Challenges

Since its independence in 1971, Bangladesh has been continuing a 5-decade development journey. Highlights of this journey are carving out national development goals: Vision 2021: Digital Bangladesh and Vision 2041: Smart Bangladesh and their resolute implementation. The vision of Smart Bangladesh features a knowledge-based prosperous nation with high per-capita income. However, the global advent of immersing technologies is transforming e-governance as well as citizen expectations and perspectives. Moreover, growing e-services and data practice have escorted surging demand for e-service sustainability, optimization of service processes, prudent adoption of technology, and crafting a skill-based society. Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme endeavors to blend the whole of the society approach with the whole of government approach.

The future of government is an anticipatory form of government. The anticipatory government is meant to preempt problems and issues through predictive analytics, strategize plans, and execute with precision. Vision 2041: Smart Bangladesh is a perspective plan for nation-building that requires a competent civil service with appropriate knowledge skills and attitude to meet the challenge of achieving envisioned targets.

Toward a Solution

Civil Service 2041: Smart Leadership Journey addresses 4IR technologies (AI, IoT, Blockchain, Robo-appliances, ML) for transitioning from traditional methods towards novel approaches in public service delivery. Moreover, the surging data sphere solicits enhanced data skills for civil servants in using data as a decision tool and data as a service. Data analytics, visualization, and public analytics are crucial for integrated service platforms to deliver high-quality services. Data leadership will be a differentiating factor for the future of civil service. Civil service 2041 is a leadership journey for the future of civil service.  

With the aim to prepare the civil servants for Smart Bangladesh in 2041, a new initiative named ‘Civil Service 2041’ has been taken. Under this initiative, civil servants are expected to augment themselves through a Smart Leadership Journey. Smart Leadership Journey is a transformational endeavor for civil servants who must deal with a constantly changing governance environment due to disruptive development. Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme is implementing this under the supervision of the Cabinet Division, GoB.

Civil Service 2041 provides a Digital Leadership Journey for civil servants to foster with purpose. CS2041 combines civil servants’ competence, purpose, and autonomy into the Govpreneureship potion. Digital Leadership Journey helps civil servants grow in four areas: leadership, technological immersion, data skills, and human-centered design. CS2041 also builds a mesh network of collaborative learning and thinking across national and international institutions within the public-private-academic triad. 

Proactive & adaptive strategy is the prime principle of self-dependency and meaningful survival of nations against the backdrop of continuous change. The advent of technology triggered an agile transformation in governance, public awareness, social capital, demand for public service, perspective on public service, and public service blueprint. Citizens expect the government to seamlessly deliver high-quality public service and also be capable of preemptive predictive analytics of problems & issues.

The Civil Service 2041 initiative propels civil servants’ competence through a Smart Leadership Journey. The journey is diversified across the strata of civil servants. Digital Leadership Accelerator caters to specific skill requirements of individual civil servants in relevant fields. A mesh network of organizations within the Public-Private-Academia triad fosters this collaborative learning journey for empathized civil service.

Civil servants accomplishing Smart Leadership Journey are expected to progress in 1. Leadership, 2. Digital technology skills, 3. Data skills, 4. Human-Centric Design. Civil servants will be safely netted by a mesh network of collaboration to sharpen actionable insight, competence, autonomy, and purpose that blends into Govpreneureship.