IDEAS FOR DEVELOPMENT (IFD)

A Platform for New Generation Thinkers

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IFD Exclusive Paper Series

Paper 1: "Indefinite Corruption" (in Bangla); Author: M. Mahmood; August 13, 2009.

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IFD Policy Paper Series

Paper 1: "IFD's Recommendations to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Dhaka City" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; February 21, 2010.

Supplementary Paper: "IFD Proposed Bus Rapid Transit Model (BRT) for Less Developed Countries" (in English); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; January 25, 2012

Paper 2: "Repeating Dollar Store" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; April 14, 2011

Paper 3: "Myths of Bangladesh's Tourism" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; January 1, 2015. (Part 1); (Part 2); (Part 3); (Part 4); (Part 5); (Part 6); (Poster); (English Summary)

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IFD Special Articles

Article 1: "The Assassination of Bangabandhu, the Death Penalty and Some Words" (in Bangla); Author: M. Mahmood; January 22, 2010.

Article 2: "One Saifur Rahman" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; September 5, 2010.

Supplementary Article 1: "About Central Bonded Warehouse" (in Bangla)

Supplementary Article 2: "The Decision on Central Bonded Warehouse: Is It Wise?"

Article 3: "Justification of Mega Projects" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; January 17, 2011

Article 4: "Two Years and 33 Days of IFD"(in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; September 16, 2011

Article 5: "Personal Identification System" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; February 02, 2012

Article 6: "Establish Rule of Law, Establish Justice" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; February 14, 2013

Article 7: "Bangladesh's Drone Success and IFD's Recommendations" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; February 5, 2014

Article 8: "Tolerance" (in Bangla); Author: Mabroor Mahmood; November 7, 2015

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IFD Exclusive Interview

IFD Exclusive Interview 1: "Thinking Beyond Einstein: Exclusive Interview of Dr Mushfiq Ahmad". Date: March 26, 2013.

IFD Exclusive Interview 2: "Struggle for Identity: Exclusive Interview of Khalid Hussain". Date: October 1, 2014.

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IFD Note Series

Note 1: "Absence of Synchronization in Bangladesh's Education System" (in English); Author: Khaled Bin Kamal; April 14, 2012

Note 2: "Madrasah Education in Bangladesh" (in English); Author: Muhammad Boni Amin; November 22, 2013

Note 3: "Refreshing BNP and the Nation: An Idea" (in English); Author: Dr Abul Kalam Azad; December 5, 2015

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IFD Statements

Statement 1: Congratulations Musa Ibrahim!; Issued on May 27, 2010

Statement 2: Hon'ble Minister, Please Do Not 'Evict' the Slum Dwellers; Issued on February 6, 2012

Statement 3: Let Myanmar Refugees In; Issued on June 15, 2012

Statement 4: Expressing Solidarity with Noted Filmstar Mr Ilyas Kanchan's Demand; Issued on December 3, 2012

Statement 5: We Stand Beside "Amar Desh"; We Stand Beside Mahmudur Rahman; Issued on February 24, 2013

Statement 6: Repeal the Death Penalty of Quader Molla; Issued on December 10, 2013

Statement 7: Bring Back Ilias Ali; Issued on April 19, 2014

Statement 8: Repeal the Death Penalty of Md Kamaruzzaman; Issued on November 5, 2014

Statement 9: Dialogue; Issued on February 1, 2015

Statement 10: Struggle to Save a Life; Issued on April 10, 2015

Statement 11: "Where is this Father Now?"; Issued on September 5, 2015

Statement 12: "Forgiveness"; Issued on November 21, 2015

Statement 13: "Release Mahmudur Rahman"; (English Version); February 17, 2016

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IFD Press Release

Press Release 1: Biniog Sathi Starts Its Operations (Bangla) (English); Issued on June 29, 2014

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Note: The author(s) is solely responsible for any comment, error or mistake within the published papers. The views expressed are author's own and no other institution or entity is liable for the views expressed in the published papers.

To read the content of this page in Bangla, please click here.

In order to determine whether your idea will solve the problem, you have to find the answers of the following questions in stages:

1. What are the causes of the problem?

2. Is there any other cause that I have missed?

3. What do other people say about the causes of this problem?

4. What are the true causes?

5. Will my idea address all these causes that I have identified?

6. If my idea misses one of these causes, then how should it be addressed?

7. How will my idea be implemented?

In the following sections, we are describing in detail all the above mentioned steps:

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1. What are the causes of the problem?

For instance, you have generated a grand idea that you think will solve the problem of traffic jam on the street. Now, you are quite confident about the idea, but to know for sure about its viability, you have to know first what are the causes of high level of traffic on the street. After thinking for hours, you found the following causes and wrote them down in your notepad:

There is traffic congestion on our street because:

(a) Our streets are too narrow;

(b) We have too many cars on the street;

(c) We have too many people;

(d) Our traffic polices are not trained enough.

Now after linking your grand idea with all the four causes, you found that your grand idea will address all these four causes and eventually the problem of traffic congestion on the street will vanish. Eureka! You got a grand idea!

But you are wrong!

Let us tell you more about that.

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2. Is there any other cause that I have missed?

You have listed only four causes of traffic congestion. Some of them are truly the causes, but some of them are not. For example, what will be your position if we say that the streets in London are narrower than those of your home town, but London does not have as much traffic congestion as your home town does. So are narrow streets can be a cause of traffic jam?

The answer may be no.

The reason of lesser traffic in London even though it has narrower streets might be the fact that London has a very good public transport system. Therefore, the absence of a good public transport system might be a more superior cause of high level of traffic than having narrow streets.

So, to understand the causes of a problem, you have to think really deep.

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3. What do other people say about the causes of this problem?

Now you see that you have missed one big cause of traffic congestion and mistakenly outlined one other factor, which might be less important. Therefore, to know all the possible causes of traffic jam in your home town, you have to know what other people have said about the causes of traffic congestion in your home town.

To do that, you have to do a lot of research. Research means finding answers of questions or in simple words, finding answer of "why". So you have to know what other people have so far said about"why do we have traffic jam on our street?"

To find all the possible answers, you might have to read newspapers, published articles, research papers, attend seminars, speak to the people concerned, or even take a survey of the general people who are directly or indirectly related to the issue. You might also need to gather data to determine what are the reasons behind the problem you are thinking about.

Now suppose, after conducting a lot of research, you have come up with the following causes of traffic congestion:

(a) Narrower roads in the city;

(b) Too many three wheelers on the street;

(c) Absence of public buses and a good public transport system;

(d) Untrained police officers;

(e) Absence of army on the street;

(f) Faulty signaling system;

After outlining the causes, you are now ready to propose a solution that will involve making the roads wider, getting rid of the three wheelers from the street, bringing more public buses and establishing underground rail system, training police officers, deploying army on the street, and correcting the faulty signaling system.

Now the question is, are these proposals realistic or will they truly solve the problem?

What will be your answer if we ask the following questions:

(a) What will happen to those poor people who were driving three wheelers, but now evicted?

(b) If the streets are to be made wider, what will happen to the people who will lose their dwelling places? How will they be compensated? Does the Government have that much of money?

(c) If the Army is given the task of traffic police, then what will the traffic police do? Is it the Army's job to control traffic?

(d) What will happen to the traffic situation if people from villages keep coming to your home town? Will your idea still be able to solve the problem even after making all the above adjustments?

If you think deep about the question (a), you will find that getting rid of a large number of people who are riding three wheelers cannot be a solution. If they are evicted, they will be unemployed, and eventually might become criminals. Therefore, in exchange of solving traffic jam, you are generating a new problem. So, your suggestion for getting rid of three wheelers cannot be the solution to this problem.

The same is true for question (b).

When you will face these kinds of questions even after formulating your idea, you have to realize that you are missing the true causes and did not hit the right spot for solving the problem.

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4. What are the true causes?

Therefore, you need to know the true causes of the problem of traffic jam. After outlining all the causes that you have thought and you have gathered through research, you will need to screen the causes to find out the true causes of the problem. After finding all the true causes, you will then need to know what are the causes behind these "true causes".

For instance, after evaluating all the causes, you have listed the following causes as "true causes" of the problem of traffic congestion:

(a) Absence of public transport system

(b) Absence of underground or monorail;

(c) High number of migration to the main city;

(d) Extortion of public spaces by different groups;

(e) Absence of proper parking rules;

(f) Absence of strict punishment system for violating rules;

(g) Low number of traffic polices on the street

(h) Faulty signaling system

Now the question is, are these true causes really "true"?

No.

It is because, behind each of the causes mentioned above, there are also other causes that are creating these problems. For examples, for each of the causes mentioned above, the 'Behind the Scene' causes may be:

(a) Absence of public transport system - Due to: Lack of vision and planning; Lack of funds

(b) Absence of underground or monorail - Due to: Lack of vision and planning; Lack of funds

(c) High number of migration to the city - Due to: Widespread poverty in the villages; Lack of economic activity in the villages; Natural disasters like flood, cyclone, etc.

(d) Extortion of public spaces by different groups - Absence of punishment mechanism; Lack of policing; Absence of monitoring mechanism

(e) Absence of proper parking rules - Due to: No planning of parking rules and regulations; Too few streets in the city; Difficulty in enforcing rules

(f) Absence of strict punishment system for violating rules - Due to: High level of corruption; Few number of polices on the street

(g) Low number of traffic polices on the street - Due to: Low budget for the police; Lack of Government funds to run the administration

(h) Faulty signaling system - Due to: Lack of proper planning

Now if you think deeper, you will also find 'Deep Behind the Scene' causes of abovementioned 'Behind the Scene' causes. For example, for absence of vision and planning, you will find that the faulty education system, bad recruitment of public servants, absence of proper incentive structure, unstable Government, high level of corruption, etc. are creating the problem of lack of vision and planning. Then if you keep asking why all these "Deep Behind the Scene" causes are being created, you will end up with a long list of "Deeper Behind the Scene" causes of all "Deep Behind the Scene" causes.

So you see, how all these issues, which you never thought of, are affecting you everyday when you are stuck for hours on the street for traffic jam!

So don't stop asking "why".

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5. Will my idea address all these causes that I have identified?

Now, you might get afraid thinking that generation of an idea is very complex and tedious task.

Yes, it is.

But if you want to solve a very high level problem, then you might get lost after discovering so many issues that are related to the problem. Therefore, it is wiser to select a node in the middle and start finding a solution of that particular problem.

For example, after getting lost in solving the problem of traffic jam, you might now think to select one "Deeper Behind the Scene" causes, and start thinking what are the underlying causes of this particular problem. Say, you have selected the issue of corruption and start thinking what are the issues involved in it and how can we address the problem of corruption in our society.

Now follow the same steps as mentioned in the beginning, and try to find the answers of "why do we have corruption in our society?"

Then list all the answers in a notepad, and match them with the causes that are outlined in IFD Exclusive Paper 1 and see how those causes have been addressed one by one, and an idea was generated.

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6. If my idea misses one of these causes, then how should it be addressed?

Yes, it might happen. Even after years of research and listing all the causes, you might end up proposing a model, which will not solve the problem you are thinking about. If your idea is implemented and then it is observed that your idea is not enough to solve the problem, then it will uncover new issues that need attention from everybody. So more research will be needed to find out why the problem persists even after implementing a grand model.

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7. How will my idea be implemented?

In proposing a solution, you have to always think how your proposal will have to be implemented. You have to outline all the steps that are required to implement your proposal and see if there is any barrier to implement the idea. If you find a barrier, then you have to think how this can be removed. In proposing the removal of impediments, you have to keep in mind that such steps should be realistic and should be least expensive. If these are expensive, then you have to answer how this money can be generated.

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Frequently Asked Questions

To read the frequently asked questions in Bangla, please click here.

What is the definition of an 'idea'?
What is the rule for sending ideas to IFD?
How long will it take to publicize the idea if I send it today?
Do I need to pay any fees to send ideas to IFD?
What will happen if I send an idea to IFD and it is stolen?
From where does IFD get the funding?
Why is IFD seeking ideas without any money?
What is the required qualification to send an idea to IFD?
How will my idea be implemented?
I don't know how to email, it is also not possible to post my idea, and I am also not educated. Then how can I send my idea to IFD?
I already sent ten ideas, but none of them was selected. What should I do now?
What is the future goal of IFD?

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What is the definition of an 'Idea'?
Any concept for solving a problem is an "Idea". But the ideas that IFD is looking for are not general ones. It is looking for new ideas only. We are looking for ideas that are not only new and innovative but also realistic. If the idea is costly and unrealistic, then this idea does not have any value.

Therefore, in order to publicize an idea through IFD, an idea needs to have the following properties:

1. The idea has to solve a particular problem,

2. The idea has to be realistic;

3. There has to be a discussion on how to implement this idea;

4. There has to be a discussion on the impediments for the implementation of the idea and ways to overcome them;

5. The idea has to be new.

This is to be noted that IFD will circulate two types of ideas:

Original Ideas:

These ideas are truly original. Nobody else has revealed such ideas before anywhere in the world.

Idea Replication:

There are many ideas which are implemented elsewhere but not being followed in the home country due to the lack of awareness. If anybody describes such ideas within the home country's context, then IFD will choose such ideas for publication. In that case, the author has to disclose the source of these ideas.

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What is the rule for sending ideas to IFD?
There is no hard and fast rule for sending ideas to IFD. You can write emails in either Bangla or English, and send it to us at ideasfd@gmail.com. If you think your idea is valuable, then we discourage you to send your ideas by email because email communication is not 100% secured. In that case, express your primary interest by email, and then we will send you postal address where you can mail your idea either by post or courier.

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How long it will take to publicize the idea if I send it today?
It will entirely depend on the completeness of your idea. If your idea is complete, and does not need any change and improvement, your idea will be published immediately. However, if your idea needs significant improvement, it might take longer to publish your idea.

If you describe in detail the following issues in your proposed idea, the publication of your idea will be faster for us:

(a) Which problem will be solved by your idea?

(b) What are the causes of this problem?

(c) How will your idea address those causes?

(d) What are the barriers to be faced while implementing your idea?

(e) How will these barriers be removed?

(f) What are the weaknesses of your idea?

(g) Who will implement your idea?

(h) Is the implementation of your idea costly? If this is, then who will bear this cost, and how will it be financed?

This is to be highlighted that IFD does not publish any idea that it receives. The criteria for publication of an idea will be judged on the basis of its potential contribution to the society.

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Do I need to pay any fees to send ideas to IFD?
There is no fee needed for sending ideas to IFD. All you have to bear is the email or postal expenses. You don't have to pay even if IFD selects your idea for publication.

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What will happen if I send an idea to IFD and it is stolen?
"Idea Thieves" are those people who could never generate a new idea in their entire life. Since the founder of IFD has already generated a new idea (see paper 1), then he can be considered as an idea generator. An idea generator can be evaluated properly only by another idea generator. Therefore, you don't have to worry about the protection of your idea if you send it to IFD. Rather, if you send us an idea, we will send you an acknowledgement letter, which will protect the ownership of your idea to an extent.

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From where does IFD get the funding?
At present, IFD is being financed by its founder's own savings. IFD's founder did not request any financial help from anybody to launch this platform.

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Why is IFD seeking ideas without any money?
There is no financial interest of IFD in seeking ideas from the people. IFD believes that IFD itself will also be benefited if an idea is publicized through IFD, and eventually implemented. It is because all the family members of IFD's founder including his parents, brothers and in-laws are currently living in Bangladesh. Therefore, any problem of Bangladesh also negatively affects the life of IFD founder.

This is to be noted that IFD founder is a Bangladeshi citizen. He never applied for foreign citizenship in any country. His wife and children are also Bangladeshi. Therefore, by having a Bangladeshi passport, IFD founder suffers similar problems like any other Bangladeshi expatriate.

This is the reason why IFD founder is seeking ideas from the people so that he can save himself from these daily problems and public awareness can be created through the publication of such ideas. If proper public awareness is created, the solution to such problems will be much faster. As a result, everybody will be benefited. This is the only reason why this free platform has been created.

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What is the required qualification to send an idea to IFD?
You do not need any particular qualification to send an idea to IFD. If your idea is new, if it has all the required properties as mentioned above, then we will publish your idea immediately without asking your qualification. It is not a matter of concern for IFD whether you are a street tokai, a rickshaw puller, a teacher, a Government service holder, or a reputed person having a PhD degree. All we are concerned about whether your idea will solve the problem that you are talking about.

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How will my idea be implemented?
IFD will act only as a platform for disseminating your ideas. It is not IFD's responsibility to implement your idea. It is because most of the time one needs to depend on the Government agencies or some other institutions to implement an idea. Therefore, IFD won't guarantee that you will receive help from such authorities after the publication of your idea from IFD.

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I don't know how to email, it is not also possible for me to post my idea, and I am also not educated. Then how can I send idea to IFD?
You should first learn how to read and write and how to send emails. Then you should send your idea to us.

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I already sent ten ideas, but none of them was selected. What should I do now?
You should send more ideas to IFD. It is because you have the required dedication and the spirit. Therefore, find out why your ideas were not published and adjust your strategy accordingly, and then send your ideas to IFD.

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What is the future goal of IFD?
Within the next five years, IFD's goal is to publish at least one more Exclusive Paper, three Policy Papers, ten Special Articles, and introduce at least one new "IFD Person of Ideas" to all.

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IFD Exclusive Paper Series