Digital RMI — National Connectivity, Digital Government and Skills Programme

Context: The Marshall Islands is a remote Pacific atoll nation of about 40,000 residents spread across 24 low-lying, climate-vulnerable atolls, historically served by costly and unreliable satellite links. A further roughly 30,000 Marshallese live abroad and depend on connectivity to stay in touch with home.
What was done: In September 2021 the World Bank's International Development Association approved a US$30 million grant for the 'Digital Republic of the Marshall Islands' (Digital RMI) project, mobilising a further US$7.5 million in private capital for a total of US$37.5 million. Over a planned seven-year implementation, the project funds energy-efficient, climate-resilient digital infrastructure; a public-private partnership to modernise the national telecoms operator, requiring the selected operator to hold at least US$20 million in equity or equivalent credit; digital government platforms, cybersecurity and data-protection frameworks; and digital-skills, e-health and e-education programmes explicitly designed to close the gender gap in digital access.
Evidence and status: Priority infrastructure under the PPP procurement targets Majuro and Ebeye for fibre-to-premise upgrades, with satellite and mobile solutions planned for outer islands. The World Bank's public announcements describe funding and design in detail but do not publish quantified adoption or skills-training outcomes, and the project remains under multi-year implementation, so no completed outcome evaluation is yet available. Caution: because the initiative depends on a competitive PPP operator selection and on donor/diaspora coordination, benefits for the most remote outer atolls will likely lag behind those for Majuro and Ebeye.

Read the full analysis: https://digitalrmi.com/ppp/