Preliminary Environmental and Social Management Plan - Kiribati Digital Government

The Kiribati Digital Government Project’s development objective is to build the foundations and strengthen the Government of Kiribati’s technical and institutional capacity for digital public service delivery. The proposed Project will support key focus areas outlined in Kiribati’s Digital Government Master Plan (2021), notably on governance, technical infrastructure for digital government, and e-Government applications. The project will:

• support the development and strengthening of a Digital Transformation Office (DTO) for sustainable digital government coordination and implementation;
• provide upstream enabling legal, regulatory, institutional support and capacity-building necessary for the foundations for digital government and digital economy in Kiribati;
• finance infrastructure for e-government including a National Data Centre (NDC);
• support the development of Digital National ID and Civil Registration systems, and the linkage between the two; and
• support the development of a national government portal to facilitate citizen and business access to public information, interactions and transactions with Government ministries and agencies.

This Preliminary Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) assesses the environmental and social risks associated with the Project activities (as they are understood at appraisal) in accordance with the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework and the relevant Environmental and Social Standards (ESS) therein.

The ESMP will be finalised during project implementation on completion of design and prior to commencement of the procurement process for civil works.