Challenges in making “public� information available through private channels and the ways to overcome those.

Hello, this is Kashfia from WIN Incorporate. It's my pleasure to join again to share thoughts and learn more from the forum members. Since we are practicing the PPP model in our www.ruralinfobd.com project, there are some challenges that we are facing always and trying to conquer that. One of the challenge in finding and using public info is the "accessibility'. Sometimes the access to specific categories of public info is restricted while the others are open and unrestricted. Other constraints are information availability, complexity or uncertainty, mode of cost sharing, lack of trust and absence of proper commitment and coordination. In some cases the updated information isn't available also. So, sometime the authenticity of public info is denoting a question. As making "public" information available through private channels can have a significant impact, it's need to provide insight on how private channels may be able to manage their needed agricultural info despite bureaucracy of Govt. Easy accessibility, concrete commitment, synchronizing work for better coordination, keeping trust on each other and ensure the accuracy of public info is necessary to overcome the limitations. Mode of cost sharing will be decided by both partner. Hope more productive and fruitful ideas will come from further discussion. Waiting for your valuable comments and recommendations. Kashfia ahmed WIN Incorporate Bangladesh.

Dear Noel, Thanks for your renpose. You will be happy to know that my organization 'WIN Incorporate' is trying to follow the same practice that you mentioned. We are collecting the related docs from concerned institution or any other relevant source and after finalize the content we do ensure the validity and authenticity by the sector specific specialist (through a pool of experts). We check the content with farmer also to make it more user friendly and acceptable. Finally the content is hosted in the web (www.ruralinfobd.com). Though there is no restriction to do that, but there are some limitations also. In some cases, we found that the hard copies are not updated regularly. And sometimes the access to specific categories of public info, such as using the video clips content, is restricted. So for getting the latest information we need to arrange some agreement or MoU type deal with the institution. And that is one foremost challenge . Kashfia. Bangladesh.

Dear Noel, Thanks for your comment. Here I am answering your questions. What investment are you making in nurturing a relationship with the government institutions? We have already taken initiative to work together with the 'Department of Agriculture'. And the MoU signing deal is under processing. Some activities are designed also that would help us to work jointly. what incentives are you offering government institutions to work with you in developing material? Incentives that we can offer Govt is the "knowledge sharing'. Since we have practical experience on how the IT based content can help farmers, we can share that practice with the Govt body. Kashfia.

Dear Kashfia, It is good you are entering into an MOU with the Department of Agriculture Extension. That seems a very practical direction. I am interested to know if you have also approached research institutions such as Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. Also what does your unit look like in the village or union? Is it a cluster of computers or a single computer? Who manages the computer? Noel