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Good practice Imported

NISE — Bangladesh's national AI platform for skills, employment and entrepreneurship

Bangladesh · Dhaka · See the Bangladesh profile · See the Dhaka profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 50% 60/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Bangladesh's NISE (2021) uses AI job-matching and skills forecasting to connect youth to employment. Over 1M registered, 300K+ job opportunities created, 2,000+ disabled persons placed; replicated in Somalia and Jordan. WSIS Prizes 2020.

1,000,000+ registered users
Youth registered on NISE (by mid-2024)
300,000+ job opportunities
Job opportunities generated (by mid-2024)
2,000+ people
Persons with disabilities placed in employment (by mid-2024)
20,000+ officials
Government officials oriented on the platform (by mid-2024)
32 departments
Government departments contributing labour-market data
23 ministries
Ministries covered
2,000+ companies
Partner companies
64 districts
Districts covered
NISE — Bangladesh's national AI platform for skills, employment and entrepreneurship

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
a2i (Aspire to Innovate) / ICT Division, Government of Bangladesh; UNDP Bangladesh
Period
2021–present
Keywords
employment, skills development, social protection, AI

Context

Bangladesh faces a significant youth employment challenge, with over 30 million people aged 15-24 and a rapidly digitising economy that makes it hard to match skills supply with employer demand. In response, the government's Aspire to Innovate (a2i) programme, under the ICT Division and Cabinet Division, partnered with UNDP Bangladesh to launch NISE in 2021 as a national AI platform for skills, employment and entrepreneurship.

Objectives

NISE aims to align skills training supply with employer demand across all 64 districts of Bangladesh by aggregating real-time labour market data and applying AI-driven job matching and predictive skills forecasting. The platform is structured around four complementary pathways: skills training, formal employment, freelancing, and entrepreneurship.

Activities

NISE aggregates real-time labour market data from 32 government departments across 23 ministries and more than 2,000 companies. It applies AI-driven job-matching algorithms and skills forecasting to connect youth with training, employment, freelancing and entrepreneurship opportunities. Over 20,000 government officials have been oriented on the platform to support its rollout.

Results

By mid-2024, NISE had registered over 1 million youths and generated more than 300,000 job opportunities. More than 2,000 individuals with disabilities were placed in employment in Bangladesh and four other countries. The platform received the WSIS Prizes (2020), a UNDP global best practice designation (2021), the UNOSSC South-South award (2022), and the WITSA Global Innovation and Tech Excellence Award (2023).

Conclusions

NISE has been replicated as 'Shaqo Abuur' in Somalia and 'Digi Maharat' in Jordan, with adaptations underway in Ghana and São Tomé and Príncipe, demonstrating cross-country transferability of the model. However, no independent evaluation of employment duration or income outcomes has been published to date.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
a2i (Aspire to Innovate) programme, ICT Division and Cabinet Division, Government of Bangladesh — platform ownership and delivery, UNDP Bangladesh — technical and programmatic partner, 32 government departments across 23 ministries — data providers and delivery partners, 2,000+ partner companies — employer demand and job-opportunity data

Conditions for success

  • High-level government ownership spanning the ICT Division and Cabinet Division
  • Cross-agency data-sharing arrangements covering 32 departments and 23 ministries
  • Active private-sector participation from 2,000+ companies to keep job-matching data current
  • International technical partner (UNDP) supporting platform design and international replication
  • Orientation of over 20,000 government officials to support platform rollout and adoption

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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