Abstract
The study aims to analyze local needs/demands of information services in two Char-based Unions (i.e. Ghorjan and Rajapur) of Sirajganj district to address shortcomings of information requires for sustaining people’s lives and livelihood and contributing to the development of a Disaster Information Management System in Char-land areas of Bangladesh. It is a fact that a large section of Char communities is staying out of access to information at present due to their geographical isolation, lack of appropriate communication mechanisms, and initiatives - placing them in a difficult situation to survive. From this point of view, the focal theme of this study was the assessment of local needs/demands of information to develop “sustainable information communication and services mechanisms” by which the Char-land people get available access to such information. Based on this theme, the study adopted a participatory research approach to allow a cross-section of some selected stakeholders groups (farmer, fisherman, and migrant workers) along with Union Digital Center (UDC) and Char Digital Center (CDC) entrepreneurs, Union Parishad representatives, local NGOs, technical institutions, community volunteers, Government officials and community-based civil society organizations in selected Char-land areas to share their information needs and possible ways for channelizing it in long term perspectives and prioritize it in line with the people’s necessity and emergency, and finally tried to shape a framework for sustainable use of such information and communication services by using existing UDC, CDC, and community volunteers.
Highlights
The ubiquitous nature of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not a myth at present but a reality - familiar to most of the people across the globe (Muzareba and Rahman, 2016) which includes different online and offline communication services like computer, telephone, television, internet, printer, photocopiers and so on that play a major role for the economic, societal and political development of a country (FAO, 2001; Hasan et al, 2009 and Hoque and Sorwar, 2015; Hossain et al, 2019)
It is a fact that Char-based isolated communities have no timely access to disaster information due to the absence of community-friendly information, communication and transformation mechanisms
The relevant secondary information was generated from various sources, such as analytical reports, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and Union database etc. to supplement the primary information
Summary
The ubiquitous nature of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not a myth at present but a reality - familiar to most of the people across the globe (Muzareba and Rahman, 2016) which includes different online and offline communication services like computer, telephone, television, internet, printer, photocopiers and so on that play a major role for the economic, societal and political development of a country (FAO, 2001; Hasan et al, 2009 and Hoque and Sorwar, 2015; Hossain et al, 2019) Both developed and developing countries are experiencing the digital revolution at present (Overseas Development Institute, 2002; Kashem et al, 2013; Rahman, 2016). There is a great concern that digital divide still exists between rural and urban areas of developing countries (Hoque and Sorwar, 2015).
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