Cabo Verde - Digital Cabo Verde Project

The objective of the Digital Cabo Verde Project is to strengthen Cabo Verde’s digital competitiveness foundations and improve the provision of digital public services. The project has five components. (1) Enabling Legal and Regulatory Environment component will support the GoCV in improving the legal and regulatory environment for a vibrant, inclusive and safe digital economy. (2) Digital Competitiveness component will better equip individuals and businesses across the country to be more competitive in the digital economy’s job market and spur innovation and productivity growth. (3) Digital Public Services and Marketplace component will support activities designed to boost the GoCV’s capacity to better deliver digital public services in G2G, G2B, and G2P domains, particularly critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. (4) Project Implementation Support component will provide support for the management and implementation of project-associated activities. It will finance activities related to project management, including project coordination, procurement, financial management (FM), monitoring and evaluation (M&E), project communication, citizen engagement, and environmental and social safeguards. This component will also cover office equipment, incremental operating costs, and independent audits. Moreover, it will aim to finance additional staff required for overall project implementation and staff specifically assigned to conduct fiduciary activities. This includes the recruitment of an individual digital economy project coordination adviser for the National Directorate of Telecommunications and Digital Economy (DGTED) under the Ministry of Finance (MOF), a project manager as well as safeguards, procurement, and FM specialists assigned to the fiduciary Project Implementing Unit (PIU), also known as the Special Projects Management Unit (Unidade de Gestão de Projetos Especiais, UGPE). (5) Contingent Emergency Response Component is added to the project structure to provide support to the GoCV to respond to emergencies, including the COVID-19 crisis It will have an initial zero value but may be financed during the implementation of the project to allow for agile response to emerging events, with funds redirected from other components. Including CERC at the preparation stage, albeit with zero funding, provides for flexibility to respond to an imminent or actual emergency (such as COVID-19).