Digital Republic of the Marshall Islands Project

The development objective of the Digital Republic of the Marshall Islands Project for Marshall Islands is to expand access to the internet, promote private sector investment in climate resilient digital infrastructure, and establish the critical foundations for digital government services and the digital economy in the Recipient’s territory. The project comprises of four components. The first component, public private partnership (PPP) and market structure reform will support the government’s reform program by strengthening national digital connectivity infrastructure, triggering substantial new private sector-led investment, expanding coverage, improving service quality, and lowering pricing. It consists of following sub-components: (i) transactional, legal, and regulatory support for the PPP and associated market structure reforms; (ii) supporting reform by providing financial assistance for the purchase of shares in the form of a buy-out of minority private shareholders of National Telecommunications Authority (NTA); and (iii) supporting high-quality, low-cost digital infrastructure and services under PPP arrangements. The second component, digital government platforms, cybersecurity and digital skills will finance a range of interventions and investments focused on priority government services (for example, eHealth and e-education) and initiatives (for example, improving services on the neighboring islands), beginning with the development and implementation of a digital government strategy (DGS) under the supervision of the project steering committee (PSC). It consists of following sub-components: (i) development of a DGS; (ii) creation and rollout of a government’s cybersecurity program; (iii) digital skills development; (iv) digital ID; (v) secure government network, disaster recovery and business continuity and government cloud (g-cloud); (vi) implementation of pilot e-service(s); and (vii) gender development office support. The third component, enabling...