Citizen's Voice Platform For Communities

Citizen participation in improving public service through ICT

Like every other country, the citizens of Bangladesh are entitled to different free and fee-based public services. These services include essential ones like education, health, energy and communication. A large section of population depends on these public services due to their low purchasing power and other limitations. Every Bangladeshi citizen has the right to those services. These citizens rights have been addressed in the Constitution of Bangladesh. The nature and scope of these services have been outlined in the citizen charters of the respective organizations. The general population can know about those services from these citizens charters.

Many citizens of Bangladesh are not aware of the public services available and their right to use these services. The level of awareness on these issues is very low, especially in the disadvantaged and marginalized sections. Experience shows us that when they become aware of these services and engage in the process, the quality of service goes up. If citizens participation can be ensured then the service providers can assess the needs more accurately and concentrate on improving these services. In the context of Bangladesh there is an urgent need of engaging citizens for more interaction with the public service providers.

Population Services And Training Center (PSTC), with the help of United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), has started a project which provides a platform for the citizens to voice their opinions on quality of service of the public service providers and to initiate interaction with them for improvement of services.

Goals:

-Improve citizens lives by improving quality of public service-Increase effectiveness of the service providers through feedback-Provide a democratic space for interaction among service recipients and providers through appropriate use of technology.-Assist in strengthening democratic institutions and right based environment.

Objectives:

-To increase awareness by informing citizens about existing services. -To create a bridge between the service providers and the recipients through effective communication using ICT.-To motivate the citizens to establish their rights and to highlight their feedback/suggestions using citizen journalism and new media tools-Launching an interactive website which will draw attention of the service providers.-To establish partnership with media to highlight quality of service related issues to a wider level.Activities:

-To make citizens aware of the existing public services.-To communicate with the public service providers and organize workshops-To collect feedbacks/suggestions on existing public services-To update the web platform with information and actions to improve quality of service.-Mobilizing volunteer groups in different locations.-Engage social workers and civil society representatives.-Train volunteers and civil society activists about the basic rights of the citizens and use of ICT to enable them to voice their opinions.

Expected results:

-Citizens will be aware of their civic rights. If they miss out on their rights, they will try to ensure that they get their rights.-The informed citizens will create communities to work for improvement of services.-The relationship between public service providers and general citizens will improve. -Every citizen will be able to send their feedback/suggestions on different public services using mobile phone and/or internet. -Public services will improve and be effective in vital sectors like health and education-Through training the volunteers will learn to take more responsibility of the society and environment. Improve their ICT skills and knowledge.-The mainstream media will communicate with the citizens and service providers and highlight these activities.

The main objective of this project is to bring the general citizens in proximity of the public service providers. The citizens need to be aware of their rights and responsibilities and this web platform will help them voice their opinions on their satisfaction/grievances, opportunities/challenges etc. General citizens, especially the trained volunteers will use basic ICT tools like mobile phones to send their feedback /information/suggestions in the form of text/voice/image/videos to this web platform. Similarly the public service providers will highlight their position and engage in dialogues with the service receivers. Through this interaction we expect an effective execution of services and a general improvement of democratic institutions and space.