Local e-services still send citizens back to govt offices: CPD
It also recommends privacy-protective mechanisms to address concerns over misuse of personal information, online fraud and unauthorised access.
Bangladesh's efforts to digitise local government services have yet to eliminate paperwork and physical visits, with most surveyed women and more than half of young people still requiring offline steps to complete e-services, according to a Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) study.
The findings were presented at a dialogue "E-Governance at the Local Government Institutions: Current State and Way Forward" organised by the CPD under the Nagorikata: Civic Engagement Fund at Lakeshore Hotel in the capital today (31 August).
The study found that only 31.9% of surveyed women and 43.8% of youths could complete an entire e-service process online. Others still had to submit physical documents, make payments or provide signatures offline.
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The study surveyed 2,611 people, including 1,382 youths, 957 women and members of marginalised groups. It also covered 297 local government offices, while the E-Governance Preparedness Index assessed 267 government offices.
The offices scored just 38.9 out of 100 in overall e-governance preparedness, with infrastructure readiness the weakest area at 24.1.
The infrastructure shortage is particularly acute at the grassroots level. Union agriculture offices have an average of only 0.15 functioning computers, with 44% of their computers non-functional. Meanwhile, 97% of union agriculture offices and 67% of union parishads surveyed reported having no power backup.
"People still have to repeatedly visit government offices to receive services. This wastes time and often involves harassment and corruption," CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun (now distinguished fellow effective from today) said at the event.
Technology alone will not ensure good governance, she said, stressing the need for reliable internet, trained officials, integrated databases, cybersecurity, personal data protection and clearly defined institutional responsibilities.
The study also found significant concerns over data privacy, particularly among women. Only 33.2% felt completely safe sharing personal information through government e-services, while 60.1% felt partially safe and 6.7% felt completely unsafe.
Among women who felt unsafe, 73.2% cited fears of personal data being leaked or hacked. Meanwhile, 61% said they had received unauthorised communications after using an e-service.
Grievance mechanisms also remain largely unused. Some 83.3% of women and 78.9% of youths said they had never filed an official complaint about an e-service. Among women, 8.8% said they wanted to complain but did not know how.
To address these shortcomings, CPD recommended introducing an "End-to-End Digital Service" standard, under which applications, verification, payments, processing, communication and final delivery would be completed digitally wherever possible.
It also proposed a "No Wrong Door" system to direct citizens to the appropriate government agency without requiring them to know which office provides a particular service.
Other recommendations include stronger interoperability among government databases, a single application-status tracking system, clear service standards on fees and processing times, and an e-governance performance dashboard.
CPD also proposed a "One Digital Member per Household" initiative, expanded union digital centres and targeted digital-literacy programmes.
Fahmida called for local budgets, project costs, beneficiary lists and service-delivery timelines to be made public, alongside digital systems for filing complaints, tracking cases and appealing decisions.
She stressed that women, youth, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, low-income households and people in remote areas must not be left behind in the digital transition.
Fahmida chaired the dialogue, while Katharina König, deputy team leader of Nagorikata: Civic Engagement Fund, delivered the introductory remarks.
CPD Research Fellow Tamim Ahmed and Research Associate Sabiha Sharmin presented the findings. The discussants included Ananya Raihan, chairperson of iSocial; Aminul Mohaimen, MIS expert in Public Finance Management; Fazlul Zayed Pavel, senior consultant at Aspire to Innovate; and Mohammad Nur Ullah, assistant professor of Public Administration at Bangladesh University of Professionals.
