| APrIGF 2026 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||
| Mr. Mustafa Bakuluzzaman | |||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||
| Shushilan LTD | |||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||
| CEO & Managing Director | |||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||
| Male | |||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||
| Bangladesh | |||||||||||||
| Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||
| Private Sector | |||||||||||||
| List Your Organizing Partners (if any) | |||||||||||||
| APNIC Foundation (ISIF Asia) — project funder Ellisha Heppner Program Manager, Grants APNIC Foundation ellisha.Heppner@apnic.foundation |
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| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||
| Community Wi-Fi and Cyclone Alert Systems for Marginal Fisher Villages Barguna, Coastal Bangladesh to Improve Internet and Save Lives | |||||||||||||
| Thematic Track of Your Session | |||||||||||||
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| Session Format | |||||||||||||
| Lightning Talk (20 minutes) | |||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||
| Hybrid (with onsite moderator and speakers both online and offline, with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||
| In Bangladesh's cyclone-prone coast, the internet quite literally ends at sea. This talk shares findings and early results from a live project in Patharghata Upazila, Barguna District, where marginal fishing communities face a life-threatening communication gap. A baseline survey of 367 households revealed the core problem: 73% of fishers operate beyond 34 km offshore, where mobile coverage disappears (signal is typically lost around 30 km). At sea, 72% cannot contact shore during emergencies and over 22% receive no weather information at all. Onshore, cyclone alerts are trusted and timely yet 88.6% reported communication failure during the peak impact of past cyclones, exactly when information matters most. With 96.7% of households dependent on fishing, every lost alert is both a safety and a livelihood crisis. The talk presents a four-part response: solar-powered community Wi-Fi hubs, an integrated cyclone alert system (SMS, voice, messaging apps, loudspeakers), Starlink satellite connectivity on deep-sea boats, and youth- and women-led “Digital Risk Responders” trained as frontline alert operators. It also confronts the hardest question honestly: sustainability. Subscription affordability is the single biggest risk in a community where most earn BDT 10,000–20,000 per month. We share what the community itself proposed cooperative cost-sharing, trip-based contributions, off-season flexibility and the governance and trust challenges of making it last beyond donor funding. The aim is to spark discussion on connectivity as life-saving infrastructure, not just a service, and what that means for other climate-exposed coastal communities across the Asia Pacific. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||
| This session speaks directly to the APrIGF 2026 overarching theme, “Safeguarding a Resilient Internet in Times of Crisis.” For coastal fishing communities, internet connectivity is not a convenience but a determinant of survival during cyclones the clearest possible case of the Internet as resilience infrastructure. It fits the primary track, Digital Resilience and Building of Trust, by addressing infrastructure resilience, last-mile and offshore communication failure, and resilience gaps caused by natural disasters and geographic fragmentation. It also shows how trust in early-warning systems depends on the reliability of the final communication link reaching people in danger. It connects to the secondary track, Universal and Meaningful Connectivity, by moving beyond basic access to questions of affordability, appropriate technology, device limitations, digital skills, and meaningful participation for an underserved, climate-vulnerable population. The Asia Pacific relevance is direct. Cyclone-exposed coastal and island communities across the region from the Bay of Bengal to the Pacific share the same structural gap between onshore warning systems and offshore reality. By sharing concrete field evidence, a replicable community-governance model, and honest lessons on sustainability, the session offers transferable insight for practitioners, technical community members, and policymakers working on disaster resilience and connectivity in the region. We hope to seek collaboration and exchange with others tackling similar challenges. |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) - (Required) | |||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||
| Mustafa Bakuluzzaman is CEO and Managing Director of Shushilan LTD and the Team Leader of this project. He brings over two decades of experience across ICT, climate resilience, and community development in Bangladesh, and led the baseline survey, community consultations, and the training of the first cohort of Digital Risk Responders. He will speak first-hand to the field realities and the intervention model. Kazi Faisal Kabir is Head of Programs, Partnership and Business Development at Shushilan LTD. He will cover the partnership, governance, and sustainability dimensions cooperative cost-sharing, affordability, institutional collaboration, and how the model can be replicated and scaled. Together they offer complementary perspectives: delivery on the ground, and the partnerships and financing needed to sustain it. The project also reflects a strong inclusion focus, training women and youth as frontline responders, which the talk will highlight. |
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| If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for. | |||||||||||||
| No assistance required. The session will be co-presented by two speakers from the Shushilan LTD project team. | |||||||||||||
| Has AI been used to develop this proposal? | |||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||
| How: | |||||||||||||
| for language and grammar improvement only. All content, data, and ideas are the proposer's own, drawn from the project's baseline and progress reports and project proposal. | |||||||||||||
| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2026. | |||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2026? | |||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||
| Upon evaluation by the Program Committee, your session proposal may only be selected under the condition that you will accept the suggestion of merging with another proposal with similar topics. Please state your preference below: | |||||||||||||
| Yes, I am willing to work with another session proposer on a suggested merger. | |||||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcripts in English for all sessions. Do you need any disability related requirements for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||||
| None | |||||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||
| Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2026. |
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