Central African Backbone - APL4 - Gabon

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The development objective of the Fourth Adaptable Program Loan (APL4) for the Central African Backbone Project is to contribute to increase geographical reach and usage of regional broadband network services and reduce their prices in the territory of the Gabonese Republic. There are three components to the project. The first component is enabling environment. This component will include the following activities, that have been identified taking due account of the strategic objectives of Digital Gabon: (i) technical assistance to promote and implement open access regime and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for international and for national connectivity through hiring legal and business experts to advise Government of Gabon (GoG) on negotiations with private sector operators, by financing technical and financial audits of the structures to be setup and through workshops on Promoting PPP investment in the telecommunications sector as well as supporting tender design and audit of national backbone, of Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and of a Carrier Hotel to access the international and national connectivity; (ii) technical assistance for the review, improvement and development of the telecoms and the information laws; (iii) technical assistance to strengthen capacity of key stakeholders and provide policy and regulatory capacity building; (iv) Technical Assistance (TA) to design a strategy and action plan to support the increase of broadband access including rural access as well as further liberalization in Gabon including the regulatory regime for Internet Service Provider (ISPs) and reaping the broadband benefits of digital switchover; (v) TA to support the establishment of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and to implement a management policy for Internet domain names; and (vi) TA to assist in scaling up the e-government strategy and action plan to leverage new connectivity, encompassing a status of actions undertaken so far in implementing e-government applications, an analysis of progress and delays, and detailed recommendations to update / revise the Gabonese e-government strategy with an action plan showing clear priorities, associated timelines and suggestions for indicators tracking impact on country development and progress towards a knowledge based economy. The second component is connectivity. This component will include the activities, on the basis of an open access and PPP structure so as to leverage private sector investment. The third component is project management. This activity will (i) finance the social and environmental studies required for monitoring and capacity building; (ii) provide support needed to strengthen the capacity of GoG, including upgrading an existing Project Implementation Unit (PIU), hiring dedicated staff to work on the project to complement existing project staff, covering office equipment and some operating costs, trainings on Bank's project cycle; and (iii) finance audits, monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and Evaluation (M and E) including appropriate actions to support efficient data collection, and communication.