http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/179 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:55:32 GMT 2026-04-07T01:55:32Z http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/4694 The ICT-Based Food Security Management of Bangladesh Hossain, Mohammad Helal Food security remains a critical issue in Bangladesh, where an essential part of the population faces challenges related to access, availability, and utilization of nutritious food. Addressing these challenges requires innovative approaches, and integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has emerged as a promising solution. This study aims to investigate the role of ICT in food security management in Bangladesh, exploring its potential to enhance agricultural productivity, improve market efficiency, and ensure equitable access to food resources. The objectives include assessing the effectiveness of ICT-based interventions, identifying key challenges and opportunities, and providing recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders to leverage ICT for sustainable food security outcomes. The study titled The ICT-Based Food Security Management of Bangladesh investigates the complex relationships that shape food security management in Bangladesh. A quantitative research approach was employed to attain the purposes of this research based on cross sectional variable. The primary data was collected through structured questionnaire surveys based on a 5-point Likert scale of 400 with critical stakeholders, including government officials in agricultural department, agricultural experts, farmers, and representatives of ICT companies from Dhaka (20.3%), Chottogram (14%), Khulna (28.3%), and Sylhet (37.5%) in Bangladesh, based on purposive sampling. Additionally, quantitative analysis was conducted to measure the influence of ICT on various food security indicators, including agricultural productivity, market efficiency, and food access; collected data was analyzed through demographic, descriptive, and structural equation modeling by using SPSS 25 and SmartPLS4. Reliability is assessed through Cronbach's alpha and Validity through AVE. The study used SPSS 25 for descriptive statistics and SmartPLS4 for hypothetical relationships among the variables in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Analysis. Additionally, secondary data were collected by reviewing relevant policy documents, reports, and scholarly articles that provide insights into the policy context, challenges, and opportunities associated with ICT-driven food security management in Bangladesh. All the data is sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and is available on the World Bank (WB) website. The research used ix a mix of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modeling and SEM to evaluate the connections between ICT adoption, food security indices, and their related components. The results of this study reveal that ICT-based interventions have significantly contributed to food security management in Bangladesh. These interventions have facilitated real-time monitoring of agricultural activities, weather patterns, market prices, and food distribution channels, enabling policymakers to make informed decisions and allocate resources efficiently. The study found that food production & distribution (FPD) is essential to food security management (FSM). In addition, the data analysis indicated a substantial and favorable correlation between food safety and food security management in Bangladesh. The statistical study revealed a robust and affirmative association between these two notions, implying that endeavors focused on boosting food safety are linked to enhanced food security management methods. The results of the statistical analysis (H6), including path coefficients and significance levels, support the notion that the presence of Digital Market & Payment (DMP) significantly mediates the relationship between Food Production & Distribution (FPD) and Food Security Management (FSM). This mediation effect underscores the standing of digital solutions in enhancing the effectiveness of food security management strategies. The data analysis conducted (H7) in this research does not provide sufficient support for the mediating role of Digital Market & Payment (DMP) in the relationship between Food Safety and Food Security Management (FSM). The consequences indicate that digital market and payment systems do not significantly contribute to bridging the gap between food safety efforts and the effectiveness of food security management practices. Furthermore, ICT tools such as mobile applications, e commerce platforms, and digital payment systems have enhanced transparency, efficiency, and inclusivity within the food supply chain, benefiting producers and consumers. However, challenges such as digital divide issues, infrastructure limitations, and data privacy concerns pose significant barriers to implementing ICT-based food security interventions effectively. This study adds to the current body of knowledge by offering hard proof that interventions based on information and communication technologies improve food x security management in Bangladesh. The findings underscore the potential of ICT to address complex food security challenges, enhance resilience to shocks, and promote sustainable agricultural Development. Furthermore, the insights generated from this research can inform policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders in designing and implementing effective ICT strategies to achieve food security goals in Bangladesh and beyond. Recommendations are provided for policymakers to address the identified challenges and leverage the full potential of ICT for sustainable food security outcomes in Bangladesh. Lastly, integrating ICT into food security management represents a promising avenue for advancing agricultural productivity, enhancing market efficiency, and ensuring food access for all segments of society in Bangladesh. Continued investment in ICT infrastructure, capacity building, and policy support is essential to maximize the potential of ICT in addressing persistent food security challenges and achieving sustainable development objectives. This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Tue, 08 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/4694 2025-07-08T00:00:00Z http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/3594 Institutional Role in the Development of Women Entrepreneurship in Small and Medium Enterprises ( SMEs )in Bangladesh Siddique, A.B.M Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in an economy due to their contributions towards employment generation, improvement in income distribution, poverty alleviation, growth of manufacturing output and exports, and boosting rural development. The current development paradigm in Bangladesh aims at achieving accelerated economic growth with declining poverty, income inequality, and spatial disparity through ensuring Women participation in SMEs. Light Engineering (LE) sub-sector of SMEs is a potential sector of SMEs which has about $ 8.2 Billion market demand in Bangladesh. Women participation in this potential sector need to increase through Government policy supports. The key approach to achieve these goals is to boost growth in manufacturing and service sectors and induce the labour force to move from low-return agricultural and informal activities to these high-value added yielding Light Engineering Sub-Sector of SMEs. The development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is considered to be a vital element in this development strategy for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) The study intends to analyze the role of the SMEs and the necessity of financing SMEs in the changing business environment at home and abroad. It aims at reviewing the present status of SME financing and evaluating the administrative and policy reforms for facilitating SME financing as well as LEEs financing. It also tries for assessing the role of the concerned agencies in relation to SME finance, and its support services along with the availability of institutional credit facilities for SMEs as well as LEEs. The study also attempts to identify the problems, challenges and opportunities of financing SMEs in Bangladesh and also to suggest remedies. The study is of evaluative type. Survey method and documentary analysis method have been used here. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used in this research. These data were collected through close ended questionnaire, in-depth interview, discussion with the concerned persons, seminars, workshops and other published and unpublished sources. The sample respondents of the study are selected purposively. About 65 percent respondents are taken from LES while 15 percent respondents are taken from FIs. The rest of the respondents include concerned government executives, scholars, journalists, SME artisans, successful entrepreneurs. The number of respondents was 210 in total out of 600 Women Entrepreneurs in Light Engineering manufacturing sector from the database of BSCIC. The study areas are Sutrapur Thana from Dhaka, Kutwall Thana ,Comilla Kutwali Thana ,from Bogra and Chittagong District for surveying the entrepreneurs in LE sub sector of SMEs. At present, the SME sector is envisaged as the 'Driving Force' of economic growth and employment in the developing countries like Bangladesh due to the requirement of low level of capital, tradition bound technology, agro-based resources and availability of cheap labour forces. xi But, a very few studies on the contemporary issues of SMEs had been carried out earlier in the academic level. For this reason, this study is necessary for the policy makers and other stakeholders in Bangladesh for realizing the importance of Women Entrepreneurial initiative in Light Engineering manufacturing sub sector of SMEs in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is now in the trade liberallzation .process and she is facing the market competitiveness where international trade is going to be duty free to a great extent and the facilities like GSP are being gradually withdrawn for LDCs. Again, the current global economic meltdown has also created ample of opportunities, like capital machinery import for having new import substitute industries, exporting indigenous and environment friendly goods produced in the labor intensive industries, attracting FDI, increasing RMG export, creating job market in the abroad and so on. But, in spite of being a formidable multiplier of economic growth trade liberallzation is now yielding the risks of widening inequalities within a country and among the nations. Now food security, environment friendly production, sustainable development etc., are getting importance. In this regard, Bangladesh can be a giant partner to supply her agro-based items including food and diversified jute products. The country also -as now more accessibility to information, technology, market exploration, International Capital and resource mobilization. But, for this, SME development, ensuring congenial investment climate, and its financing are significant components. In such situation, the country needs to undertake long run programmers and measures for building capacity, reforming legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks in all respects, creating a grand fund and incentive packages. The study also finds the gaps in case of following market based production model, innovating market networking, taking measures on tariff structure and dumping. The corporations need to introduce subcontracting in the production processes. The lending programmer of the Fls is unable to meet the total requirement of the SME clients. The Fls still now favor the large enterprises. The trade and service sector SMEs get the lion's share of finance while the manufacturing SMEs have very limited access to finance. The amount of total SME outstanding loan disbursed up to December 2018 by the Fls is Tk.43, 43,953.44 laces. The PCBs provided more than half of the total amount while the NCBS disbursed 35 percent followed by the SCBS with 7 percent only. The NBFIs disbursed only 3 percent. The banks provided Tk. 46405 laces in the manufacturing sectors up to June 2019. The NCBS provided more than half of total manufacturing loan while the PCBs disbursed 35 percent. Only 11 percent is disbursed by the SCBS. The manufacturing sector gets 61 percent of total SME loan disbursed by SCBS, where BASIC Bank in the top position followed by BRAC Bank PLC in providing SME loans to the Entrepreneurs. xii The sources of institutional finance are banks, finance companies, cooperatives, NGOS, Owner's Associations and BSCIC while the informal sources are self, family, friends, relatives and money lenders. Brokers and big enterprises also provide advances in case of subcontracting. Some of the entrepreneurs take finance from different sources at a time. About 43.6 percent entrepreneurs get access to institutional finance while 27.9 percent of them have access to bank finance. About 43 percent small enterprises have access to institutional finance while it is 78.2 percent for the medium enterprises. The NGOs and cooperatives are also scaling up their micro refinance to SME finance to some extent. Only 4.69 percent loan goes to its manufacturing sub sector which is very low. Industrial Policy-2022 has given much emphasis on Light Engineering Manufacturing sector in order reduce the import of spare parts of other industries of Bangladesh. This policy will have multifarious impacts on our economic growth to achieve SDGs. The average rate of interest of SME lean is 11.5 percent while the maximum rate of interest is 20 percent (NGOs). The average amount of SME outstanding loan disbursed per unit of the FIs is TK 6.27 crore. Most of the entrepreneurs didn't get expected amount of loan after application to the FIs. It is also found from field investigation that the large enterprises and the SMEs of trade and service sub sectors are in the priority list of the financers in spite of highest priority given to manufacturing industries especially in Light Engineering sub sector in IP 2022. Most of the enterprises surveyed are immature in all respects and the Fls are also inefficient in selecting eligible clients. About 44 constraints are identified by the respondents of this study. The prime impediments are lack of bank-client relationship, high rate of interest, collateral, cumbersome procedure of loan approval, lack of rationality in value system, socio-cultural mindset, lack of political commitment, stereotype policies, lack of government's follow-up, colonial attitude of the bureaucrats, corruption, lack of honest entrepreneurs and officials, high risk, low productivity, lack of necessary legal and regulatory framework, political and other influences, want of trained operational officials and so on. There are some challenges which the country will have to overcome for increasing finance in the SMEs sector. It is now necessary to reduce cost of doing business, determine the rate of interest in a single digit, increase venture financing, outreach of credit guarantee mechanism and to innovate new lending technologies. The country also needs huge power generation, infrastructural development, human resource development by emphasizing on Technical education establishment of required number of research institutions and incorporation of ICT into the sector. It is necessary to start up broad-based technical and vocational education, introduce entrepreneurship in the curriculum. xiii According to the findings of the study the researcher has made some recommendations for the government and other stakeholders. The following recommendations have been suggested by the researcher : • The government should take incentive financial scheme of Technical and Vocational Education for Women. This will help to motivate Women Entrepreneurial Skill in Light Engineering sub sector of SMEs in Bangladesh. Researcher investigated Bangladesh Government’s TVET policy of 2020 and 2022and found no specific guidelines to motivate Women to participate in TVET in order ensure supply side policy of Women Entrepreneurship in Light Engineering sector. • Bangladesh Bank should ensure dedicated SME desk for Women Entrepreneurs in every NCBs and PCBs and SCB in order to ensure that Women Entrepreneurs are getting proper service. It is also desirable to ensure that designated bank officials of Women Entrepreneurship desk will be female officers. • The government should undertake long run pragmatic programmes to flourish labour intensive, indigenous and environment friendly production such as agro-based, food, diversified jute, RMG and light engineering items. Backward and forward linkages in all respects especially in case of RMG sector which can help to promote brand image of the country in the arena of international trade and commerce . • The government should create a grand fund only for financing manufacturing SMEs. The amount of manufacturing SME finance should be more than that of the trade and service SMEs.All government and donor funds should be disbursed to the manufacturing SMEs in lieu of trade and service. • The government and the other concerned agencies should design specific programs such as foreign training, incorporating high-tech machineries into production process, increasing international cooperation in quest of technology assimilation, exploring global trade networking and increasing access to electronic and ICT etc. • The SMEs should follow market based production model in their production System. Women owned enterprises also should produce diversified range of products which Women Entrepreneurs are feeling more comfortable to produce like Car/Vehicle decorative parts and accessories which has huge demand both in domestic market and international market. Therefore, Light Engineering defination need to redefined in the Industrial policy. • The definitions of SMEs given by Mol, BB and other support service agencies should be uniform for the economy. The concerned agencies should provide all data and information following that given specific definitions, especially for the Women Entrepreneurs. • The SCBs should provide finance only for the manufacturing SMEs as well as industrial Women owned enterprises in lieu of service and trade sub sectors. At least, one of the banks should be transformed into a SME bank which will not work for earning profit except for its maintenance cost recovery. The bank will work with manufacturing SMEs where the interest rate of financing will be the minimum, that means single digit interest rate for the Women Entrepreneurs in Manufacturing sector. xiv • The government should formulate pragmatic financing policies as well industrial policies with some specific goals in lieu of hundreds of goals as set in the present stereotype policies. The concerned persons of the government should have to be committed and responsible in realizing such policies along with strong mentoring and monitoring role. • The government should establish a separate ministry for SMEs where the functionaries will be incorporated with the experts of the sector and bring administrative reforms in the support service provider agencies along with BSCIC. The nature and practice of bureaucroreacy of the country is one of the major challenges in the way of SME development in our country. Efficient bureaucroreacy, bankers, officers and entrepreneurs may jointly come forward to help the progress of SMEs and economic development. In addition,we need to consider the role of informal organization like societal attitudes, family, culture and religious principles in our policies and strategies. In this case, we should integrate formal Institutions policies and strategies with informal Institutes’norms and beliefs through mutual cooperations and understanding.Everbody should realize that Women are part of our society and without the progress of Women Entrepreneurship in SME, it would be impossible for the country to achieve Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) by the year 2030 and without which our dreams to be Middle Income Country will remain incomplete. Researcher believes that this study will influence prospective Women Entrepreneurs to think and act positively like Hawthorne study Effect in Light Engineering sub sector of SMEs in Bangladesh. A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka, in Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/3594 2025-02-09T00:00:00Z http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/2904 Information Security for an Information Society in Bangladesh Kamruzzaman, Md. Nowadays, public institutions are heavily dependent on modern technology for their office management in Bangladesh. The advancement of modern technology in today’s world has a great influence in daily life. Along with the positiveness of the advancement, somewhere the scope for the negativities tends to increase. As dependency on modern technology and information technology increases, the rate of negative impacts tends to increase as well. Specifically on the performance of Information Systems and therefore they become more exposed to the continuous evolving security risks and vulnerabilities inherent to the momentous growth of digitalization. A semi-structured questionnaire and an experienced key informant’s interview have thoroughly been analyzed during the research. This research focuses on the impacts and necessities of Information Security for an Information Society considering the government organizations only because the government organizations are one holding access to the national database. The findings of this qualitative research indicate what sort of Information threats are being encountered by Bangladeshi public enterprises, how are they managing the major Information threats and what they really need to do if they want to get well ahead of recent cyber criminals’ activities. The study as well includes some of the recent national and international cyber security attack incidents, their impacts and the organization’s attempts to reduce the loss of the attack. The loss and damage already caused by some attacks during the previous decade, made serious impact on organization’s business continuity, reputation, and loss of asset. Sometimes, even the organizations fail to recognize that their security system has already been compromised. Recently, UK-based National Cyber Security Index Report 2021 unveils the fact that Bangladesh has made commendable progress in improving the foundation of its Information security system. Bangladesh Government has formed an e-Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-GOV CIRT), that has been serving as the National CIRT of Bangladesh (N-CERT). They are engaged in receiving, reviewing, and responding to computer security related incidents and activities within Bangladesh. The organization vii | P a g e holds collaboration with international organizations as partners to ensure security in cyberspace. In addition, the goal of the organization is being quick reactive towards security threat and actively reporting as well. However, a good number of literatures and respondents of this study delineate the fact that existing level of security is moderate to good where there is still a lot more to do. Adequate security procedures to manage information security, appropriate office equipment’s along with proper employee trainings are obviously required and organizations need to carefully evaluate their security policies to enhance security infrastructures. The enhancements will act as a shield to protect organizations from future threats. Superior Information Security management can help the nation to expand, and the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) supports such advancements along with the improvements and leaves no stone unturned in supporting the organizations. Currently, corporations' approaches to information security go beyond the fundamentals. They have gradually been adapting their security strategies based on Information Security Policy guidelines 2014 and ISO/IEC 27003 standard ISMS implementation guidance. Authorities must alter the way they think of just responding to threats instead look around necessary measures or possibilities of future threats to prevent or overcome the threats. In addition, the authorities need to analyze, study the security attack incident reports, patterns in order to detect certain pattern or data that may give future lead. Apprehending of Information attack is the most suitable way to be ahead of Cyber espionage. Upon such practices, public institutions will become more difficult to deal with as opposed to being an easy target. As a result, public and organization’s satisfaction remains retained. A dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems (MIS) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/2904 2024-01-02T00:00:00Z http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/2894 STRATEGIC ICT MANAGEMENT IN BANGLADESH’S TRANSITION TO E-GOVERNANCE: FRAMING OUT A REALISTIC SUSTAINABLE APPROACH BAHARUL, A.K.M. GOLAM Applications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have come out as the most effective tools for quick, easy, hassle-free, convenient, transparent, responsible, accountable, participatory and responsive way of Government service delivery to the citizen all over the world. In the present world, Technology is a vital strategic element specially the ICT, as ICT is the part and parcel of everyday life. Different citizen services are also giving through ICT by the Government and thus transforming the governance to e-Governance in many countries of the world. Bangladesh is also at the take off stage of e-Governance and advancing very first. But a huge percentage of e-governance initiatives and projects failed in developing countries like Bangladesh due to the lack of proper strategic ICT management. This research focuses on insights into the strategic ICT Management for sustainable e-Governance in Bangladesh’s transition to e-Governance. This research work explores the CSFs (Critical Success Factors) and ranking the CFS’s according to preference level for strategic ICT management regarding sustainable e-Governance in Bangladesh. Institutional techniques Fuzzy AHP and Delphi are used by the researcher to handle the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) complex issues for decision making as these techniques have the ability to assess the ambiguity of real complex problems for better planning and decision making. Due to this reason, Fuzzy AHP and Delphi technique were used in this research work as it is MCDM complex issue. The research findings obtained by these two techniques were also validated for getting more reliable and trustful result. Sensitivity test of research findings were conducted to check the stability and robustness of research findings for quality decision making. The researcher developed questionnaire for Fuzzy AHP and Delphi method to carry out qualitative and quantitative analysis using multi-methods approach for data collection. The series of techniques adopted for this study which are questionnaire responses, brain storming, document analysis, observation and relevant experience. To collect the expert opinion about the CSFs for strategic ICT management in Bangladesh’s transition to e-Governance, a “Google Form” was formulated and sent to relevant experts through e-mail with preamble .The research findings suppose that most of the Critical Success Factors : Infrastructure Development and Resource Sharing, Government Policy, Available Skilled vi Human Resource, Availability of service, Personal Information Security, Cost of service, Cyber Security, Awareness of Citizen, Technology Transfer by Vendor, Quality of service, Acceptability in socio-Cultural aspects, Legal protection, are similar to those discussed in existing literature, although some may be specific to the Bangladesh context. The three new specific CSFs are identified/ proposed for strategic ICT management of sustainable e-Governance by the researcher and assessed these accordingly, the proposed new CSFs are: Environmental Hazard, Resource Consumption and Resource Conservation; as environmental issues are very important for any development for the betterment of Earth and human. Two CSFs such as Infrastructure development and Resource Sharing are mentioned separately in different literature review, in this research work, the researcher considered it as one CSF: Infrastructure Development and Resource Sharing to the Bangladesh context and assessed accordingly, as this two CSFs are interdependent for successful operation. Total 15 CSFs are identified and assessed in this research work. Based on the assessment of CSFs and findings of research, the researcher was able to frame out a new conceptual Triangular model of strategic ICT management for sustainable e-Governance in the perspective of Bangladesh’s transition to e-Governance, which was a unique and specific outcome of this research study. The conceptualized new Triangular model of strategic ICT management should help Decision Makers, Planners, Policy formulators, academicians and researcher to understand the step-by-step guide for strategic ICT Management of sustainable e-Governance in the perspective of Bangladesh’s transition to e-Governance. The researcher therefore has accomplished that this study extends to the knowledge in the aspect of strategic ICT management regarding sustainable e-Governance of Bangladesh. This new conceptualized model enables the development of a holistic plan for strategic ICT Management in implementing sustainable e-Governance throughout the development life cycle of e-Governance in Bangladesh. This Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctorate of Business Administration. Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT http://reposit.library.du.ac.bd:8080/xmlui/xmlui/handle/123456789/2894 2023-12-27T00:00:00Z