To maximize flexibility and client-responsiveness in a multi-country environment, RCIP has been designed as a menu of options which have been grouped under three broad components below, which individual Governments can choose from depending on the needs of the respective countries.Component 1: Enabling Environment, including Monitoring & Evaluation Capacity-Building This can include the following subcomponents: - Technical assistance to promote further sector liberalization and regulatory reforms so as to maximize the benefits of the regional infrastructure, from access to capacity (cost-modelling, tariff regulation, interconnection, essential facility regulation, competition policy and regulation, spectrum and other scarce resource management);
- Capacity building and training in the implementation of regulatory reforms;
- Accelerating the establishment of the legal and regulatory framework for the information society, in particular, on security of e-transactions, privacy and data protection, intellectual property rights etc;
- Supporting continued sector reform to maximize the impact of the connectivity component and strengthening the Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework to provide a sound basis for both the connectivity and e-Government component; and
- Building monitoring and evaluation capacity.
Component 2: Connectivity This can include the following subcomponents: - Support for the financing of a submarine cable landing station or virtual landing station (for landlocked countries), which is expected to be essentially a passive infrastructure project with limited multiplex and switching equipment aimed at guaranteeing fair and unfettered physical access by all operators to the backhaul and submarine cable networks, as well as support for the creation of a national Internet Exchange Point (IXP), run by an association of operators or a private third party venture, with regional connections to other IXPs;
- Support to finance pre-purchase of capacity on the submarine cables, backhaul and national backbone networks, as well as in rural areas, for targeted users (schools, universities, hospitals, e-Government use as well as targeted user groups) with discounted capacity prices;
- Support for the deployment of regional backhaul links across the borders with neighboring countries to reach the submarine cable landing point, together with support for the deployment of the national backbones, on the basis of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), leveraging private sector investment;
- Support to finance the establishment of a government virtual private network to cater to all the government communications needs (both data and voice/video); and
- Support to extend ICT in rural areas and/or community-driven ICT development on the basis of PPPs with competitive award of subsidies.
Component 3: Transparency - e-Government Applications This can target five to six major government applications amongst the government services which are candidates for transition to e-Government delivery. The government services can be prioritized as follows: - Implement e-Government in quick win areas where there is a change champion, where private sector participation can be leveraged, and where the impact would be greatest in terms of transparency and accountability (e.g., customs, inland revenue services, pensions, drivers license/vehicle registration departments, utilities payments, etc.); and
- Introduce transaction based e-Procurement in selected departments based on high amounts but low volumes of transactions (transport), or in departments with low amounts but high volumes of transactions (health).
RCIP operations can be customized using any combination of the above. Activities which are relevant to RCIP development objectives will also be considered.
Government Enquiries
For more information on RCIP, contact:
Doyle Gallegos
Lead ICT Policy Specialist and RCIP Program Task Team Leader
Global ICT Department
The World Bank | |
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