EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The report broadly explores the customer relationship management (CRM) practices in the electricity distribution sector in Bangladesh. It identifies some of the existing challenges and how these can be improved with the use of ICTs and better service design. In a country where less than half the population has access to electricity through 13.5 million connections to the grid, the challenge facing the sector is two-fold. First, those that are privileged to be connected to the grid, need improved services.
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the factors that influence formalization of poor micro-enterprises (MEs) in urban locations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The paper draws from a multi-country survey of information and communication needs of poor MEs in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in the second quarter of 2013. Through logistic regression, it models business registration among such MEs to understand what affects the decision to formalize within these environments. The paper also looks at the barriers to registration and the policy implications from these findings. Using descriptive statistics and models we find that the MEs lack of formalization is explained to a significant level by their level of education, gender, size of the enterprise and awareness levels.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have embarked on government funded e-government and telecenter initiatives, with internet access at telecenters as a central delivery channel for e-Gov services. However, are telecenters still relevant in the delivery of citizen services and should they be subsidized by government? To answer this, a survey was conducted amongst 2,750 poor citizens, who have had a government interaction and who live within 5km of 275 randomly selected telecenters in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Higher awareness and use of telecenters was seen in Bangladesh, with 68 percent of the Bangladeshi sample having heard of the telecenter, and 52 percent having visited a telecenter and used its services. Telecenter awareness in the Sri Lankan sample was lower, at 46 percent, with usage even lower, at 16 percent amongst those who were aware.
National Consultancy for ILO on Green Jobs Asia, ILO-2011June18
Competencies for a holistic education, Sinhala (Adaptation of basic competencies in the teacher handbook for Grade 3 , Sri Lanka)
System of local government in Sri Lanka is long in history but short on achievements. Local authorities are the political institutions closest to people, but, except for a handful that keeps winning national awards, others fall short. While political actors take the center stage, taking credit for achievement or taking blame for failures, professionals in local government take a back stage. Driven by an emerging body of research that points to the power of networks in ICT enabled societies, we carried out a series of action research projects using the solid waste sector in local government as a case in point to induce connectivity among service provider professionals in the sector. Three new ideas for enabling knowledge networks emerged from our study.
Linking Knowledge to Innovation in Government Services: The Case of Solid Waste Services in Local Government in Sri Lanka
Five local government authorities bordering North Bolgoda Lake, namely, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council, Moratuwa Urban Council, Boralesgamuwa Urban Council, Kesbewa Urban Council and Panadura Pradeshiya Sabha, tip 7500 metric tons of solid waste per month in Karadiyana, a marshy land of about 25 acres in extent, situated where Weras Ganga from Boralesgamuwa meets the Bolgoda Lake. Little do the residents in these local authorities realize that the waste they thought they disposed comes back to them as pollutants contaminating their neighbouring body of water and the general environment. It is the responsibility of respective local authorities do their best to (a) minimize the waste sent to the site and (b) pre-sort the waste sent to the site so that a maximum amount can be recycled and residuals are made minimal. The 3R Initiative at LIRNEasia carried out a survey to evaluate how well the local authorities are fulfilling their responsibility. Results are presented here for discussion and feedback.
A case-study from Sri Lanka by Harsha de Silva and Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara