International program development is a complex process involving many stakeholders. Current international practice affords limited, if any, opportunities for direct community-led input into the program commissioning process, resulting in programs that may not meet the specific needs of communities on the ground. Community voice is one source of data that could help focus the design of effective development programs and interventions. However, development programs are primarily formulated based on representative and often quantitative data conducted by experts from outside the community. Through a participatory video production process with disadvantaged women farmers in rural Bangladesh, we explore the opportunities for including meaningful community voices in these institutionalized processes. We present practical design implications for how community-generated voices can act as rich data, establishing confidence, community bonds and senses of accountability to inform early stages of project development, and to specifically augment and contextualize other data sources.

Community voice is widely used in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human-computer interaction (HCI) work with underserved communities. However, the term is unresolved, denoting disparate activities, methods, and phenomena that are at their most useful when combined. We argue for a rethink by setting out a more nuanced understanding of "community" and "voice". Building on our own experiences of HCI for development (HCI4D) work and the existing literature, we propose a framework for the benefits it can bring to those who actively engage with communities as part of their work. This framework can be understood in terms of its four constituent benefits for CSCW and HCI4D practitioners: (i) understanding context, (ii) creating empathy, (iii) leveraging local skills and knowledge, and (iv) building trust and buy-in. We reflect on how an improved understanding of these benefits applies to three prior projects with women living in Bangladesh and discuss the issues and need for more work on community voice. Finally, we discuss how this more detailed perspective on community voice helps us understand power dynamics and polyvocal communities in development contexts.

Although listening to community voice is a core value in HCI4D, we have limited methods to capture the community voice of marginalized groups within disadvantaged communities. Working with NGOs and 24 marginalized women farmers in Bangladesh, we promoted psychological safety and empowerment through our configuration of the process. Our stakeholders decided to record and produce a radio-style audio recording that presented their counter-collective narratives for development projects. We reflect on this process using the Benefits of Community Voice framework to document rich insights into community contexts, lived experiences, local knowledge, and building trust and buy-in and through interviews with three NGO workers. We discuss the fundamental need of stakeholders for a safe place to share, the value of letting stakeholders guide method selection, the significance of counter-collective narratives, the benefits of participatory audio to hear community voices for democratizing and sustaining development and design implications of our work for HCI4D.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the exploration of women farmers' information literacy (IL) in the context of rural Bangladesh within the context of an ICT-based women empowerment project.Design/methodology/approach: This study uses thematic analysis of qualitative data collected during a culturally sensitive workshop on IL with a group of project participants.Findings: The findings showed that women understood their information needs and where to find information, which indicates that participants had some basic IL skills. However, the online environment presented challenges for them to evaluate the quality of the information and its relevance to their daily activities. The cultural complexity of IL was observed with the rural women’s information practices affected by family patterns, community and religion, amongst other social factors. Collective practices are made highly evident by the women’s natural tendency to share phones and information and by the way information is maintained. While the collective practices are very useful in utilising information for daily needs, the downside is that women are potentially vulnerable to threats in an online environment when sharing confidential information.Originality/value: This article shows that in the context of rural Bangladesh, women farmers’ information-seeking behaviour and practices of sharing and creating information are influenced by sociocultural characteristics. It describes how the women’s situational context of collectivity and power relations influence their ways of handling information.

The present study aims to comprehensively analyse trends in complementary feeding indicators (Introduction of solid, semi-solid, and soft foods at 6–8 months (INTRO), Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD), Minimum Meal Frequency (MMF) and Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD)) among children aged 6–23 months in Bangladesh. The study used data from four rounds (2007, 2011, 2014, and 2017–2018) of nationally representative Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHSs). The Cochran–Armitage test was performed to capture the trends in complementary feeding practices and intake from specific food groups. BDHSs are periodically conducted cross-sectional surveys in all seven administrative divisions of Bangladesh. The present analysis was performed among 8116 children (1563 in 2007, 2137 in 2011, 2249 in 2014, and 2167 in 2017–2018) aged 6–23 months. Overall, a decreasing trend was observed in all the complementary feeding indicators except INTRO from 2007 to 2014, but a substantial increase in MDD, MMF and MAD was noted in 2017–2018. A statistically significant reduction in consumption from different food groups such as legumes and nuts (p < 0.001), dairy products (p = 0.001), vitamin-A-rich fruits or vegetables (p < 0.001), and other fruits and vegetables (p < 0.001) was also observed. However, a positive trend was noted in the consumption of grains/roots/tubers (p = 0.027), and meat/fish/egg (p < 0.001). After experiencing a significant decreasing trend during 2007–2014, the recent BDHS indicates improvements in all complementary feeding indicators among young children in Bangladesh, which calls for integrated, multisectoral, and multicomponent interventions to sustain this progress.

Smartphones are important for international development in the Global South. This paper explores how access to smartphone technologies promote women's agency for social change in these contexts by creating learning and livelihood opportunities and increasing connection with local market and service providers. The paper presents findings from a project which provided 200 Bangladeshi rural women farmers with smartphone technologies, training and support, and qualitatively investigated their ability to cope with geographic vulnerabilities, challenging market access, and social barriers. Reporting on a subset of these women's experiences, smartphone technologies helped these women gain better access to public agricultural extension and financial services, along with better acceptance from family and society. This, in turn, improved their dignity, confidence and sense of wellbeing. Insights will help ICT4D designers and development practitioners understand the importance of low-cost, bottom-up design inputs and social factors in future projects in similar developing country contexts.