Livelihood information portal ‘Access to livelnood information can vastly helpto improve te lves of small ndholder households. by influencing acess and ownership over resources. Farmers. can reduce agriculture inputs cost by knowing about the right proportion of fliers to use fora particular crop, which can increas yield by finding out about new irgation techniques, and timate, nancaly benefit the farmer by learning about best indigenous practices of seed preservation Labourers can prepare better for overseas work by leaning about the application and procedural pre-migraion requirements Students can increase options for higher education by comparing information ofered ty diferent colees and universities fer from home without having to visit them physically. Women can transform their ives ty discovering vital information on heath and legal recourse for domestic abuse Much of this kind of information already exists but not within easy and timely reach of the citizens atthe grassroots. Also, in many cases, information was crested by a non-government organisation (NGO) and remained within the pilot geographic area even when the information has much wider appeal. In an attempt to reduce the traditional dependency on viva voca for addressing livelihood concerns, coupled withthe cost and time spent on accessing information, UNDP and USAID supported ‘Access to Information (@2i) programme undertook an initiative to create an one-stop information portal for disseminating livethood-telated information, the national (Galo) e-Tathyakosh. Launched in May 2010, thee Tayakosh(wnw.infokosh gov.bd} isa national e-content repository containing the largest pool o livelihood related content, covering 12 cross-sectional categories including agriculture, health, law and human rights, education, literature, non-formal activities, climate change and disaster management, ciizen services, tourism, ICT, trade and commerce, employment, among ot ‘The primary motivation behind the creation of @ web-based searchable encyclopaedic content, based on the vernacular, was to ab initio organise the alteady available information in a coordinated way through partnerships with hundreds of creator organisations and to support in building @ democratic socely in which citizens gain @ more equal position in terms of access to information, pertinent to all livelihood related attairs Enhancing access to information e-Tatyakosh is an example of crowd-sourcing led content development ‘and content dissemination — the content is created by hundreds of government ‘agencies and private organisations, and then disseminated by thousands of entrepreneurs at the Union Information and Service Centres (VISCs). While conducting fielé surveys in 2009 and 2010, 22i came to appreciate @ significant demand for livethood related content atthe grassroots level. The programme also learned that vatious government and non-government slakeholders hada large volume of contents to share, but, due othe lack of single focal point, the resources could nat be targeted to rightul users. Thus, e-Tathyakosh tried to —Umes = ao fll in this vacuum by. solieting contributions from content partners, and ‘making these available online The eTathyakosh is a cumulative public-private partnership (PPP) effort of 350 parners, comprising of various Government departments and agencies, clevelopment partners and NGOs. There are 94 and. 256 private and public partners respectively. Establishing and strengthening this verse network of partners has been the key in giving life tothe national e-conent repository. (One of the major offshoots of the e-Tathyalosh platform has been the development of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service. The IVR, by traning its content trom e-Tatyakosh repository and sing mobiles phones asthe medium of service delivery, is interconnecting citizens. with six private mobile phone operators in eleven city corporations. The key atacton of WR is ts abiliy to function with completely ron-educted information seekers having acess toa very basic mobile handset Another spillover eect ofthe e-Tathyekosh 's Piola It aims to comest. the l‘eputation of Bangladeshi service Providers by creating a direct channel of communication between citizens and experts. Any information seeker can post hisiher query on Pipika through nearby UISC and receive an expert feedback promptly. Such communication is completly tree of cost. For instance, a farmer can now direlly ask an agriculture expert about ctop diseases and environment friendly pesticides, and receive a reply a S as a ed 5 z = Sswithin a short 1d of time. Not only does Pipilika save time and the physical effort, it OOCOLATMTO MALE also provides quality assurance for the information delivered, generating a check The content of e-Tathyakosh is being opened to the mobile and balance system of accourablly apps markets spurring a burgeoning growth of feature phone betwen information sekers and providers. and smart phone users to access vital information at their fingertips, thereby further minimising the cost incurred and time required to access information. Today, the impeding goal is to institutionalise e-Tathyakosh so as to give it greater eTatyehosh operates onthe princi that Structure and sharper focus. The _institutionalised informationhas no intrinsic valupunkess tis @-Tathyakosh Foundation will act as the monitoring body for ‘accessible and_locally meaningful. BY all contents being made available through the national {acltting spread of Inethood information information portal. The e-Tathyakosh also plans to deepen the to millions, the national information portal mis sign can stroad the nage ot WR system, It is expected that the IVR will soon introduce a sroviously dispersed infomation ang ‘0° helpline that would connect the caller directly to an raterials,As of July 2013 the ecTayekesh Operator who will provide personalised service. There are also receved more thar 6 milion his wih 6 plans to introduce ‘push-pull SMS system’ where a citizen will milion incividval nts. The mest fequent text his/her query using a predetermined format and receive users belong tothe youth cohort, indicating instant response. In addition, e-Tathyakosh hopes to launch blooming presence of technologically savy enoyapyy Rust cto. now, poy mare information sub-portals, smaller extensions of the rinyakosh ower other, more popu, national information portal. Such a sub-portal called ‘Praggya’ search engines as a source ot information iS already in operation dedicated to all issues regarding because of is Indigenous natu. violence against women (VAW). Praggya allows all Community radios emily sing stakeholders to centrally upload their respective work content trom e-Tathyakos® in designing thei relevant to VAW as well as provides vital information on the human development programmes services being provided by government and other The atmosphre of trust and transparency TGANisations. In future, such sub-portals will need to be which is generated by the epesitory has eventually linked to the IVR and a hotline in making already encouraged many insiuiions to government responsive to its citizenry's demands for open up to such cooperation, which were information and services. traditionally quite inwardooking in their jeavours. Some of the direct livelihood impacts of e-Tathyakosh include ising tural productivity, better preparation for disaster management, safer migration of ‘overseas workers and overall empowerment af iizens through inceased flow of infomation, For instance, in case of fgal tecourse, a common phenomenon in developing societies, one can learn about legal procedures and solutions in an easy, step-by-step method, of in some cases, in pictorial format. Addressing constraints, altering lives fast, Access to Information (a2i) Programme — Prime Minister's Office USAID www.ael.pmo.gov.bd