‘National Intelligence Employment and Entrepreneurship (NISE)’ and ‘Muktopaath’, two innovative initiatives of Aspire to Innovate-a2i have won the ‘WITSA 2023 Global Innovation and Technology Excellence Awards’. The World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), an alliance of information technology sector organizations from various countries, gave the awards in recognition of their remarkable contribution to the skill development and education of millions of people in the country through online platforms. The award was presented on the third day of the three-day WCIT 2023 International Conference held in Kuching, Malaysia on Thursday night (September 5). a2i’s Program Associate Alavi Zaman Disha and E-Learning Coordinator Jinia Jerin received the award from the hands of WITSA Chairman Dr. Sean Seah on behalf of NISE and Muktopaath respectively.
About 130 of innovative projects from different countries submitted for this prestigious award. From here, a2i’s project ‘NISE’ won the 1st place in the Public Sector Digital Opportunity/Inclusion Award category and ‘Muktopaath’ won the 1st place in the e-Education and Learning Award category.
Awards were given this year in a total of 14 categories for the government and private/NGO sectors. In recognition of its significant contribution to upskilling millions of unemployed youths through online platforms, the ‘NISE’ project bagged the award in the Digital Opportunity/Inclusion Award category. Muktopaath has won this award in the e-Education and Learning Award category in recognition of providing online education to millions of people through e-learning platform.
The World Innovation, Technology and Service Alliance (WITSA) organizes these awards every year. It is considered as a prestigious award in the global IT sector. More than 10,000 delegates from its member countries participated in the conference titled World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT-2023) organized by WITSA on 03-05 October this year in the city of Kuching, Malaysia.
National Intelligence for Skills, Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship (NISE) is a data platform created for all stakeholders to facilitate the concept of collective intelligence in data-based decision-making to improve skills in solving the country’s unemployment problem. Data-driven decision-making and policy-making, imparting skills training to youth, supporting matchmaking across industries, facilitating one-stop solutions for youth employment, career counseling and guidance, predicting future changes in occupations, tracking employment records, NISE aims to create a central database for youth and ultimately reduce time, cost and value in acquiring their skills. 32 Divisions/Departments under 23 Ministries of the Government and 44 Industrial Owners Associations/Chambers of Commerce/Industry Skills Council are already connected to this platform. Through this platform more than 2 lakh 74 thousand unemployed youth have been created job opportunities with the help of various industries/employer and job provider websites.
On the other hand, ‘Muktopaath’ is the largest Bangla language e-learning platform containing content on general, technical, and vocational education. There are more than 46.16 lac students enrolled learning in 280 courses. So far, more than 28 lac 71 thousand students have been awarded certificates for completing their courses. The platform is also used by government institutions to provide online training to government officers and employees. So far, about 60 thousand government officials have successfully completed courses in Muktopaath. The Muktopaath app has also been developed to make online courses accessible to citizens through mobile phones. There are about 2 lac 25 thousand students using the app. Muktopaath was awarded the Sohel Samad Award and WSIS Award in 2018. In 2021 and 2022, Muktopaath won the 3rd and 4th Bangladesh Innovation Awards in the Public Service Innovation-Citizen Co-creation Category.
Congratulating a2i on its success, WITSA Chairman Dr. Sean Seah said that it is undoubtedly a matter of pride that the information technology sector has progressed from Digital to Smart Bangladesh in a short period of time. Congratulations to a2i for delivering technology services across the country through innovative innovations. I believe that technological excellence will serve as a tool to deal with our problems in this critical global moment.
Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS) congratulated a2i for winning the honor at the WITSA Awards Night. BCS President Engineer Subrata Sarkar said that BCS has always been working as a guardian of technology organizations. BCS is always committed to properly presenting the country’s innovation and effective projects to WITSA. a2i and our achievements have brought glory to the country’s technology sector.
Mr Ong Chin Seong, Chairman of The National Tech Association of Malaysia (PIKOM), along with leading people from the information technology industry of different countries of the world were present at the award event.
Last year, in recognition of providing information and services of all government departments from a single platform in 2022 to ensure the right of people to receive information, ‘National Portal Framework’ in the chairman category and innovative e-Health, the ‘Covid-19 Dashboard’ won this internationally recognized award in the IT sector.
The a2i, a whole-of-government program implemented by the ICT Division & Cabinet Division, supported by UNDP Bangladesh, catalyzes citizen-friendly public service innovations simplifying government and bringing it closer to people. It supports the government to be at the forefront of integrating new, whole-of-society approaches to achieve the SDGs.