What is the significance of ICTs to legislators?

Rohan Samarajiva

Yangon, 26 July 2014

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Canada and the Department for International Development UK..

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SOMETHING SEEMINGLY SIMPLE

Gates Foundation 2011 Innovation Awardee: Bangladesh’s Dr Asm Amjad Hossain

• Raised immunization rates in 2 districts from 67% and 60% in 2009 to 85% and 79% in 2010

• How did he do it?– Registered pregnant women (date of delivery, location,

and phone number) so vaccinators knew when children were born, where they were, and could contact their mothers

– Established annual schedules for vaccinations– Had vaccinators put phone numbers on immunization

cards, so parents with young children could get in touch with a health worker

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Necessary condition: 10 80 in 5 years

• 10 80 mobile SIMs/100 people in Myanmar is government’s stated objective– Laws have been approved– Rules formulated– Licenses issued– Investments in USD billions have commenced

• It will not be long before those working in the field in Myanmar will be able to assume electronic connectivity in most households, like Dr Hossain

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EXPORTS AND JOBS

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Sri Lanka ICT sector, 2007-2014

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Software & business process management

• White collar employment that is attractive to young people entering job market

• Exporting services is better than exporting people

• High net value addition, compared to, say, garment exports

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Necessary conditions

• International connectivity supplied by multiple operators over multiple media

• Services office locations that are close to airport and to concentrations of potential employees

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Sufficient conditions

• Markets must be found– Myanmar is latecomer (Sri Lanka entered in 2003-

04)– Best would be to identify a niche, e.g., services in

Japanese, and not rely solely on low cost (Sri Lanka’s niche was accountancy and financial services)

• Good supply of educated employees

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DELIVERING GOVERNMENT SERVICES BETTER

E government: Delivering services to the people

Voice is part of the answer: Government call center

Web Interface 2

Web Interface n

Citizens | Industry | IGOs | Diaspora | CSOs

CALL CENTER

Govt entity 1

Web Interface 1

Govt entity nGovt entity 2

Not web OR voice, but web AND voice; supplemented by common access centers for specialized functions & special groups

Even in smartphonerich New York City, 50,000 calls are made every day.

• USD 46 million a year to operate (because of high NYC salaries)• 306 full-time operators, handling an average of 90 calls per shift• More than 50,000 calls a day on average• 3600 pieces of information retrieved from database• Preparing the database is the Most important activity; part of reengineering government• “No door is wrong” except for 911 (but even here calls will be redirected)

New York City 311 Call Center

What calls to New York City 311 are about through the day

Big data from call centers (& web inquiries) can help improve services

• Can serve as diagnostics to identify geographical areas with problems and also particular services

• Can drive resource allocations• Can also provide geo-spatial clues to identify

problems and solutions