Our Programs

Technology is a critical driving force that changes the economic, social, cultural and political life. The current era of ‘globalization’ is strongly driven by progress in technologies such as those of information and communication as well as productivity and the life sciences.  

There is a critical need for a more favorable access to and transfer of appropriate and affordable technologies in the remote rural areas of Bangladesh that can effectively generate income and improve the quality of life of the rural poor. The existing proven technologies available in various parts of the country as well as outside the country can potentially have significant bearing on the poor in generating income, employment, and gain competitive advantage to face the challenges of poverty. ApTech Village is a supportive measure that plans to “show-case” technology to enable transfer of necessary know-how as well as building up of economic, technical, and managerial capabilities for the efficient use and further development of the transferred technology. ‘Appropriate Technology Village (ApTech Village)’ plans to involve Private Business Enterprises, the Governments, and the Civil Society Organizations as suppliers and disseminators/users of technology. The ApTech Village entails an iterative process involving government, the private sector, and research and development facilities to ensure the best possible results from transfer of appropriate and affordable technology to the poor for improving their livelihood.

In the ApTech  Village, "Technology" is not only machines and equipment, but also the skills, abilities, knowledge, systems and processes necessary to make things happen – thus technologies are meant to be total systems that include know-how, procedures, goods and services, as well as market measures and supply measures.

Aim of ApTech  Village:

The ApTech  Village aims at improving conditions and processes on information, access to and transfers of appropriate technologies to the rural households for improving their livelihood. The  Village also plans to develop capacity of the local people to acquire, adopt, apply and further disseminate these technologies through cooperative arrangements and partnerships so that a sustainable development process works for the poor.  

It is believed that the new, efficient and appropriate technologies would increase the capabilities of the rural poor to achieve sustainable development, sustain the economy, protect the environment, and alleviate poverty and human suffering. The  Village is expected to address the improvement of technologies currently used by the rural community through gradual replacement when more appropriate, more affordable, more accessible and more environmentally sound technologies would be available.

Technology Collection

A large body of useful technological knowledge and technology (hardware) lies in the public domain. There is a critical demand to access these technologies by the poor for the improvement of their quality of life. As these technologies are not covered by patents or lie in the public domain, ApTech  Village would collect them for productive use by the poor. The rural poor also require access to the know-how and expertise required for the effective utilization of these income generating/wealth creating technologies; ApTech  Village would organize periodic orientation and training for the potential user to source, acquire and apply these useful technologies. 

Simultaneously, ApTech  Village would also make available the various proprietary technologies through commercial channels. In this regard private sector would be integrated to play an important role to transfer these proprietary technologies to the poor.

AppTech  Village plans to explore, assimilate, demonstrate, and facilitate enhanced access to acquire and use these technologies through linkage and networking with private, government and non-government organizations and agencies. ApTech  Village would provide a platform for the innovators, and promote research and development of new technologies that are appropriate, affordable and has the potential to generate wealth and productivity for the poor.

Tapping these pools of knowledge and recombining it with potential local innovations to generate alternative technologies applicable for local context is expected to dramatically improve the quality of life and income potentials of the poor through developing competitive advantage and productivity enhancement.