Bangladesh moved up eight notches as it ranked 111th among 193 countries in this year's UN E-Government Development Index, according to UN E-Government Survey 2022 by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) that assessed the development over the last two years.
It has made 20 steps up to rank 75th place in the E-Participation Index, underscoring the country's improvement in e-participation despite the global crises of the past two years caused by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic.
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The survey assesses online service delivery, legal, and policy framework, status of e-participation as well as telecommunication infrastructure and human capital.
This survey contains the most important international indexes that measures the development of digital governments in the areas of e-services, telecommunications infrastructure, and human capital worldwide.
The UN report said that Bangladesh secured the highest E-Government Development Index (EGDI) value in the top Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Bangladesh remains in the high EGDI group in two consecutive surveys. Bangladesh is working on different e-government initiatives to improve efficiency and capacity in public services delivery.
The report said Bangladesh has shown tremendous growth in terms of digital financial account access through the proliferation of branchless banking, which has taken full-service retail banking to the doorsteps of rural citizens across the country, and soaring mobile financial services (MFS), which have reached a client base of over 100 million.
Combining these channels, and in collaboration with the Ministries of Social Welfare, Finance, and Bangladesh Bank, the a2i Programme of the Government of Bangladesh, with support from UNDP, the Gates Foundation and the Consultative Group to assist the poor, developed the "Citizen's Choice Architecture" for digital payments of social safety net programs-such as elderly allowance, allowance for widowed, deserted, and destitute women, allowance for financially-insolvent disabled people.
In Bangladesh, communication and collaboration are facilitated at the country, municipal, and rural local government levels through e-participation tools available on the national portal. The Disability Innovation Lab to support the creation, testing and commercialization of disability inclusive products and e-services, the report said.
In 2009, Bangladesh adopted the national digital Bangladesh strategy, which aims to transform the country into a digitally developed nation by 2021 through ICT integration in support of good governance, law enforcement, employment, and growth.
