes data coming from citizen self-reports from different telecom services (333, 16263, *3332#), hospitals, telehealth centres, websites, RT PCR labs, vaccination centres, etc. It presents them in the National Statistics Dashboard, Weekly Dashboard, Hospital Information dashboard and the Vaccination Dashboard. These dashboards have been the most important tools during the pandemic for Policymakers to understand the Covid-19 situation and prioritize and take necessary health and resource management interventions.