Grameen+Phone

=From MIT D-Lab Course Content= =grameenphone Corporate Social Responsibility in Bangladesh=

[|grameenphone's Village Phone Program]

 * The internationally acclaimed Village Phone Program (VPP) continued to grow rapidly during 2006, providing telecommunications services in rural areas all over Bangladesh, covering even the remote off-shore islands in the Bay of Bengal.
 * As of today, there are more than 260,000 VP operators in over 50,000 villages in 439 Upazilas (sub-districts) of the country. Amongst GP subscribers, VP operators yielded the highest average revenue per month.
 * Commencing its operation in March 1997, the VPP is a unique initiative to provide telecommunications facilities in remote, rural areas where no such service was available before. It has brought about a quiet revolution in mobile telephony in Bangladesh, by putting cell phones in the hands of the rural poor, many of them women, who had never seen a telephone before.

[|grameenphone on Empowerment]

 * Lack of empowerment and poverty is a chronic and complex problem for Bangladesh. According to UNDP HDI report (2006), which measures the average progress of a country in human development, in terms of, life expectancy, adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), etc., Bangladesh ranks 137th among 177 countries. Moreover, 50% of the total population of Bangladesh lives below the poverty line, defined by less than a dollar a day.
 * We acknowledge that development and poverty reduction depend on holistic economic prosperity; therefore our aim is to increase development opportunities, enhance development outcomes and contribute towards development of the quality of life of the people through our CSR initiatives and innovative services. We would like to facilitate empowerment opportunities to the vulnerable people of Bangladesh, so that it enables them to better influence the course of their lives and live a life of their own choice.

[|grameenphone on Education]

 * Education is the key to prosperity and good life. Every human being should have the opportunity to make a better life for him or herself. One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for Bangladesh is to achieve universal primary education; unfortunately too many children in Bangladesh today grow up without this opportunity, because they are denied their basic right to even attend primary school. The country’s low literacy rate of 41% (2004 UNESCO Report), may indicate that we are far away in pursuit of sustainable development, but at the same time the gradual increase in the adult literacy rate gives us the hope that our nation has the potential to improve in this sector.
 * Providing access to education, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who might not otherwise get the opportunity, is the main goal of Grameenphone’s CSR education initiatives. Many people in Bangladesh still lack the basic technological knowledge and marketable skills, thus we plan to focus further to develop an educated and skilled workforce through creating opportunity in capacity development; skilled workforce would in turn be able to create and share knowledge and contribute to the economy of Bangladesh.

[|grameenphone on Health]

 * Helping and caring for the community is an essential component of Grameenphone's Corporate Social Responsibility; therefore we endeavor to make a positive contribution to the underprivileged community of Bangladesh by helping in improvement of the health perils in the country as much as possible.
 * Our plan is to engage in programs, especially in the rural areas, that will assist in creating awareness about healthcare and healthcare services and help improve the overall quality of life.
 * Keeping our vision in mind - we are here to help; we aim to extend our contribution to the development of the healthcare system and work to provide a brighter and healthier future for the people of Bangladesh.