Salma’s Salvation through Digital Centers
Salma had been married for three years. She was expecting her first child. Life was tough in remote Babuganj, yet she and her husband were trying to get by, excited about their newborn. But tragedy struck. Her husband’s death in a road accident deprived him of seeing his yet-to-be-born daughter. It left Salma widowed. Their […]
Superhero Nasir – an advocate for skills development using Mooktopaath
Nasir is a teacher in Barisal. But for many, he is nothing less than a superhero. For who else but a superhero would attempt to organize the unemployed youth in his little village, despite being ridiculed and laughed at? Who else but a superhero would then spend his hard-earned cash when the youth refused, offering […]
Bangladesh : The best product with the worst marketing
“Is the glass half full or half empty?” was the debate at the Nation Branding seminar at the end of December 2021 arranged by Bangladesh Brand Forum, targeting the non-resident Bangladeshis or NRBs all over the world. One distinguished panelist, an industry leader well respected for business acumen, national economic impact, and societal insight, reflected […]
a2i BRIEF
From a2i, sharing with you our very first newsletter “a2i BRIEF” highlighting the Trending Digital Innovations in our country. a2i (aspire to innovate) is the flagship digital transformation program of the Bangladesh government, with support from UNDP. For over a decade and a half, a2i has been a cornerstone of Bangladesh’s push for digitization of […]
How Unilever Bangladesh is innovating in the retail ecosystem
While Unilever has been one of the companies that has always been at the forefront of consumer trends, over the last few years, the company has also been silently digitizing the retail ecosystem of Bangladesh at scale. With the vision of developing digitally-savvy retailers in the country together with a data and science-based customer ecosystem, […]
Becoming GovTech Leaders: World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index – November 2022
Bangladesh’s digital aspirations with respect to governance has been further rewarded with it being judged as a “GovTech Leader” placing 29th among 198 countries in the World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) with a score of 0.84 out of a possible 1.00. a2i has been proud to play a major role in representing Bangladesh’s position […]
Bridging Digital Divide: Equality to e-Quality – September 2022
While technology has been a great enabler and helped developing countries leapfrog, it has also resulted in what is referred to as the digital divide, where marginalized groups and underserved citizens continue to be deprived of technology, widening the gap between them and affluent, urban citizens. With this in mind, a2i together with People-Centered Internet, […]
Learning is for all: Bangladesh joins the Marrakesh Treaty
Bangladesh has always wanted to not only be a prosperous country but an equitable one. For that, it is vital that those with disabilities are not left behind. With Bangladesh successfully depositing instruments of its accession to the Marrakesh Treaty of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to facilitate access to published works for the […]
E-governance leads the way: E-Gov Development Index (EGDI) 2022
Bangladesh ranked 111th in the overall E-Gov Development Index (EGDI) 2022 with a value of 0.5630, having risen eight places since last year and 37 places over the last eight years, a testament to the government’s tireless efforts to simplify public service delivery and make it more equitable. As per the report, Bangladesh has shown […]
Towards Innovative Bangladesh: Building a SMART nation by 2041 – August 2022
With Bangladesh having overcome myriad challenges and obstacles to fulfill its goal of becoming Digital Bangladesh, the goal is now to develop the nation into an innovative and knowledge-based economy, with smart cities and villages seen as the future. It is with that ambitious vision that a high-level workshop was organized in Dhaka, comprising numerous […]
For revolutionary structural change: Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin – June 2022
Over 1,000 public sector leaders from around the world joined for this annual event that saw a halt over the pandemic. Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor of a2i, represented Bangladesh at this prestigious event where he outlined what it was that brought him back to the country after nearly two decades of living in the US, […]
Education as required: Establishing the Blended Education Framework – March 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic taught us many lessons, one of which was that education as it was being delivered needed a radical change. Bangladesh experienced one of the longest school closures during the pandemic, and during this time, experimented with numerous alternatives to delivering lessons, from repurposing the national parliament TV channel, to delivering lessons over […]