Document of The World Bank Report No: ICR00003456 IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT (IDA-41680, IDA-51300) ON A CREDIT IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 4.9 MILLION (US$7.0 MILLION EQUIVALENT) AND SDR 3.3 MILLION (US$5.0 MILLION EQUIVALENT) TO THE REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA FOR A RURAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECT December 23, 2015 Transport and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Global Practice Nicaragua Latin America and the Caribbean CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (Exchange Rate Effective June 30th, 2015) Currency Unit = Córdoba 1.00 = US$ 0.037 US$ 1.00 = 27.0274 US$ 0.711 = SDR 1 FISCAL YEAR ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AF Additional Financing BTS Base Transceiver Station CPS Country Partnership Strategy ENITEL Empresa Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones FITEL Fondo de Inversion en las Telecomunicaciones FM Financial Management GNI Gross National Income GON Government of Nicaragua ICR Implementation Completion Results ICT Information and Communication Technologies IDA International Development Association IDU Institutional Development Unit IPDP Indigenous Peoples Development Plan IPP Indigenous Peoples Plan ISN Interim Strategy Note ISR Implementation Status Report ITU International Telecommunication Union LAC Latin America and the Caribbean NGO Non-Government Organization OBA Output Based Aid OP Operational Policy PAD Project Appraisal Document PCU Project Coordination Unit PDO Project Development Objective POP Point of Presence PP Project Paper PRSP-II Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper RAAN North Atlantic Autonomous Region RAAS South Atlantic Autonomous Region SIL Specific Investment Loan TELCOR Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos TOR Terms of Reference UCRESEP Nicaragua public sector reform and modernization program coordination unit. UNDP United Nations Development Program Senior Global Practice Director Pierre Guislain Country Director: J.Humberto Lopez Practice Manager: Randeep Sudan Project Team Leader: Elena Gasol Ramos ICR Team Leader: Eva Clemente Miranda Authors: Junko Narimatsu Eva Clemente Miranda NICARGUA Rural Telecommunications Project CONTENTS 1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design ........................................................... 1 1.1 Context at Appraisal .................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators (as approved) ....... 3 1.3 Revised PDO (as approved by original approving authority) and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification ................................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Main Beneficiaries............................................................................................................. 4 1.5 Original Components......................................................................................................... 4 1.6 Revised Components ................................................................................................... 5 1.7 Other significant changes ............................................................................................ 6 2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes ........................................................... 7 2.1 Project Preparation, Design and Quality at Entry........................................................ 7 2.2 Implementation ............................................................................................................ 9 2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation and Utilization ........... 11 2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance.............................................................................. 12 2.5 Post-completion Operation/Next Phase ........................................................................... 12 3. Assessment of Outcomes ...................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation .................................................... 13 3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives........................................................... 14 3.3 Efficiency Rating: Substantial ......................................................................................... 18 3.4 Justification of Overall Outcome Rating ......................................................................... 19 3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts ....................................................... 19 4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome ..................................................................... 20 5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance.................................................................. 21 5.1 Bank Performance ........................................................................................................... 21 5.2 Borrower Performance .................................................................................................... 22 6. Lessons Learned.................................................................................................................... 23 7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners ....................... 24 Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing ...................................................................................... 25 Annex 2. Outputs by Component .............................................................................................. 26 Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis ............................................................................. 32 Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes ......................... 38 Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results ....................................................................................... 40 Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results ............................................................... 41 Annex 7. Summary of Borrower's ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR ................................. 42 Annex 8. Comments of Cofinanciers and Other Partners/Stakeholders ................................... 74 Annex 9. List of Supporting Documents................................................................................... 75 MAP IBRD 33456R1 ................................................................................................................. 76 A. Basic Information Nicaragua Rural Country: Nicaragua Project Name: Telecom Project ID: P089989 L/C/TF Number(s): IDA-41680,IDA-51300 ICR Date: 12/23/2015 ICR Type: Core ICR REPUBLIC OF Lending Instrument: SIL Borrower: NICARAGUA Original Total XDR 4.90M Disbursed Amount: XDR 8.20M Commitment: Revised Amount: XDR 8.20M Environmental Category: B Implementing Agencies: TELCOR Cofinanciers and Other External Partners: B. Key Dates Revised / Actual Process Date Process Original Date Date(s) Concept Review: 09/13/2004 Effectiveness: 01/05/2007 01/05/2007 02/25/2011 05/14/2012 Appraisal: 12/30/2005 Restructuring(s): 04/24/2014 11/26/2014 Approval: 04/27/2006 Mid-term Review: 07/06/2010 07/06/2010 Closing: 06/30/2011 06/30/2015 C. Ratings Summary C.1 Performance Rating by ICR Outcomes: Satisfactory Risk to Development Outcome: Moderate Bank Performance: Satisfactory Borrower Performance: Satisfactory C.2 Detailed Ratings of Bank and Borrower Performance (by ICR) Bank Ratings Borrower Ratings Quality at Entry: Satisfactory Government: Satisfactory Implementing Quality of Supervision: Satisfactory Satisfactory Agency/Agencies: Overall Bank Overall Borrower Satisfactory Satisfactory Performance: Performance: C.3 Quality at Entry and Implementation Performance Indicators Implementation QAG Assessments Indicators Rating Performance (if any) Potential Problem Quality at Entry Project at any time No None (QEA): (Yes/No): Problem Project at any Quality of No None time (Yes/No): Supervision (QSA): DO rating before Satisfactory Closing/Inactive status: D. Sector and Theme Codes Original Actual Sector Code (as % of total Bank financing) Sub-national government administration 5 5 Telecommunications 95 95 Theme Code (as % of total Bank financing) Decentralization 17 17 Municipal governance and institution building 16 16 Other Private Sector Development 17 17 Regulation and competition policy 17 17 Rural services and infrastructure 33 33 E. Bank Staff Positions At ICR At Approval Vice President: Jorge Familiar Calderon Pamela Cox Country Director: J. Humberto Lopez Jane Armitage Practice Randeep Sudan Mohsen Khalil Manager/Manager: Project Team Leader: Elena Gasol Ramos Eloy Eduardo Vidal ICR Team Leader: Eva Clemente Miranda ICR Primary Author: Eva Clemente Miranda Rocio Sanchez Vigueras Junko Narimatsu F. Results Framework Analysis Project Development Objectives (from Project Appraisal Document) To increase access to and reduce costs of telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua Revised Project Development Objectives (as approved by original approving authority) Not revised (a) PDO Indicator(s) Original Target Formally Actual Value Values (from Revised Achieved at Indicator Baseline Value approval Target Completion or documents) Values Target Years Access to telephone services (fixed mainlines plus cellular phones per 100 Indicator 1 : people) Value quantitative or 37.83 90 117.32 Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 Target surpassed, achieving 130 percent of original target approved in the AF Comments (2012). Measures at national level (see Sections 1.3 and 3.2.). More than 600 (incl. % public telephones, 37 mobile tel. stations, and 27 mobile tel. and data stations achievement) were installed Indicator 2 : Access to Internet services (number of subscribers per 100 people) Value quantitative or 2.81 4.30 16.5 Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 Target surpassed, achieving over 380 percent of original target approved in the Comments AF (2012). Includes fixed and mobile Internet. Measures at national level (see (incl. % Sections 1.3 and 3.2.). 9 VSAT stations, 27 mobile tel. stations, and 104 PoP achievement) were installed. Indicator 3 : Retail price of Internet services (per Mbits/s per Month, in US$) Value quantitative or 18 13 11.99 Qualitative) Date achieved 05/14/2012 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 Target surpassed original target approved in the AF (2012). Retail price reduced Comments by over 33 percent. Internet services became highly relevant as they were used (incl. % for long distance calls, including international, thanks to Voice Over IP (VOIP) achievement) technologies (e.g. Skype). Indicator 4 : Direct Project beneficiaries (number, in thousands) Value quantitative or 0 1408 1402 Qualitative) Date achieved 05/14/2012 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 Comments (incl. % Target achieved by 99.6 percent achievement) Indicator 5 : Female beneficiaries (%) Value quantitative or 50.80 50 50.34 Qualitative) Date achieved 05/14/2012 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 Comments (incl. % Target achieved by 101 percent. achievement) Increase in the number of minutes of use of telephone service (per year, in Indicator 6 : thousands) Value quantitative or 380 6 975 Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 06/30/2011 12/07/2011 Comments Target greatly surpassed by December 2011(16,248 percent of achievement). (incl. % Indicator replaced in the AF with PDO Indicator 1. See Section 3.2. achievement) Indicator 7 : Increase in the number of hours of use of Internet access (per year, in thousands) Value quantitative or 0 300 909 Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 06/30/2011 12/07/2011 Comments Target greatly surpassed achieving over 300 percent of original target by (incl. % December 2011. Indicator replaced for the AF with PDO Indicator 2. See achievement) Section 3.2. Reduction in the average distance that residents in rural Nicaragua have to travel Indicator 8 : to the nearest public telephone (km) Value quantitative or 19 14 5.68 Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 06/30/2011 12/07/2011 Target surpassed (266 percent achievement). Distance reduced by 70 percent by Comments December 2011. Indicator moved from the PDO level to intermediate indicator (incl. % in the AF (2012), and revised to target Caribbean coastal region only. 603 achievement) phones, 9 VSAT installed. Indicator 9 : Reduction in the price of international calls due to increased competition (US$) Value quantitative or 0.80 0.15 0.06 Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 06/30/2011 12/07/2011 Target surpassed (114 percent of achievement). Price reduced by over 92 percent Comments by December 2011. Indicator replaced in the AF with a core sector indicator (incl. % "Retail prices of Internet services (per Mbits/s per Month, in US$), PDO achievement) Indicator 3 (see section 1.3). (b) Intermediate Outcome Indicator(s) Original Target Actual Value Formally Values (from Achieved at Indicator Baseline Value Revised approval Completion or Target Values documents) Target Years Indicator 1 : The Number of Municipal Heads with Internet access points Value (quantitative 3 106 108 153 or Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 06/30/2011 06/30/2015 06/30/2015 Comments Target surpassed, achieving over 140 percent of revised target value. 153 (incl. % represents all the Municipal Heads in Nicaragua. achievement) The Number of towns with 400 or more inhabitants with access to public Indicator 2 : telephone service Value (quantitative 203 1013 765 984 or Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 06/30/2011 06/30/2015 06/30/2015 Comments Target surpassed, achieving over 128 percent of revised target value. Target (incl. % value reduced in the AF given modest achievements in 2011, at 575. achievement) Reduction in the average distance that residents in rural Nicaragua have to travel Indicator 3 : to the nearest public telephone (km) Value (quantitative 19 4.20 6.20 or Qualitative) Date achieved 02/17/2006 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 Comments 86 percent achievement. Moved from PDO level to intermediate indicator in the (incl. % AF. Measures only the Caribbean coastal region. achievement) Number of e-Government and e-Commerce applications designed for the Indicator 4 : Caribbean Coast implemented Value (quantitative 0 4 1 0 or Qualitative) Date achieved 05/14/2012 03/31/2015 06/30/2015 06/30/2015 Not achieved. Early warning system under preparation as part of separate TA, Comments and expected to become operational in the next year. Target value restructured (incl. % from 4 to 1 (see paragraph 34). New indicator approved in the AF targeting the achievement) Caribbean coast. G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs Actual Date ISR No. DO IP Disbursements Archived (USD millions) 1 06/23/2006 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00 2 11/10/2006 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00 3 05/31/2007 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.30 4 12/19/2007 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.46 5 06/23/2008 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.79 6 12/01/2008 Satisfactory Satisfactory 1.15 7 05/05/2009 Satisfactory Satisfactory 2.48 8 11/09/2009 Satisfactory Satisfactory 2.77 9 06/30/2010 Satisfactory Satisfactory 3.07 10 02/26/2011 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 4.65 11 02/07/2012 Satisfactory Satisfactory 6.06 12 11/10/2012 Satisfactory Satisfactory 7.47 13 07/10/2013 Satisfactory Satisfactory 7.84 14 03/20/2014 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 7.84 15 11/14/2014 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 8.08 16 05/19/2015 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 10.56 17 06/30/2015 Satisfactory Satisfactory 11.54 H. Restructuring (if any) ISR Ratings at Amount Board Restructuring Disbursed at Restructuring Reason for Restructuring & Approved Restructuring Date(s) Key Changes Made PDO Change DO IP in USD millions First extension of project 02/25/2011 N S S 4.65 closing date to June 30, 2012 (Cr.4168-NI) Additional Financing (Cr.5130- 05/14/2012 S S 6.31 NI) approved. Level 2 restructuring to 04/24/2014 S MS 7.98 reallocate funds across categories (Cr.4168-NI) Level 2 restructuring to change project description (Cr.5130- 11/26/2014 N S MS 8.08 NI) and second extension of project closing date to June 2015 I. Disbursement Profile 1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design 1.1 Context at Appraisal 1. Country Context. Nicaragua is a Central American country with over 6 million inhabitants, of which 48.6% in rural areas. At the time of project appraisal, civil conflicts and natural disasters had left the country behind most of its neighbors in terms of social and economic indicators, and it has remained one of the poorest countries in the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region. In 2006, Nicaragua’s income per capita was $1,210 (GNI, Atlas Method, current US$), significantly below the LAC regional average of $5,216. In 2005, nearly half the population lived below the national poverty line1, which was particularly prevalent in rural areas, including in the Caribbean coastal region, where the provision of infrastructure and basic services had remained limited and costly to deliver. While a number of achievements had been made, rural-urban disparities remained stark, and key human development indicators such as educational attainment, remained low. Nicaragua ranked 132 out of 182 countries in the 2005 UNDP Human Development Index.2 2. Sector Context. In 2001, the Government of Nicaragua (GoN), with the assistance of the IDA-financed Telecommunications Sector Reform Project (IDA-32910 IDA-3291A), fully privatized ENITEL, the state-owned incumbent; established TELCOR (Instituto Nicaraguense de Telecommunicaciones y Correos)3 as the sector regulator, and awarded licenses to two new cellular operators to compete with the incumbent. These efforts resulted in increasing the numbers of fixed and mobile phones five-fold from 194,000 in 1999 to more than 700,000 in 2004. The three mobile operators installed networks, covered all departmental capitals of the country, and actively competed for the market. Further, TELCOR had begun to put in place regulations to open the fixed- line telephone services to competition after ENITEL’s exclusivity period expired in April 2005. In 2003, an executive decree created the Fondo de Inversion en las Telecomunicaciones (FITEL), a universal access fund to be managed TELCOR for expanding telecommunications, ICTs and postal services in rural areas4. 3. Despite these advances, at the time of project preparation Nicaragua still had one of the lowest ICT penetration rates in the LAC region, with mobile telephones remaining at 33.13 percent per 100 people, computer users at 2.79 percent, and the number of Internet users at a mere 0.34 percent of the total population. In 2005, Nicaragua had the second most expensive Internet access fees in Latin America, second only to Haiti 5 . This situation was mainly due to Nicaragua´s insufficient telecommunications infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, and the higher costs of using this infrastructure compared to neighboring countries. Further, the disparity between urban 1 Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines in 2005: 48.3% of population. World Development Indicators. 2 UNDP Human Development Report 2005, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/266/hdr05_complete.pdf. 3 TELCOR regulates the telecommunications and postal sectors according to the General Law of Telecommunications and Postal Services and the Law on the Operation of Public Service Telecommunications (1995). 4 By law, the GoN is required to allocate at least 20 percent of TELCOR’s budget to fund FITEL and its projects. In October 2004, US$1 million was allocated to FITEL for the first round of projects to be co-financed by IDA- financing under the Telecommunications Sector Reform project. 5 World Economic Forum, The Global Information Technology Report. 2003-2004. p. 259 1 and rural areas was large: fixed phone penetration in urban centers was around 12.7 percent compared to less than 0.4 percent rural areas6. Thus, rural inhabitants had to travel an average of 19 kilometers to access a telephone. Approximately 750 towns with populations of 500 or more did not have access to telephones or the Internet. According to studies, accessing the Internet was extremely expensive and cost around US$400 to $600 a month7. Domestic telephone rates were also high and were more than triple those of neighboring countries including El Salvador and Guatemala. 4. Government Strategy. In 2005, the GoN launched the National Development Plan 2005- 2009, as the country’s second generation Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-II). The four strategic areas of the PRSP-II were: (i) economic growth, for poverty reduction; (ii) human capital development and social protection; (iii) productive and social public infrastructure; and (iv) governance and state reforms. The PRSP-II discussed the role of the private sector as one of the main engines of growth through stimulation of investment and exports. It also emphasized growth that promotes employment and rural development. 5. In this context, the GoN placed Telecommunications and ICTs as a key enabler to diversify the economy, attract investment, improve productivity, reduce poverty, and significantly reduce the economic and social divide of rural areas. The Rural Telecommunications Project was considered high priority for the GoN, and was also included in the 2005 Interim Strategy Note (ISN) for Nicaragua 8 for the following main reasons: (1) it would benefit rural areas where some of Nicaragua’s poorest and most isolated inhabitants live; (2) it would build critical infrastructure at a very low cost compared with other infrastructure projects; (3) the infrastructure built by the project will be used in other important government initiatives in the finance, decentralization, education and public health sectors, and will also support more transparent and accountable governance; and (4) it would promote increased private sector investment and facilitate communications and remittances to rural populations from Nicaragua’s sizable immigrant communities in the U.S. and Costa Rica9. 6. Government Commitment to the project. As a result of the success of the Bank-financed Telecommunication Sector Reform Project (1999-2006), the GoN had requested the Bank’s assistance to address the sector’s most critical issues including: (i) the lack of telecommunications and Internet infrastructure, particularly in rural areas; (ii) dramatic disparity in access to services between urban and areas, and high costs and poor quality of services, and (iii) the need to improve regulations to deal with critical issues to ensure a smooth and effective transition from a monopoly to a competitive market. In addition, at the time of preparation, TELCOR had devoted substantial resources for FITEL to co-finance with the Bank the first tender to extend cellular coverage and public payphones in rural areas (completed in 2006). 7. Rationale for Bank involvement. Despite the establishment of TELCOR, Nicaragua had not yet instituted regulations to deal with critical issues, such as licensing, interconnection, tariffs, long distance and local services and competition. Nicaragua had only limited competition in the mobile sector and a monopoly for fixed and long distance services (that expired in April 2005). 6 Population data based on l995 census figures. 7 2005 FITEL study 8 ISN / Strategy Task ID: report No. 32570-NI. Date of Board approval of CAS: July 6, 2005. 9 The immigrant community concentrated in the U.S. (nearly 300,000), and Costa Rica (nearly 600,000) sent between US$600-800 million in remittances on an annual basis. Several studied had found that Nicaraguans paid the second highest costs for remittances due in part to lack of adequate infrastructure and competition. The experience with similar transitions to competitive markets in Latin America indicated that regulators need continued or increased assistance and technical advice to prevent the reestablishment of a de-facto monopoly. This was particularly important for ensuring competitive prices for the consumers. 8. Rural access to Telecommunications services could not be guaranteed if left entirely to market forces. FITEL did not have enough funds and resources to expand the services to rural areas, considering that it could take more than 10 years and substantial financial resources. In order to increase support for the reforms and to increase the legitimacy of the regulator, it was important at the time to demonstrate that the regulator could put in place programs to protect consumer rights and extend services to the poor and un-served communities. The Bank’s experience supporting similar universal access/OBA projects was deemed essential for building capacity within TELCOR/FITEL. 1.2 Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators (as approved) 9. The project development objective, as spelled out in the Project Appraisal Document (PAD) and the Credit Agreement, was to increase access to and reduce costs of telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua. To achieve this objective the project focused on investments linked to fostering cost-effective access to communications infrastructure in rural areas. The main development outcomes included: (i) the expansion of the telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas; and (ii) the reduction of the cost of Telecommunication services. 10. Key outcome indicators linked to the PDO were: a) Increase in the number of minutes of use of telephone service b) Increase in the number of hours of use of Internet access c) Reduction in the average distance that residents in rural Nicaragua have to travel to the nearest public telephone d) Reduction in the price of international calls due to increased competition 1.3 Revised PDO (as approved by original approving authority) and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification 11. The PDO remained unchanged throughout the entire project implementation span. The Additional Financing (AF) approved in June 2012 (Cr.5130) allowed an opportunity to revise some of the PDO indicators by replacing them with core sector indicators for ICT, as defined in the Bank guidelines for IDA-supported investment operations, approved in 2009. Hence, the access outcome was measured by the number of subscribers (people who pay for access) which similarly measures access of Telecommunication services (telephone and Internet). Although these new indicators measure access at the national level (urban plus rural) 10, they were considered strategically relevant because they (i) better allow aggregation across projects; (ii) are heavily used by shareholders to understand the impact of WBG work; (iii) allow international comparison; and (iv) are readily available from telecommunications operators, regulators and Information Telecommunications Union (ITU).With regards to the reduction cost outcome, the original PDO indicator ‘price of 10 With regards to the fact that they measured changes in urban and rural areas, it was found acceptable because there was an understanding in the ICT sector that in 2012 most of the urban centers already had very high levels of ICT penetration, particularly mobile, and therefore changes attributable to the project would mostly demonstrate progress in rural areas. international calls’ and the new PDO indicator (‘price of Internet services’) similarly measured the cost of Telecommunications services, with the difference of the type of service being provided. In addition to the above-mentioned benefits of core sector indicators, throughout the AF, reduction in the costs of Internet services became highly relevant as they were used for long distance calls, including international, thanks to Voice Over IP (VOIP) technologies (e.g. Skype). The revised PDO indicators were as follows: a) Access to telephone services (fixed mainlines plus cellular phones per 100 people); replaced increase in the number of minutes of use of telephone service. b) Access to Internet services (number of subscribers per 100 people); replaced increase in the number of hours of use of Internet access. c) Retail price of Internet services (per Mbit/s per month, in US$); replaced reduction in the price of international calls due to increased competition. d) Project beneficiaries e) Project beneficiaries, of which female 1.4 Main Beneficiaries 12. The project was designed to target the population of Nicaragua’s rural communities which have the highest concentration of poverty and for whom the lack of adequate infrastructure remained a critical bottleneck for development. Project beneficiaries included people in underserved communities (estimated direct beneficiaries 346,93411 people), with the aim to double the number of rural communities larger than 400 people, with at least one public phone. Likewise, the project sought to provide connectivity in 103 municipal heads (out of 153) to enable nearly 830,000 people (16% of Nicaragua’s total population) to gain access to the Internet in rural municipalities for first time. The beneficiaries also included 676 institutions that would benefit from the expanded coverage and reduced prices (e.g. schools, universities, hospitals, municipal governments and other public administrations). 13. The AF targeted additional rural communities in Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast by providing telecommunications infrastructure and services to at least 40 underserved communities. It covered 20 municipalities in the Autonomous Region of South Atlantic (RAAS) and Autonomous Region of North Atlantic (RAAN), as well as 6 municipalities in the department of Rio San Juan. The AF was expected to benefit over 200,000 people12. 1.5 Original Components 14. The project components as described in the PAD were as follows: (a) Component 1. Rural Access ($7.9 million, of which IDA financing $5.3 million). This component aimed to use competitive Output Based Aid (OBA) to enable private sector operators to build, own and operate on a commercially sustainable basis the ICT infrastructure in rural communities as a result of this project. There were two subcomponents: 1. Subcomponent 1 aimed to provide at least one public payphone in 347 rural communities with populations greater than 400 inhabitants not covered by the first FITEL project, and to 11 According to 1995 census 12 As estimated by the March 2012 technical feasibility study (Estudio de Factibilidad y Diseño de TICs Caribe) the establishment of a mobile cellular telephone network and services in the rural underserved areas. 2. Subcomponent 2 aimed to establish a pilot telecenter in one secondary school in each of the 103 municipal heads that lacked Internet access and that were covered by the project as well as 103 Internet points of presence (Internet POP) in the same municipal heads. (b) Component 2. Regulatory Capacity Strengthening and Technical Assistance to Communities ($814,000, of which IDA financing $664,000). This component aimed to strengthen the institutional capacity of the sector regulator, TELCOR. There were three subcomponents. 1. Subcomponent 1($464,000, IDA financing $364,000) aimed to provide technical assistance to help re-organize TELCOR, carry out strategic planning, and to identify hiring need profiles in terms of qualified economists, financial experts, and attorneys. It also aimed to provide technical assistance on to review the legal and regulatory framework including competition, interconnection, and tariffs regulation, controversies, consumer rights and complaints, accounting, finance, and management. It was used to provide FITEL with resources to enable itself to carry out additional detailed prefeasibility studies to design additional projects and prepare tender documents for additional projects. 2. Subcomponent 2 ($150,000 IDA financing $100,000) aimed at providing a training program for TELCOR staff by bringing experts from outside the country to Nicaragua to dictate courses to TELCOR staff, and also to send key staff from the Regulator to training courses abroad. 3. Subcomponent 3 ($200,000, IDA financing $200,000) aimed to provide Internet applications to take advantage of the fact that rural communities gained access to the Internet as a result of the first component of this project. The Internet applications and capacity building activities were to be chosen by TELCOR based on proposals made by the Ministries of Education, Health, Agriculture, Finance, NGOs as well as by municipal governments. (c) Component 3. Project Management ($700,000, of which IDA financing $600,000). This component consisted of support to project finance management, such as human resources, procurement, financial management, M&E, internal and external audit, and communications expertise, operating expenses and equipment 1.6 Revised Components 15. The original design (components and sub-components), as described in the original Financing Agreement, was not revised. In June 2012, an additional financing of US$5 million was approved by Bank management to allow scaling-up activities to the RAAS, RAAN and Rio San Juan regions. In October 2011 the Government requested the AF with an objective to increase access to telecommunication services to these areas as they were not targeted under the original project, were of high priority to the GoN, and the addition was deemed to fill a significant gap in telecom access. The description of the design of the AF was the same as in the original Financing Agreement. The specific activities in the above region were slightly adapted to respond to the specific context of the region. The additional resources were integrated into the original components. The extended scope of activities as described in the Project Paper were as follows: (a) Component 1. Rural Access ($2.6 million, of which IDA financing $2.6 million). Roll out of wireless network and provision of services through the installation of POPs and the establishment of Telecenters. These activities aimed to expand the telecommunications infrastructure in at least forty underserved communities concentrated in twenty municipalities in RAAS and RAAN, as well as six municipalities in the Department of Rio San Juan. (b) Component 2. Institutional Strengthening of Sector Regulator and Technical Assistance to Communities ($2.0 million, of which IDA $1.0 million). This component followed the description of component 2 under the original credit. In addition, there was a provision to help establish a Regional e-Government Data Center for the Caribbean coastal areas, and; support the design and implementation of at least four e-Government applications, such as distance learning programs to strengthen productive capacity, and programs to improve the quality of education, as well as health and disaster prevention services. The scope of activities for component 2 was reduced due to the unexpected increase of component 1 costs that had left limited resources for Institutional Strengthening of Sector Regulator and Technical Assistance to Communities, and for which TELCOR had found other financing sources (e.g. Inter- American Development Bank and the Government of Korea). (c) Component 3: Project Management (US$1.9 million, of which IDA$1.4million). Strengthening the technical capacity of TELCOR’s development division to implement the project. 16. In November 2014, a level 2 restructuring was approved to cancel some of the activities under the component 2 financed under the AF that were already funded by other sources including: (a) review of the current legal and regulatory framework; (b) development of a modernized organizational structure for TELCOR and the carrying out of an assessment of its staff needs; and (c) carrying out of training for TELCOR’s staff to improve their skills, including the identification and preparation of training plans based on skills assessments and in accordance with the new organizational structures. Consequently, the target value for the intermediate indicator, “Number of e-Government and E-Commerce applications designed for the Caribbean Coast” was reduced. 1.7 Other significant changes 17. There were four project restructurings processed throughout the project, including the AF. 18. Two closing date extensions. In February 2011, an extension of the project closing date by one year from June 30, 2011 to June 30, 2012 was approved. The extension was necessary to: (i) complete the installation of the base stations in rural areas; (ii) carry out a pilot tender for passive infrastructure in rural areas; and (iii) replicate the experience with municipalities and install the systems developed under the collaboration with Finland in 50 more municipalities. In November 2014 a second extension was approved changing the project closing date by 3 months to June 30, 2015. This was needed to recover initial delays in the execution of component 1, and allow sufficient time to complete all planned activities under the Project. More details are provided in section 2.2. 19. Reallocation of funds (Report No. 86740-NI). In April 2014, a reallocation of the credit proceeds was approved to reflect the actual amounts that had been drawn per category under Cr.4168. The reallocation responded to additional demands identified at the final stage of project implementation, as well during preparation of the AF. These included technical feasibility, environmental and social assessments, and adoption of e-government applications in over 50 rural municipalities of Nicaragua (registry of cattle branding, citizen registry, internal accounting and tax collection). 2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes 2.1 Project Preparation, Design and Quality at Entry 20. Soundness of background analysis. The preparation of the project was thorough and formed the basis for the execution of the project. A thorough economic and financial analysis was carried out for the rural access component. The analysis concluded that leveraging rural connectivity would yield significant returns over the long run, and the direct/indirect economic benefits that were derived from the savings from the improved accessibility and affordability of telecommunications/ICT services would be substantial. A comprehensive Internet demand analysis was also conducted, and served to identify the municipal heads in rural areas with the highest potential impact to benefit from the provision of ICT access and services13. 21. During project preparation some of the activities under the project had to be cancelled or reduced due to IDA limitations, and therefore a Postal reform component that was included during initial stages of preparation was dropped. Nonetheless, the high level of efforts put in place for background analysis and project preparation enabled subsequent effective project implementation. 22. Assessment of project design. The PDO was clear, realistic and important for Nicaragua’s National Development Plan 2005-2009, PRSP-II, and consistent with the 2005 Interim Strategy Note (ISN) of the World Bank, facilitating the successful outcomes. The project was designed to include clear and specific components and subcomponents to achieve the PDO. The rural access component precisely focused on infrastructure investments, while the second component addressed the provision of technical assistance. A non-complex three-component structure divided into subcomponents led to a smooth implementation of activities that were easily monitored and adapted as needed to ensure achievement of objectives. The project design adequately took into account lessons learnt and built upon previous projects implemented in neighboring countries, including Colombia, Peru and Chile, that had universal access programs that successfully attracted private sector participation through a competitive OBA tender process. The project also incorporated lessons learned from the tender for TELCOR and FITEL’s OBA projects, which were structured to attract investment not only from existing operators but also from new and smaller entrants in order to foster market competition. In turn, the project expanded access to rural areas that were considered “beyond the market”14 successfully attracting private operators, including a new market entrant, and access fees were provided at the same price as Managua for the end-users. 23. The original project design of Internet access/telecenters focused on key lessons learnt from previous connectivity projects and studies15 that contributed to high outcomes in increasing access to telecommunication services in rural areas. These lessons included: (a) one of the key bottlenecks to increase Internet access is high costs, especially in rural areas; (b) in order for the Internet to become and effective tool for development, users must have access to high speed networks, rather than simply dial-up services; (c) universal access initiatives will be most effective if they first improve the quality and lower the costs of Internet access, rather than focus on building a large number of telecenters; and (d) financing telecenters should be clearly associated with 13 Demand Study for the provision of Internet access to Nicaraguan municipal heads, 2007. 14 Rural, poor and remote areas are related to a higher cost of connection per inhabitant and lower revenues than in urban centers, thus private operators lack incentives to invest in infrastructure or in the cases they do, the final price paid by the end user is usually much higher than in cities, 15 Relevant inputs came from “Telecommunications and Information Services for the Poor" World Bank Discussion paper No. 432, April 2002. See analysis in page 8. government initiatives, to ensure they remain operational over the long run. As a result, the project was designed to first ensure key quality infrastructure was operational in the targeted areas at an affordable cost, and then finance pilot telecenters in the municipalities which served to generate demand of Telecommunication services. At the same time, other public and private entities connected to the Internet deployed by the project at commercial rates comparable to urban rates, which help stimulate wide-scale demand for Internet connectivity and help reduce prices. 24. Project design included an analysis of alternative approaches to OBA including the rationale for their rejection: (a) Technical assistance credit only. This was rejected because FITEL did not have enough funds to expand the services to rural areas fast enough. (b) Specific investment loan (SIL) for an e-Development strategy and rural expansion. This option to include the development and implementation of an e-development strategy on top of the existing components, was rejected as it would significantly increase the size and complexity of the project; and (c) SIL for multi-sector rural infrastructure projects. This option that sought to foster the build-out of electric, water, road and ICT infrastructure in rural areas was rejected because the Bank already had an energy and a rural roads project. Further, such a project was considered too large and complicated. 25. In acknowledgement of ICTs’ cross-sectorial and transformative impact, project design included comprehensive assessments of synergies with other projects. A list of major related projects from the WBG, the GoN, and other development partners were identified with a description of the potential benefits/complementarities. 26. Project institutional design. Adequacy of available expertise for project implementation arrangements was ensured by selecting TELCOR’s Institutional Development Unit (IDU), also called the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) as the implementing entity. TELCOR had ongoing experience managing WB-financed projects. This experience did not include direct experience in managing the project’s fiduciary aspects, which had been the responsibility of Nicaragua's public sector reform and modernization program coordination unit (UCRESEP) under the previous Telecommunications Reform Project. With the Government’s decision to eliminate UNCRESEP, the project’s financial and procurement implementation fell under TELCOR’s responsibility. A procurement assessment carried out in early 2006 showed that the PCU lacked capacity to undertake complex procurement processes. To overcome this situation, the project design incorporated an agreement to transfer relevant resources to TELCOR, including but not limited to staff, files, document and systems upon UCRESEP’s closing, as well as specific training. At the time of project preparation, TELCOR had prepared an Action Plan to improve its capacity to supervise the fiduciary aspects of the project. 27. Adequacy of Government’s commitment. The track record of the GoN effectively implementing reforms in the telecommunications sector was demonstrated by the government’s success in privatizing ENITEL; establishing TELCOR; establishing a clear date for the end of the ENITEL monopoly on basic telephone services; developing and adopting regulations to prepare Nicaragua for the transition to competition; and establishing a universal service program which promptly designed and convened the first two tenders for the universal access project. 28. Risk assessment. The assessment of risks and mitigation actions prepared at appraisal proved to be adequate. The overall project risk was rated as modest mainly due to the focus of the project on rural areas. The only substantial risk identified related to the decision to transfer public utility regulation to a multi-sector regulator. In January 2005, Congress had approved a law to create a Superintendency of Public Services (Superintendencia de Servicios Publicos, SISEP) with the responsibility for regulating the telecommunications, electric and water sectors. After a long political debate, it was agreed that the law would not take effect until January 2007. This might have affected the performance of TELCOR and project implementation. To mitigate this risk, it was agreed that TELCOR would sign an Implementation Agreement with the Ministry of Finance bearing its obligations under the project. The Superintendency was never implemented as a successor to TELCOR, and if it had happened it would have had to abide to the Implementation Agreement. 2.2 Implementation 29. The project was implemented successfully, and all activities were successfully completed by the project closing date, and 100 percent of the total IDA funds were disbursed. The project was approved by the Board on April 27, 2006 and became effective on January 5, 2007 (originally planned on July 1st, 2006), with an original closing date of June 30, 2011. The AF was approved by the Board on June 14, 2012 and became effective on November 8, 2012. Subsequently, the closing date of the original credit was extended to match the closing date of the AF, which was March 31, 2015. 30. Lumpy nature of disbursements caused implementation delays. For the rural access component, implementation of both the original credit and the AF proceeded well, with only initial delays caused by the lumpy nature of disbursements (68% of project proceeds). This was particularly true for Internet POP subcomponent. The preparation of the bidding documents was complex and time consuming. Extensive consultations were required with both operators and the targeted indigenous communities before, during, and after the tendering process. Consultations served to better adapt technical requirements to operators’ viability to participate in the project. For instance, mobile voice services were added to Internet connectivity as needed for financial sustainability. The engagement with the local communities promoted beneficiaries’ ownership of the project, and proved to be key for achieving PDO. This way, TELCOR was able to successfully resolve underlying issues. The contract was awarded to ENITEL, and by December 2011, 104 16 Internet POPs had been rolled out to all previously underserved municipal heads in the country, and 73 percent of the original credit had been disbursed. 31. For the AF, the Internet POP subcomponent proved even more challenging, given the significant increase in costs required for this component than originally estimated (increased from $2.6 to $4.2 million), and the need to re-tender. This was mainly because geographical conditions in the rural Caribbean regions were more difficult than expected. In turn, the estimated costs for the installation were significantly higher than what TELCOR and the operators had estimated during the consultations. In addition to few months of delay due to the lack of qualifying bidders in the first tender for deploying POPs, Xinwei, a new Chinese operator that had been awarded a share of the lots17, was unable to complete installation until June 2015, due to its unfamiliarity with the country context, particularly with respect to working with indigenous communities in the Caribbean coastal region and delays with establishing interconnection agreements with existing operators. The implementation required significant interventions and close technical assistance by both TELCOR and Bank staff. At the time of the last ISR, underlying issues had been resolved, 16 One POP more than initially planned 17 Contracts were awarded to Xinwei (US$0.8 million), and ENITEL/Claro (US$3.4 million), the incumbent operator, in early 2014 to deploy POPs in 29 rural and remote communities in the Caribbean Coastal region. implementation progress rate was upgraded to satisfactory, and Xinwei is now providing services in the areas targeted by the project. Under the AF, a total of 27 POPs were deployed by installing Base Transceivers Stations (BTSs), below the original plan of 40 due to unexpected elevation of logistical cost to install the BTSs, among other, mainly because of complex geographical conditions. 32. Effective management to improve implementation and ensure sustainability. Along with the Internet POPs, in the same rural municipal heads, telecenters were set up (except in two that already had them). Due to municipal schools limited resources to guarantee long term financial sustainability, implementation of telecenters, originally planned in public secondary schools, moved towards municipal governments. To ensure sustainability, TELCOR signed collaboration agreements that secured municipal commitment to provide a location and operating funding for the telecenter. A pilot-phased approach for telecenters allowed TELCOR to learn from initial iterations and improve further implementation. 33. Innovative solutions arising from the need to resolve budget issues which in turn increased the project’s outcomes. The implementation of the public phones subcomponent largely exceeded original design. Initially, the goal was to install public phones in 347 rural communities, and 612 public phones were installed in different communities. This was possible due to timely reaction and capability to re-design the approach when bidders’ proposals amply surpassed the subcomponent budget. Given the elevated logistic costs associated with operating and maintaining the public phones in highly remote areas, TELCOR negotiated with operators a model in which the public phones were to be managed locally. This, in parallel, created business opportunities for rural households. Another challenge during implementation related to the 103 rural communities that did not have access to electricity. This was solved by equipping the phones and rural entrepreneurs with solar panels. 34. Cellular telephone extension benefited from the fast development of mobile broadband technologies. To better serve rural communities, implementation of rural access also provided mobile connectivity (voice and data) to rural areas. At the time of project preparation, it was hard to foresee the impact of the fast development of new mobile broadband technologies, for which infrastructure is easier to roll out and more cost-efficient. Although not conceived in the project design, the availability of new connectivity technologies and the PCU’s skilled negotiations with telecom operators allowed the deployment of Based Transceiver Stations (BTSs). This helped increase access to, and reduce prices for telecommunication services by using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The installation of BTSs expanded the project’s scope to benefit 37 additional communities beyond those originally planned. Additionally, rural connectivity was also expanded with the installation of 9 satellites (VSAT18) in extremely remote communities. 35. Limited resources and leveraged donor parallel financing to implement component 2. The implementation of component 2 was adjusted throughout the project cycle to meet the realistic demands during execution and to minimize overlap with other donors’ programs. The unexpected increase in costs and delays for the rural access component left limited time and resources for component 2. TELCOR prioritized activities based on their high impact towards achieving the PDO and thanks to optimizing synergies with activities that other donors had launched in parallel. During implementation, the IDB announced a project to finance a National Broadband Plan in Nicaragua comprising activities that were foreseen under component 2 under the AF financing. Subsequently, the review of the regulatory and legal framework, TELCOR’s strategic staffing planning and 18 Very-Small-Aperture Terminal (VSAT) organizational modernization, the establishment of a regional training center for Broadband, and a training program for TELCOR’s staff were financed by the IDB. Likewise, the Government of Korea is currently financing the establishment of the Regional e-Government Data Center for the Caribbean coastal areas. At the time of this ICR, the Disaster Early Warning system implemented under GoN co-financing was still at the final procurement stage. 2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation and Utilization 36. Design. The M&E framework design was adequate, and was modified with the introduction of standard ICT sector core indicators through the AF (see section 1.3). At the time of project appraisal, the PDO indicators were generally supportive of the PDO outcomes, and provided quantitative baseline and clear target values by which progress towards objectives could easily be assessed. Progress under Rural Access component was monitored with a wide set of outcome and intermediate indicators, as it represented the largest component in the project. On the other hand, component 2 had only one intermediate outcome indicator. Most access outcome and component indicators were precisely defined to measure the direct impact of the project in the targeted communities. For instance, Internet Use (hours/year) referred only to municipal heads in rural areas, and did not measure urban centers. The core indicators introduced at the AF, provided quality standard international indicators that allowed international comparison and were readily available, however some, like penetration rates, measured access to Telecommunication services at the national level, thus also included areas the project did not target.19 The word “reduction” in the indicators “Reduction in the average travel distance to access a public phone,” and “Reduction in the price of international calls due to increased competition,” were redundant, but this is considered a minor shortcoming; the correct values were collected and measured. . 37. As designed, TELCOR was held responsible for collecting the data from operators on an annual basis, and economic and demographic data from the national statistical office. TELCOR’s capacity to collect and analyze data was to be supported and strengthened by resources from the project. Baseline data were collected and used in project design, and to assess progress during project implementation. 38. Implementation and Use. M&E evolved satisfactorily over most of the course of project implementation. There were delays in collection of some of the data needed for M&E, and some indicators were not updated until 2011. This was largely due to difficulties in obtaining the information from operators including for the PDO indicators: Increase in the number of minutes of use of telephone service, and Increase in the number of hours of use of Internet access. This is because the operators were not collecting or reporting on many of them to TELCOR, even though this was mandatory. Operators reported data on traffic and subscribers, but not the use of services (minutes of telephone use, and hours of Internet use).To overcome this, TELCOR’s project engineer worked effectively to collect data and calculate values to update indicators. Further, for the average distance calculation to reach a public telephone in rural areas, TELCOR used a geo- referenced tool to calculate distances from each rural community to the nearest location where public phones had been installed under the project. Despite this efforts, component 2 intermediate indicator % ‘Increase in International Traffic from/to the U.S.’ was never updated. The set of indicators introduced at the AF facilitated data collection and helped track project progress more 19 With regards to the fact that they measured changes in urban and rural areas, it was found acceptable because there was an understanding in the ICT sector that in 2012 most of the urban centers already had very high levels of ICT penetration, particularly mobile, and therefore changes attributable to the project would mostly demonstrate progress in rural areas. frequently and no delays were suffered throughout the AF. Under the AF, the indicator for measuring the reduction of average distance to reach a telephone in rural areas was adjusted to just cover RAAS, RAAN and Rio San Juan regions. The indicators collected as part of the project were effectively used by TELCOR to track progress of ICT sector development in Nicaragua and make appropriate regulatory decisions. The data also contributed to identifying further gaps in telecommunications access, which led to the GoN requesting the preparation of a new ICT project (see section 2.5) 2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance 39. Safeguards. The project was classified as Category “B” and triggered OP/BP/GP 4.01 on Environmental Assessment. At the time of project preparation, an Environmental and Social Assessment (ESA) was prepared. The complete ESA which included a “Social Guide and Communications Manual for the Population Living in the Area where the Antennas will be deployed” and a “Guide for the Construction and Installation of Antennas for Improving Telecommunications in Nicaragua” was disclosed on September 10th 2004. 40. During the preparation of the AF the environmental classification remained “B,” but four new safeguard policies were triggered: OP4.04 on Natural Habitats, OP 4.11 on Physical Cultural Resources, OP4.12 on Involuntary Resettlement, and OP4.10 on Indigenous Peoples. Accordingly, an Indigenous Peoples Planning Framework (IPPF), Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) and an Environmental Management Framework (EMF) were prepared and disclosed on May 5th, 2012. TELCOR had a dedicated and qualified team working on safeguards issues, and safeguards compliance remained satisfactory throughout the project life. 41. Procurement. TELCOR was the entity in charge of the procurement throughout the project. There were several issues regarding delays in the turn-around of procurement reviews during the first half of the implementation of the project. An Ex Post Review revealed serious deficiencies in the procurement team in TELCOR, and subsequently the ratings were downgraded to Unsatisfactory in the June 2010 ISR. Upon the Bank team’s recommendation to strengthen the capacity, a qualified procurement specialist was hired within the PCU, and from this point the procurement management evolved satisfactorily until the end of the project. 42. Financial Management (FM). Overall FM remained adequate and was rated satisfactory throughout the life of the project, except for the February 2011 ISR when the ratings were downgraded to Moderately Satisfactory (MS) due to delays in submitting project audits. TELCOR retained a qualified and dedicated FM staff within the PCU throughout the life of the project, and the few delays in the submission of financial reports were attended closely by TELCOR management and resolved in a timely manner. 2.5 Post-completion Operation/Next Phase 43. The project was designed to be fully self-sustainable at completion. The rural access component of the project does not impose any additional financing requirements on the government as they were based on an OBA approach where a one-time subsidy by the government is awarded to the operator in return for a commitment to provide the ICT services to the population. Further, sector revenues collected from the operators have increased due to this project, and have allowed TELCOR to take further steps to enhance its institutional capacity. 44. Complementary training and capacity building activities for the early warning system are currently on-going under the Bank-executed activity "Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems to Support Climate-Resilient Development in Honduras and Nicaragua (P155112)". 45. Nicaragua already plans to make a large investment in broadband infrastructure that needs to be complemented to connect the already existing submarine cables with the Central American regional backbone. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Korean EximBank are planning a US$50 million investment in broadband infrastructure in Nicaragua, starting deployment in November 2015. The plan is to build a national backbone network to foster competition in the provision of broadband, and to reach rural areas with fiber. 46. The proposed Bank-financed Nicaragua-Caribbean Regional Connectivity Infrastructure Project (CARCIP)20, currently under preparation and expected to be approved by the beginning of 2016. CARCIP aims to further develop Broadband infrastructure to provide affordable connectivity to additional rural communities not covered under the Rural Telecom project. CARCIP Nicaragua will bridge gaps and complement plans by the IDB, the Korean Eximm Bank, and private operators to deploy infrastructure. Additionally, CARCIP Nicaragua will also provide an innovative approach for increasing the pool of skilled talent, to become a more attractive destination for the Information Technology (IT) industry. This approach will contribute to promoting the use of telecom infrastructure as a catalyst for economic growth and job creation. The PDO, which is the same as that for the regional CARCIP program, is to increase access to regional broadband networks to advance the development of an IT and IT enabled services (IT/ITES) industry in Nicaragua. 3. Assessment of Outcomes 3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation Rating: High (PDO) and High (Design/Implementation) 47. The relevance of the project objectives remains high. The PDO was highly relevant for Nicaragua’s developmental priorities, as evidenced by consistency with the Government’s National Development Plan 2005-2009, and the Bank’s INS 2005 (see section 1.1.) By fostering the increased access to and reduced costs of telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua, the PDO is fully aligned with the World Bank Group’s (WBG) twin goals of ending extreme poverty and fostering shared prosperity. The PDO remains highly relevant to the World Bank Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2013-2017 for Nicaragua, which includes the objective to improve connectivity in rural areas. Beyond this, the transformational cross-sector impact from improved connectivity would contribute to other areas captured in the CPS, including but not limited to enhancing competitiveness, diversifying exports, and skills development. In addition, the Bank’s engagement was also consistent with the WBG’s ICT Sector Strategy of 2012, in particular the Connect pillar, which includes the promotion of competition in the telecommunications sector to attract private investment and increase affordable access. 20 The PDO, which is the same as that for the CARCIP program, is to increase access to regional broadband networks to advance the development of an IT and IT enabled services (IT/ITES) industry in Nicaragua. 48. The PDO is also consistent with Nicaragua’s National Human Development Plan 2012- 2016 (NHDP). The NHDP includes increasing the access to quality telecommunications services for the entire Nicaraguan population in order to improve the economic, social, political and cultural development of the country by reducing productive and social inequality. The specific Telecom objectives/strategies set in NHDP refer to increasing the quality of the communications infrastructure, and implementing specific activities to promote affordable telecommunications prices to promote the competitiveness of Nicaraguan economy, and therefore foster the growth of SMEs in Nicaragua benefitting the final consumers. 49. The AF helped also overcome the lack of telecommunications consistent with the Government’s Caribbean Coast Development Strategy (Plan de Desarrollo de la Costa Caribe). The specific objectives established in the Strategy are to increase the Internet, cellular, and fixed phone coverage in the communities from Alto Wangki to Rio San Juan, and the Alto Cocoy communities. NHDP has also an emphasis on strengthening and developing the Caribbean Coast to integrate it better with the rest of the country, including the development of basic economic infrastructure (transport, telecommunications, and electricity). 50. The Rural Telecommunications project represented an early operationalization of the 2016 World Development Report “Digital Dividends” (WDR 2016). WDR 2016’s focus will be on how the Internet can be a key element for promoting development. The draft WDR establishes that developing countries should focus on three main dimensions to catalyze the Internet for development: (i) Make the Internet universal, affordable, open and safe; (ii) Strengthen the analog foundations of the digital economy, including related policies and strengthen digital skills; and, (iii) Improve global cooperation to address trans-boundary problems. 51. The provision of telecommunications and ICT services rendered by the project has also been found to benefit various ongoing WB projects, particularly those impacting in rural areas. For instance, 141 municipal governments in rural areas benefited from gaining access to better and more affordable ICT services. 52. The project’s design was from the outset and remained throughout implementation highly consistent with the project’s objectives. The AF’s design was closely matched to enhancing and extending the impact of the original PDO. The investments made under the OBA structure for developing the telephone and Internet infrastructure in rural areas (component 1) significantly contributed to achieving the PDO of increasing access to telecommunications services. Further, the TAs supported under component 2 contributed to reducing the cost of telecommunication services in rural areas by providing technical assistance to strengthen TELCOR’s institutional capacity. Training programs and regulatory assistance (i.e. Telecommunications Law, spectrum management, guidelines to promote universal access) helped to improve Telecom market conditions. 3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives Rating: Increase of access to telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua (High) and reduce costs of telecommunications services in rural areas (Substantial) 53. The project increased access to telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua to a high extent and reduced their costs to a substantial extent, as evidenced below. Significant relevant tangible outcomes have emerged from the project, and greater impacts are expected in the future. As better rural connectivity continues to be absorbed, competition keeps stimulating the telecom market, and regulatory reform creates better sector conditions. 54. When the Additional Financing was approved in May 2012, changes were made in three key PDO indicators. However, these changes do not trigger a “split evaluation” of outcomes (see Appendix B of the ICR Guidelines), for three reasons. First, two original indicators (number of hours of use of internet access per year and number of minutes of use of telephone service) became technically outdated and were replaced at the time of the AF by more up-to-date ones (number of subscribers to internet services per 100 people and access to telephone services per 100 people), which are different metrics but conceptually and substantively the same. The latter were also two of the newly approved Bank core sector indicators for ICT. Second, another original PDO indicator (price of international calls) was replaced at the time of the AF with another new Bank core sector indicator, retail price of internet services. Although this is a different metric (price of internet vs. price of calls), it reflects a technically more relevant way of measuring the cost outcome of the AF (see section 1.3 above). Third, considering that the targets for these original and replacement indicators were all surpassed, there is no overall evaluative benefit from considering their achievements separately. The assessment of outcomes includes the three original indicators because their measurement remained essential to the result framework of the original credit. PDO 1: Increase access to telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua (High): 55. Project outputs and intermediate outcomes relevant to this PDO include the following (see also Annex 2): a) Installation of 612 public payphones in rural communities that previously did not have any form of telecommunications services, out of which 103 were equipped with solar panel. As a result, the number of rural towns larger than 400 inhabitant with access to a public phone increased from 203 to 984, slightly below the original target of 1,013 but above the revised target in the AF which was 765. b) Telephone service enabled in total 64 communities --37 (original) + 27 (AF)--with more than 1,000 inhabitants, via the installation of mobile BTSs. c) Installation of one telecenter each in 101 Municipal Heads and the installation of a total of 605 computer equipments. d) 104 Internet Points of Presence (PoP) enabled in Municipal Heads using various technologies (e.g. ADSL, WiMAX). As a result, the number of Municipal heads with Internet access greatly increased from 3 to 153, achieving over 140 percent of the project’s revised target value of 108, and represents 100 percent of Municipal Heads in Nicaragua. 56. Outcomes relevant to this PDO include the following: 57. The targets for the three original PDO indicators (a)-(c) were greatly surpassed by 2012 (AF approval). Further, the targets for the two revised PDO indicators (d)-(e) approved in the AF were (see section 1.2) were surpassed by the project closing date. Moreover, due mainly to the difficulty in access to the areas covered by the program and its remoteness, the Rural Telecom Project was the only program that deployed connectivity infrastructure in the areas covered by the project. This fact, could be an evidence of the link between the activities carried out under this first component and the outcomes achieved. Specific outcomes include the following. a) Increase in the number of minutes of use of telephone services (per year) in the areas targeted by the project increased from 380,000 in 2006 to 974,897,000 at the end of 2011 in the project areas, greatly surpassing the target of 6,000. b) Increase in the number of hours of use of Internet access (per year) in the areas targeted by the project, increased from 0 (zero) in 2006 to 909,000 in the project areas, by the end of 2011, greatly surpassing the target of 300,000. c) Average distance that residents in rural Nicaragua have to travel to the nearest public telephone (km) was reduced from 19km in 2006 to 5.68km by the end of 2011, greatly surpassing the target of 14km (see paragraph 63 on comparative growth with other countries in the region). The installation of 603 public telephones and 9 VSAT (voice and data) stations, in the rural areas of Nicaragua, under the project, highly contributed to the achievement of this outcome. i. After the AF approval, the project retained this at as an intermediate indicator and focused on the Caribbean Coastal region only. The new target for this indicator was set at 4.2 km, however it was not achieved and the end value was 6.2 km. Even so, this represents a significant achievement of 86 percent. Moreover, this indicator has become much less relevant with the advent of mobile telephone service that continued to expand telephone coverage. d) Access to telephone services (fixed mainlines plus cellular phones per 100 people) increased from 37.83 in 2006 to 117.32 by 2015, greatly surpassing the target of 90. This included both urban and rural areas of Nicaragua. More than 600 public telephones, 37 mobile telephone stations, and 27 mobile telephone and data stations were installed under the project and there were no other public or private programs deploying connectivity infrastructure during the time of the project. (see section 1.3 on revised PDO indicators and paragraph 63 on comparative growth with other countries in the region) e) Access to Internet services (number of subscribers per 100 people) increased from 2.81 in 2006 to 16.5 in 2015, greatly surpassing the target of 4.3. This continued to expand as mobile Internet (3G) was introduced and started to unfold in 2008. This also included both urban and rural areas of Nicaragua. No other public or private programs deploying connectivity infrastructure were implemented during the life of the project. There were 9 stations with VSAT technology (voice and data), 27 mobile telephone and data stations, and 104 points of presence deployed under the project. (see section 1.3 on revised PDO indicators and paragraph 63 on comparative growth with other countries in the region). 58. PDO 2: Reduce costs of telecommunications services in rural areas (Substantial): 59. Project outputs relevant to this outcome include the following (see Annex 2): a) Eleven TAs were carried out, most served to modernize the legal and regulatory framework. b) A training program was put in place under subcomponent 2 to strengthen regulatory capabilities and develop skills for universal access projects. A total of 28 courses and 98 TELCOR staff were trained in their respective functions. c) Development of technical feasibility studies, safeguards documents, and a project impact evaluation undertaken as preparatory studies for the AF. Complex technical feasibility studies as well the use of OBA instrument ensured that the higher cost of infrastructure roll-out in remote areas compared to urban areas would not reflect higher prices for the consumers in the targeted rural communities. d) As a result of the project’s OBA tender for the rural access component under the AF, a new Telecom operator, Xinwei, entered into the Nicaraguan market to compete with the incumbent ENITEL and Movistar. The arrival of a new competitor has pushed down interconnection tariffs21 between operators allowing to reduce consumer prices. Also, Xinwei started offering smartphone devices at low prices as low as US$5. e) Under subcomponent 3 of the original financing, three innovative eGovernment applications were implemented in partnership with local governments and other donor partners: (i) cattle 21 Xinwei interconnection tariffs were set along the range of US$ 0.048-0.08 branding systems were installed in 78 municipalities in collaboration with the Finnish government; (ii) civil registration systems were installed in 22 municipal heads, and (iii) a financial management system was installed for the RAAS government. 60. Outcomes relevant to this PDO include the following: 61. The target for one original PDO indicator (a) was greatly surpassed by 2012 (AF approval). Further, the target for the revised PDO indicator (b) was also surpassed d by the project closing date. Specific outcomes include the following. (a) [Reduction] in the price of international calls due to increased competition (US$) was reduced from US$0.80 in 2006 to US$0.06 by the end of 2011, greatly exceeding the target of US$0.15. This indicator was not tracked beyond 2011, as the new core sector indicator (b) was considered to substantially contribute to the reduction in international calls given that it enables international calls at lower prices due to the introduction of VoIP technologies (e.g. Skype) (see section 1.3 on revised PDO indicators). (b) Retail price of Internet services (per Mbits/s per Month, in US$), was reduced from $18 in 2012 to $11.99 in 2015, which is the same price as in Managua the capital, and greatly surpassing the target of $13. i. This is a significant achievement considering that at the time of project preparation in 2005, a study undertaken by FITEL found that the cost to access Internet in rural Nicaragua was extremely expensive -US$400 to US$600 a month mostly due to the lack of sufficient infrastructure. This was a revised indicator approved in the AF, and the baseline was not available for 2006. 62. Today rural areas in Nicaragua face a new landscape. From a situation in which isolation and lack of telecommunication infrastructure were key factors hindering the development of the country’s poorest communities to a significantly improved connected status in rural areas that are contributing to social and economic development of the beneficiary communities. As a result of the project, previously unserved rural communities have benefited not only from accessing ICT infrastructure for the first time ever, but also from the actual use of ICTs. The expansion of these services were considered a significant achievement given the logistical challenges of network rollout and maintenance in the rural and remote communities. Totally, the project directly benefited 1.408 million people in rural Nicaragua (99.6 percent achievement), 50 percent of which were female beneficiaries. Other spill overs include the promotion of competition driven by the fact that the project created the demand of telecommunication services in rural communities. Other operators such as Movistar replicated the project interventions and expanded its own network coverage to also serve rural areas. This is expected to contribute to further push prices down. 63. The project also contributed to creating better linkages between Nicaragua’s sizable emigrants (concentrated in USA and Costa Rica) and the families that remained in Nicaragua. Before the project, Nicaraguans who lived in rural areas had to travel to a major city or population center to call these their families that lived abroad. Further, at appraisal stage, several studies22 showed that Nicaraguans paid the second highest cost of remittances due to in part to lack of adequate ICT infrastructure. The average cost of remittances coming from the US for the period 2010-2015 has dropped 18%23, which exemplifies some of the positive impacts of the project. 22 Inter-American Dialogue Task Force on remittances. All in the Family. Latin America’s most important international flow. January, 2004. 23 Remittances Price Worldwide, The World Bank Group, 2015. 64. It could be argued that achievements of both PDO outcomes were also influenced by exogenous factors such as the rapid growth in the use of ICTs globally which adoption tends to be faster and more prominent in urban contexts, and the rapid evolution of the sector in general, including the introduction of 3G/4G mobile broadband technologies, that continued to make ICT services more accessible at lower costs. Prior to the project Nicaragua’s telephone penetration levels were not only the lowest amongst the countries in Central America, but also merely half of neighboring countries such as Guatemala. However, according to ITU estimates, from 2004 to 2014 Nicaragua telephone services experienced the strongest growth in Central America (18.16 percent Cumulative Annual Growth Rate -CAGR), overtaking Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. The rate of growth of Internet access was also the second highest (21.23 percent CAGR) in Central America. 3.3 Efficiency Rating: Substantial 65. The project did not incur cost overruns, but rather savings, and it leveraged US$3 million from GoN financing and approximately US$22 million of investment from Telecom operators in the deployment of the project´s infrastructure24. The initial planned investment costs in rural areas for the provision of telecommunications infrastructure were underestimated, this prompted some re-design of project’s component, especially for the AF. At the time of procuring rural access items, bidders proposed costs largely exceeding project’s budget (offers combined came up to US$10 million). TELCOR’s PIU engaged in a successful effort to negotiate down the prices of the contracts and mobilize other donors’ funds (i.e. UNICEF, Central American University, and Government of Finland), thereby reducing the overall cost by about US$ 5 million and allowing the implementation of all project activities and thus, the achievement of objectives. A detailed comparison between bidders’ offers and negotiated value can be found at Annex 3. 66. At appraisal, a Financial and Economic Analysis was carried out for the rural access component (Component 1), using data from a detailed demand study at the national level. The benefits considered for the analysis included the potential sales for the operators derived from the expanded access to telecommunications specifically in the target rural areas. The costs consisted of investment costs, which for the no-project case were based on satellite technology (the highest cost alternative), and operation and maintenance costs of the systems in the project areas. The total costs were expected to be reduced and benefits for operators increased if more cost effective technologies were used, as the detailed engineering design would help identify. Based on the financial model developed at appraisal, the estimated Internal Return Rate (IRR) was 15% with positive benefits for operators. 67. The original economic analysis focused on the economic benefits expected for rural population in terms of productivity income increase, access of information savings, and household trips savings. The Economic Rate of Return (ERR) was estimated at 21% based on the detailed data provided by the FITEL demand study conducted before the project Due to a lack of data for replication of the economic analysis, only the financial analysis was updated for this ICR. 68. A re-estimated IRR rate of 12.27 percent was calculated with latest data available data and with a review of original projections and adding the AF (see Financial Analysis at Annex 3). This rate evidences faithful initial estimates and that the project’s investments have provided significant 24 Information provided by Telecom operators involved in the Project specifically for the roll-out of the infrastructure strictly associated with the project´s rural access component. It does not consider other investments operators may have done in the sector. financial results, especially if compared to the estimated returns without the project financing. Without the project financing the investment on this Telecommunications infrastructure would result into a negative net present value. Therefore, without the project private operators would have lacked the financial incentives to bridge the infrastructure gap rural communities suffered in Nicaragua. 3.4 Justification of Overall Outcome Rating Rating: Satisfactory 69. The project’s high achievement of the objective of increasing access to and substantial achievement of the objective of reducing costs of telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua, the continued high relevance of the PDO and design to economic and social development of Nicaragua, and its substantial efficiency merit an overall Satisfactory rating for Outcomes. 3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts (a) Poverty Impacts, Gender Aspects, and Social Development 70. With the objective of increasing access to and reducing costs of telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua, it is estimated that the project enabled about 1.4 million Nicaraguans living in rural areas to gain access to telecommunications and ICT services. This was achieved by the expansion of expanding mobile services, establishment of telecenters, and the implementation of e-Government applications, including in financial management, civil registration systems and cattle branding. The telecom access for first time ever helped the rural communities overcome isolation, enhance economic activity, and promote social integration with the rest of the country, which was especially important for the Caribbean coastal region as there are no roads that connect the region with the Atlantic coastal region, including Managua, the capital. The improvements in ICT services in rural communities can allow Nicaraguan women (and men) to access markets in growing numbers by lowering the transaction costs associated with market work. Because time and mobility constraints are more severe for women than men, women stand to benefit even more from these improvements. (b) Institutional Change/Strengthening 71. The project improved the institutional capacity of TELCOR to better regulate the rapidly transitioning sector and further empowering it through the implementation of the universal access OBA projects. Further, TELCOR staff often participated in training activities to enhance their skills in carrying out their respective functions. Several consultancy assignments were successfully completed providing technical assistance in the areas of developing a National Broadband Policy, spectrum management and universal access projects. Overall, as a result of the project, TELCOR has developed the capacity to regulate and implement universal access projects in a largely private sector driven telecommunications sector, providing the needed certainty for existing and new operators to make large investments, including in rural areas that were initially not considered commercially viable. 72. In the area of e-government applications, the project successfully installed e-government application packages in municipalities across the country. For instance, a civil registration system was implemented in 22 municipalities, which consolidated standalone e-government systems that were previously managed separately by the Supreme Electoral Council; Ministry of Health; and Municipal governments. The management of the portal was subsequently transferred to the Nicaraguan Institute of Municipal Development (INIFOM). 73. As mentioned in section 2.5, complementary capacity building activities for the disaster early warning system are currently ongoing with the Bank providing technical assistance to an integrated team that consist of TELCOR, SINAPRED (disaster management agency) and INETER (meteorological agency) staff. (c) Other Unintended Outcomes and Impacts (positive or negative) 74. The project had several unintended positive impacts across rural communities and highly remote areas. One significant outcome directly attributable to the project is the creation of around 150 jobs in rural communities. The 104 telecenters employed administrators to manage the telecenter operations, perform IT support, and provide training courses. Similarly, the installation of 612 public phones increased revenue stream for the public phone administrators. Initially, public phones were designed to be operated by Telecom carries, however due to the complexity of providing operating and maintenance support in the highly remote targeted areas, an innovative model was agreed under which the fixed public phones would be administrated by local entrepreneurs and businesses. The development of the eGovernment application for cattle registries resulted in substantial time savings for farmers. While a cattle farmer had to spend on average a day journey to find its cattle brand registration (i.e. anytime they transport or sell a livestock) in the municipality books, now with the system developed under the project, the time has been reduced to a 10 minutes administrative process. Moreover, having farmers connected and accessing ICTs for the first time has produced a strong impact: asymmetry of information on agriculture products amongst urban and rural has been greatly reduced. The project contributed to have farmers informed about prices and increase negotiating power. Lastly, the arrival of Internet connectivity to rural municipal heads prompted municipalities to recover depressed public common spaces for providing Wi-Fi access to citizens. Municipalities have created Wi-Fi Parks as shown in the pictures below. 4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome Rating: Moderate 75. The risks to maintaining the development outcome as well as the risks to the overall institutional framework for sustaining the achievements are considered Moderate. Many of the risks that were identified at the time of project preparation, including the absence of a professional- multidisciplinary team within TELCOR, have been resolved over the course of the project as sector revenues increased which also led to increased operating budget for TELCOR. TELCOR currently has an adequate pool of qualified engineers, economists, lawyers and administrative staff trained in their respective functions. The rural access component was designed to be commercially sustainable and does not impose additional financing requirements on the Government as they are based on an OBA approach that provides one-time capital subsidy to the operators to build, manage and operate the infrastructure. 76. The inherent risks with respect to the sustainability and relevance of the telecenters that were established under component 1 will be reduced with the CARCIP project (P155235) currently under preparation. CARCIP will target the telecenters established in rural municipalities and revamp their approach towards the development digital skills in rural Nicaragua. After the project, the sustainability of the eGovernment applications developed under component 2 is expected to pose limited risk mainly because they are actively used given the practical benefits for municipalities, and also because they have been integrated into and transferred to Municipal Governments. Further, the procurement of the early warning cell broadcasting system (CBS) under GoN co-financing was still on-going at the time of this ICR. As the CBS requires complex coordination between the telecom operators, and several government agencies (in this case TELCOR, Disaster Management Agency -SINAPRED, Meteorological Agency -INETER), it is still unclear how the challenge of fragmented leadership and operation of the system will be managed. 5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance 5.1 Bank Performance (a) Bank Performance in Ensuring Quality at Entry Rating: Satisfactory 77. The Bank performance at entry is rated Satisfactory. The Bank team included experienced experts who had already been supporting the GoN/TELCOR under the earlier Telecommunications Sector Reform Project, and was well experienced and knowledgeable about international best practices and the specific sector issues and local conditions. Working relationships with the GoN/TELCOR were productive and supportive, and the Bank team proactively assisted TELCOR in designing the project to meet the Bank’s technical, fiduciary and safeguards standards. The team also provided technical assistance to TELCOR/FITEL with the design of the first two OBA tenders, of which one was co-financed by the IDA project. The very optimistic scope/target that was initially envisaged under component 2 of the AF, may be a minor shortcoming considering the short amount of time to implement activities under the AF. The project design was adequate but did not foresee the elevated costs that would be required for the rural access component. The elevated costs eventually led to the optimized use of limited resources to ensure achievement of objectives through timely coordination with activities other donors planned in parallel. (b) Quality of Supervision Rating: Satisfactory 78. The Bank’s implementation assistance was responsive to project needs and adapted to changing priorities. Implementation support was deemed adequate for project needs, averaging two missions per year, including reverse missions, as well as substantial number of periodic remote meetings. In addition, regular field visits were carried out to verify the services that had been rolled- out, and to identify additional demands. Comprehensive aide-memoires were issued after each mission, and a total of 17 ISRs were filed by the end of the project. The Bank team also undertook efforts to establish collaboration between TELCOR and other donors, including with the Finnish and Spanish governments on eGovernment applications. Procurement, financial management, and safeguards aspects of the project were also carefully supervised by qualified Bank staff, and remained adequate throughout the project life. A midterm review was carried out in July 2010, which identified specific bottlenecks and adjustments needed to accelerate implementation. In particular, procurement difficulties during the first half of the project were identified, responded to, and resolved by the team with an intensive supervision effort. Additionally, significant resources and technical expertise were mobilized to prepare the AF under a tight timeline, and additional technical resources were mobilized throughout the implementation period to assist TELCOR resolve critical technical/operational issues pertaining to the execution of the rural access component. (c) Justification of Rating for Overall Bank Performance Rating: Satisfactory 79. Bank performance is rated Satisfactory. The task team leader (TTL) changed twice over the course of the project from 2006 to 2015, however, continuity and consistency in the quality of technical supervision was ensured through adequate hand-over and continuation of other core members. Significant expert resources were mobilized for providing technical support to TELCOR, particularly on the preparation and implementation of component 1 (rural access). Adequate resources were allocated for implementation support and supervision, including safeguards, financial management and procurement. 5.2 Borrower Performance (a) Government Performance Rating: Satisfactory 80. The project received overall strong government commitment to PDO, which is illustrated by the fact that the GoN invested US$3.05 million in co-financing (original+AF), representing 25 percent of the total project costs (although below the initial commitment of US$3.05 due to Government budget constraints). Notwithstanding, the GoN through TELCOR financed part of PCU’s operating costs not registered as project co-financing but under TELCOR’s own budget (i.e. office rental, additional staff costs, utilities). The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit helped facilitate implementation of the project, and clearly signaled the need at an early stage for an AF to scale up activities in the Caribbean coastal region. (b) Implementing Agency or Agencies Performance Rating: Satisfactory 81. TELCOR was responsible for project coordination and implementation, including Procurement, Financial Management, M&E, Communications and Environmental Support. TELCOR managed the project in an efficient and proactive manner, ensuring that the various project and government stakeholders were involved and informed as appropriate. TELCOR’s focus on extensive in-flied consultations with rural communities throughout the project life were fundamental for project results. Despite some delays, especially in the first half of the project, project implementation advanced at a steady pace and objectives were met. TELCOR ensured compliance on safeguards and fiduciary aspects in a satisfactory manner. All project covenants were complied with. Overall, reports and audits were submitted in a timely and efficient fashion, with the exception of some initial delays. TELCOR remained adequately staffed along the project life with experienced financial and procurement managers as well as an accountant. 82. TELCOR’s PCU showed an outstanding performance during negotiations with telecom operators that allowed not only to carry out the activities conceived under the rural access component, but also to expand its scope. This was crucial especially if considering that private operators’ financial proposals largely surpassed the project´s original budget. In addition to successfully solving complex negotiations, TELCOR managed to leverage funds from other donors and found innovative models to overcome implementation challenges related to highly remote rural communities (i.e. the business model for local entrepreneurs operating public phones, the equipment of solar panels in communities lacking electricity). 83. TELCOR’s good understanding of project relevance and its focus on the achievement of outcomes contributed to ensuring solid project results. The PCU, led by a dedicated Director, was committed to achieving the PDO as the unit made major strides in efficiency, management and oversight of project execution, and promoted the project’s long term sustainability. TELCOR’s focus on capacity building was apparent as staff often participated in training activities to enhance their skills in carrying out their management and procurement functions. (c) Justification of Rating for Overall Borrower Performance Rating: Satisfactory 84. Given the government’s satisfactory performance combined with the satisfactory role of the PIU (exemplary management, oversight, and coordination skills), overall Borrower performance is considered Satisfactory. 6. Lessons Learned 85. A number of lessons emerge from the project implementation experience, being the following most relevant: a) In order to maximize impact on rural communities, the project included extensive consultations in the field with targeted indigenous communities before, during, and after the infrastructure roll out. A successful project to benefit rural communities will require extensive in- field guidance, support, and monitoring. Therefore, the design of a project impacting rural areas benefits from forecasting enough adequate resources to follow up activities in the field (i.e. cars). Likewise, in dealing with the environmental and social considerations, the project experience showed the need to have extensive consultations with the communities involved in the project, to gain their support during the preparation phase and also before the construction starts. As private sector usually lacks experience in rural communities, the support from experienced government or Bank teams turns fundamental. b) OBA constitutes an effective instrument to procure basic infrastructure for universal access in contexts where private sector lacks business incentives. As a one-time initial subsidy, OBA´s upfront cash-flow structure contributes to alleviate financial pressure on private operators’ financial model. In order to participate in the project, operators found the OBA instrument essential to get the clearance from corporate financial management, hence to submit a bid. OBA also increases sustainability of public funding given that operators knew up front that their operations had to be commercially sustainable. Further, OBA tenders can be structured to attract investment to address ICT infrastructure gaps in rural areas not only from existing telecommunications market players, but also from new and small entrants. c) When providing equipment to rural municipalities like the case of telecenters, several factors play a fundamental role to guarantee operational sustainability: local political commitment towards benefiting the community, passionate administrators, community empowerment, and constant technical support. This support particularly referred to, once in the field, the implementation of models (i.e. business, sustainability), strategies and programs centrally designed. Similarly, telecenters while they attained its initial objective to spur Internet use in communities that gained access for first time ever to Internet, once the uptake expanded some of the telecenters gradually lost their relevance. It is important to revisit the business model and contemplate follow- up activities to continue its role as a platform for digital development. 86. Other lessons learnt include: d) The project experience some delays in collecting data that in principle the operators had to report to the regulator. The design of an M&E considering indicators that are accessible in practice and real-life information gaps (even in the case of mandatory information collected by governments and/or regulators) will be more adapted to local parameters and will help entitle satisfactory implementation of M&E framework. e) In the dual objective to roll out cost-efficiently basic infrastructure in rural areas plus the increase of market competition, shared-infrastructure schemes can contribute to both. f) The public phones and telecenters established under the project aimed at stimulating use given the access. It becomes important to understand USF projects as mechanisms to promote access and use of ICTs, beyond the purely development of infrastructure and installation of equipment, particularly to avoid the risk of becoming an ICT infrastructure and equipment operator. 7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners (a) Borrower/implementing agencies 87. The comments provided by the borrower have been included into Annex 7 and incorporated into the WBG ICR. 88. The borrower prepared the Government ICR which original full document inserted in Annex 7, in Spanish, with its conclusions translated into English. (b) Cofinanciers Not applicable. (c) Other partners and stakeholders Not applicable. Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing (a) Project Cost by Component (in USD Million equivalent) Appraisal Actual/Late Additional Estimate st Estimate Percentage of Components financing (USD Total (USD (USD Appraisal millions) millions) millions) 1. Rural Access 7.96 2.6 10.56 10.36 (IDA 7.9) (IDA 9.42) 98% (IDA 5.3) (IDA2.6) 2. Regulatory Capacity 0.82 0.81 2.00 2.81 (IDA 0.82) Strengthening and Technical 29% (IDA 0.7) (IDA 1.0) (IDA 1.7) Assistance to Communities 3. Project Management and 0.7 1.3 2.0 2.41 (IDA1.6) (IDA 1.99) 120% Audit (IDA 0.6) (IDA 1.0) Estimated Total Baseline 9.47 5.9 15.37 13.57 88% Cost (IDA 6.6) (IDA 4.6) (IDA 11.2) (IDA 12.23) 0.73 0.6 1.33 Contingencies 1.68 126% (IDA 0.4) (IDA 0.4) (IDA 0.8) 10.2 6.5 16.7 15.27 Total Project Costs 91% (IDA 7.0) (IDA 5.0) (IDA 12) (IDA 12.23) * Changes in total project financing also reflect exchange rate fluctuation in the SDR to dollar exchange rate over the project life. (b) Financing Appraisal Actual/Latest Percentage of Source of Funds Estimate Estimate Appraisal (USD millions) (USD millions) Borrower 4.70 3.05 65%25 IDA Credit 41680 7.00 7.00 100% IDA Credit 51300 (AF) 5.00 5.00 100% 25 Below the initial commitment due to Government budget constraints. The GoN through TELCOR financed part of PCU’s operating costs not registered as project co-financing but under TELCOR’s own budget (i.e. office rental, additional staff costs, utilities). Annex 2. Outputs by Component Component / Activities Outputs at the Time of ICR and Subcomponent Reasons for Deviation Component 1 – Rural Access Subcomponent 1: provide Component 1.A Installation of public payphones in at least one public Telephones: Rural Public 612 rural communities: payphone in 347 rural Payphones (PP), and  500 with commercial communities with energy populations greater than  103 with solar panel 400 inhabitants not  9 VSAT with solar panel covered by the first Enabling Cellular Service Telephone service including mobile FITEL project. by BTS (BTS) telephony enabled in 37 communities with more than 1,000 inhabitants Subcomponent 2: aimed Component 1.B Internet: Installation of 101 Telecenters in to establish a pilot Enabling Telecenters, and the same quantity of municipal- telecenter in one heads with 605 computer secondary school in each equipment of the 103 municipal heads that currently lack Installation of Internet 104 municipal heads gained access Internet access and that Points of Presence (PoP) to Internet connectivity through the were covered by the installation of Points of Presence project as well as 103 (PoP) using various technologies: Internet points of  41 ADSL presence (Internet POP)  13 VSAT in the same municipal  50 Canopy heads. AF: Provide Enabling telephone service Initial scope got reduced to the telecommunications in 27 rural communities in provision of telephone services in infrastructure and Rio San Juan, RAAN and 27 rural communities in Rio San services to at least forty RAAS Juan, RAAN and RAAS due to underserved communities unexpected increase in logistical concentrated in twenty costs to install the infrastructure. municipalities in RAAS and RAAN, as well as six municipalities in the Department of Rio San Juan. Component 2 – Regulatory Capacity Strengthening and Technical Assistance to Communities Subcomponent 1: Technical assistance to help During implementation Technical assistance to re-organize TELCOR, carry complementary resources were strengthen institutional out strategic planning, and available and it was decided that capacity of the sector to identify hiring need TELCOR’s strategic staffing regulator. profiles in terms of planning was no longer a priority qualified economists, under the project especially given financial experts, and that IDB launched a program to attorneys. strengthen TELCOR’s institutional capacity including training, and organizational strategic planning. At the time of this ICR, the program is ongoing and several training have been delivered. Preparation of a legal Legal and regulatory framework regulatory instrument draft updated to promote SME for the operation of small participation in the telecom operators in the telecommunication sector. TA rural areas of the country carried out named "Guidelines to promote universal access to telecommunication services in areas not served by MICROTELCOS". Consultancy for a Feasibility study document and feasibility study and design design proposal of ICT of the development project infrastructure project in the of ICT infrastructure in the Caribbean Coast which informed Caribbean Coast (RAAS, the design of the AF. RAAN, Río San Juan) Consultancy for the Reengineering of the intranet creation of the TELCOR database and creation of a web portal and the transactional TELCOR web portal, development of the intranet currently being used by the database. regulator entity. Training Program for the Business Plans for telecenters for Administrators of the their financial and technical Telecenters sustainability which help strengthen Telecenter performance. Impact Monitoring and Report Document of the P089989 Evaluation of the Project Project Impact Assessment P089989 Purchase of a software Installation and updating of license upgrade for Quality software for the Quality Management and Radio Management and Radio Spectrum Spectrum Monitoring Monitoring (CAMER) used by TELCOR engineers Consultancy for the Final Report Document on a development of a proposal proposal for a National Broadband for a National Broadband Plan for Nicaragua which has been Plan for Nicaragua adopted by GoN as TELCOR official strategy for the ICT sector. Consultancy for developing Final Document on the New Draft a Draft of the New Law on Law on Telecommunications (not Telecommunications approved yet). Consultancy for the Report on the Environmental preparation of Impact and Social Impact studies of Environmental and Social the Telecommunications Impact Studies of the Infrastructure Deployment Project Telecommunications in the Caribbean Coast and the Rio Infrastructure Deployment San Juan Department which Project in the Caribbean informed the AF. Coast and the Rio San Juan Department Final report of the evaluation of the social and environmental impact of the project. Preparation of a baseline A report of baseline study for SIC- for the SIC-ICT Project in ICT Project in the Nicaraguan the Nicaraguan Caribbean Caribbean Coast and Rio San Juan Coast and Rio San Juan was prepared under this activity which informed AF’s design. Subcomponent 2: Training Program for A total of 98 public officials of Training program for employees in different TELCOR trained. TELCOR courses related to The training were carried out strengthening the regulation according to the following topics: and capacities to develop  Forensic Accounting (forensic universal access projects. audit)  CCNA Online course (Cisco Networks)  Windows Server 2003Online Course  Formulation and evaluation of projects  Progress of Electronic Government in Bolivia  Regulatory Aspects of the e- Government  Interoperability and inter institutional public processes  Implementation of Ethernet / MPLS aggregation networks for the provision of Multiservice, organized by ITU  Customs Law  Regulation of interconnection and access  Graphic Design  Networks Cost  Network Architecture  WAN Networks  Emerging Telecommunication Technologies  Web Services NET (Module 1: Introduction, Module 2: Intermediary, Module 3: Advanced).  Advanced ASTERISK course  Management of IT service, ITIL V3. IT Control Objectives COBIT 4.1  National Seminar of Accounting  Project Management – e- Government Part 3  Public Policies to Promote the Information Society  ARCGIS Geocoding Tool  Executive Graduate Telecommunications  Regulatory Aspects of Electronic Government  Graduate in Telecommunications Subcomponent 3: Finance Project of Implementation Installation of the Branding System Internet applications and of the Branding System for for Cattle in 78 Municipal Councils. capacity building for Cattle other public institutions Project of Implementation Installation of the System of Civil of the System of Civil Registry for Individuals in 22 Registry for Individuals Municipal Councils. Hardware supply, user training. Project of Implementation Installation of the financial of the Financial management system in the Management System (SAF) Autonomous Regional Council of the South Atlantic (RAAS) in Bluefields. AF: provision of - Training programs Due to the unexpected increase of technical assistance to - Internet Applications component 1 costs, and given the strengthen the - Strengthen TELCOR opportunity to coordinate with other institutional capacity of institutional capacity donors who had announced their TELCOR - Regional e-Government plans for financing an institutional Data Center for the capacity program for TELCOR, Caribbean coastal areas. these activities were not implemented under the project but their outputs were provided thanks to parallel donors projects. The Regional e-Government Data Center was included into a program to be financed by the IDB (currently under development) Component 3 – Project Management Provision of support to The following purchases were project equipment made: Vans: Toyota Hilux 2007 Van (2) Toyota Hilux 2008 Van (1) Toyota Fortuner 2008 Van (1) Toyota Hilux 2012 Van (1) Purchase equipment that support the work, such as: GPS, Toolkit to repair the equipment installed in telecenters and offices, etc. camcorders and photo cameras, office equipment, furniture and other technical support that was extended under the requirements of the project. Provision of internal and Auditing Firm Narciso Salas external audits Chávez, S.C.: Reports on the result of the audits of the implementation of the 4168- Project funds. The audited periods were: 1-January-December /2007 2-January-December /2008 3-January-December /2009 4-January-December /2010 5-January-December /2011 and January-June/2012 (18 months) 6-July/2012 to December/and January-December /2013 (18 months) Auditing Firm PWC Nicaragua: Reports on the result of the audits of the implementation of the 5130- Project funds. The audited periods were: 1-June/2013 to December /2014 2-January to June 2015 3-July to October 2015 Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis Detailed summary of project investment cost savings. As mentioned in the efficiency section, in 2007 the planned investments in rural areas referred to 103 POPs, 37 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), 9 V-SAT antennas, 104 telecenters, and 700 public phones. At the time of procuring those items, bidders proposed costs largely exceeded project’s budget (offers combined came up to US$10 million). TELCOR’s great efforts in negotiating the price of the contracts, and mobilizing other donors’ funds (i.e. UNESCO, Central American University, and Government of Finland), allowed the implementation of all project activities and thus, the achievement of objectives. The optimization in the use of resources translated into a US$5 million savings. The following table illustrates the total investment savings attained as a result of TELCOR’s negotiations with suppliers and other funds mobilized from donors and partners. OFFERING VS NEGOTIATED ACTIVITY Total Total Negotiated Investment cost Offering savings INTERNET POINT OF PRESENCE (POP) Points of presence 1,560,000.00 520,000.00 1,040,000.00 BASE TRANSCEIVER STATIONS (BTS) Installed in the Caribbean Coast 1,055,259.96 300,000.00 755,259.96 Installed in different communities 5,089,314.96 3,023,276.88 2,066,038.08 LPI 001-2010 addendum 1,484,383.53 881,789.09 602,594.44 SUBTOTAL TRANSCEIVER STATIONS 7,628,958.45 4,205,065.97 3,423,892.48 V-SAT - V-SAT with solar panels 60,000.00 42,346.92 17,653.08 V- SAT with electric power 60,000.00 15,000.00 45,000.00 SUBTOTAL V-SAT 120,000.00 57,346.92 62,653.08 TELECENTERS Central American University’s (UCA) 44,000.00 44,000.00 44,000.00 contribution for training in telecenters Microsoft Office 2007 licenses 226,200.00 226,200.00 226,200.00 Accreditations of telecenters 49,200.00 49,200.00 49,200.00 UNESCO’s contribution to telecenters 25,204.44 25,204.44 25,204.44 Claro’s contribution for Internet service 270,000.00 108,000.00 162,000.00 SUBTOTAL TELECENTERS 614,604.44 452,604.44 506,604.44 TELEPHONES Installation of Claro telephones 53,000.00 16,650.00 36,350.00 Installation of Movistar telephones 10,000.00 5,000.00 5,000.00 SUBTOTAL TELEPHONES 63,000.00 21,650.00 41,350.00 GRAND TOTAL 9,986,562.89 4,912,062.89 5,074,500.00 Financial Model Calculations The financial model used in 2005 at the time of appraisal estimated Telecommunications service demand and costs for telecommunication services in Nicaragua for a 10 year period. The initial IRR of was 15 percent. The main assumptions of that financial analysis were: • Based on satellite technology • Projecting revenues generated by the commercialization of telecommunications services in rural areas. • A baseline inflation rate of 6%. • A 10-year implementation period. • Net Present Value based on 12% discount rate. • Monthly tariff at 64 kbps access of US$120. A re-estimated IRR updated with latest data available and incorporating the AF’s financial return, accounts for 100 percent. This significant difference between the IRR calculated at appraisal and the updated rate estimated at ICR stage can be explained by the following considerations: (i) The initial financial analysis took only into account the original project financial return. (ii) For this ICR, the financial return of the AF has been added to the original project financial model estimates; (iii) Initial forecasts did not include the demand of mobile services, and just considered revenues coming from Internet and public payphones. (iv) Mobile telephone services have generated in fact the largest revenues. (v) The original financial model followed a conservative approach in terms of costs by considering the most costly technologies. (vi) Expected revenues were underestimated. Demand was based on price elasticity and Internet prices estimated for the initial were overestimated. The table below shows the comparison between Internet prices in 2005 and in 2015. INITIAL ESTIMATION (2005) FINAL CALCULATION (2015) 2008 256 Kbps $201 1 Mbps $49.99 2009 256 Kbps $197 1 Mbps $49.99 2010 256 Kbps $193 1 Mbps $49.99 2011 256 Kbps $190 1 Mbps $18.00 2012 256 Kbps $186 1 Mbps $18.00 2013 256 Kbps $182 1 Mbps $13.90 2014 256 Kbps $178 1 Mbps $11.99 2015 256 Kbps $175 1 Mbps $11.20 (vii) At project preparation, the financial model considered a conservative scenario, based on the following assumptions: - Use of most costly technology (satellite) technology - Pricing - WACC of 15.1% - Increase of public-telephone minutes of use (by user): 0% - Increase of Internet demand: 3% The initial estimated financial model has been updated with the latest real data available (2007- 2015) and with the AF revenues and costs. The following table summarizes the data updated for the purposes of the financial model review: ITEM DATASET SOURCE Minutes of use TELCOR / Operators Mobile Telephone Services Price per minute TELCOR / ITU Mbps of use TELCOR / Operators Internet Price per mbps TELCOR / ITU Minutes of use TELCOR Public Payphones Price per minute TELCOR Interconnectivity costs Operators Operating Expenses Regulatory taxes Administrative Agreement 03-98 Installation and transport TELCOR / Operators costs Others Macroeconomic variables Central Bank of Nicaragua Financial Analysis (thousand US$) 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Financial Analysis Service sales - 398 1,277 14,643 17,088 19,584 32,211 46,208 49,563 57,363 66,436 Total BTS - - - 13,364 15,534 18,057 30,655 44,616 48,149 55,969 65,059 Total POP - 398 1,277 1,212 1,424 1,379 1,339 1,195 1,161 1,127 1,094 Total Public Telephone - - - 67 130 148 216 397 253 267 282 Total Costs (214) (1,750) (1,828) (16,595) (23,729) (20,453) (28,806) (40,667) (53,093) (50,465) (58,417) Interconnection fees - - - (2) (2) (2) (4) (6) (6) (7) (9) OPEX (214) (1,750) (1,828) (16,593) (23,727) (20,451) (28,802) (40,662) (53,087) (50,458) (58,408) Administrative costs - - - (45) (60) (57) (71) (106) (78) (83) (89) Operating and maintenance costs (214) (783) (1,538) (13,057) (15,555) (17,734) (28,674) (40,554) (43,729) (50,315) (58,255) Pre-operative costs - (351) (201) (43) (249) (19) (57) (1) (55) (59) (64) Installation costs - (615) (89) (3,448) (7,864) (2,641) (1) (1) (9,225) - - EBITDA (214) (1,352) (551) (1,952) (6,640) (869) 3,405 5,541 (3,530) 6,898 8,019 Depreciation - - (45) (52) (304) (879) (1,072) (1,072) (1,073) (1,748) (1,748) Result before taxes (214) (1,352) (596) (2,003) (6,944) (1,748) 2,332 4,468 (4,602) 5,150 6,271 Tax fee 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% Tax provision - - - - - - (700) (1,341) - (1,545) (1,881) Net total (214) (1,352) (596) (2,003) (6,944) (1,748) 1,633 3,128 (4,602) 3,605 4,390 Investments Project Funds 8,318 WB Financing (%) 4% 15% 4% 6% 17% 15% 3% 2% 34% 0% 0% WB Financing 312 1,275 328 497 1,438 1,265 220 160 2,824 - - FREE CASH- FLOW 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 OPERATIONAL READINESS (214) (1,352) (596) (2,003) (6,944) (1,748) 2,332 4,468 (4,602) 5,150 6,271 Depreciation & Amortization - - 45 52 304 879 1,072 1,072 1,073 1,748 1,748 EBITDA (214) (1,352) (551) (1,952) (6,640) (869) 3,405 5,541 (3,530) 6,898 8,019 Income Tax - - - - - - (700) (1,340) - (1,545) (1,881) Operating Cash- Flow (214) (1,352) (551) (1,952) (6,640) (869) 2,705 4,200 (3,530) 5,353 6,137 Investment - 450 65 2,523 5,754 1,932 1 1 6,750 - - Free Cash-Flow (214) (1,802) (616) (4,475) (12,394) (2,801) 2,704 4,199 (10,280) 5,353 6,137 CASH FLOW WITH FINANCING WB Financing 312 1,275 328 497 1,438 1,265 220 160 2,824 - - Net Cash-Flow 98 (527) (288) (3,978) (10,957) (1,536) 2,924 4,360 (7,456) 5,353 6,137 NPV of Cash flow without financing -$3,123 IRR without financing 6.79% NPV of Cash Flow with financing $1,792 IRR with financing 12.27% 10% Discount Rate Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes (a) Task Team members Responsibility/ Names Title Unit Specialty Lending Eloy Eduardo Vidal Lead Telecommunications Engineer GTIDR TTL Arturo Muente Kunigami Senior ICT Policy Specialist GTIDR Team Member Marta Lucila Priftis Senior Program Assistant GTIDR Administrative Supervision Elena Gasol Ramos Senior ICT Policy Specialist GTIDR TTL Arturo Muente Kunigami Senior ICT Policy Specialist GTIDR TTL Josef S. Trommer Senior Operations Officer GGOGA Co-TTL Eloy Eduardo Vidal Consultant GTIDR Team Member Junko Narimatsu ICT Policy Specialist GTIDR Team member Alvaro Larrea Senior Procurement Specialist GGODR Procurement Francisco Rodriguez Senior Procurement Specialist GGODR Procurement Daniel Jorge Arguindegui Senior Procurement Specialist GGODR Procurement LCSPT - Anemarie Guth Proite Procurement Specialist Procurement HIS Financial Enrique Antonio Roman Financial Management Specialist GGODR Management Abdelaziz Lagnoui Lead Environmental Specialist GENDR Safeguards Jason Paiement Social Development Specialist CRKI2 Safeguards Marco Zambrano Consultant GEN04 Safeguards Jannina Flores Ramirez Program Assistant CMGAF Administrative Batzul Dashdorj Program Assistant GTIDR Administrative ICR Eva Clemente Miranda ICT Policy Specialist GTIDR TTL, Co-author Junko Narimatsu ICT Policy Specialist GTIDR Co-author Rocio Sanchez Consultant GTIDR Team member Elene Allende Consultant GTIDR Team member Alan Carroll Consultant GTIDR Advisor Batzul Dashdorj Program Assistant GTIDR Administrative (c) Staff Time and Cost Staff Time and Cost (Bank Budget Only) Stage of Project Cycle USD Thousands (including No. of staff weeks travel and consultant costs) Lending FY05 47.87 163.26 FY06 17.78 67.29 Total: 65.65 230.55 Supervision/ICR 0.00 FY07 13.71 69.81 FY08 21.25 97.55 FY09 14.84 42.73 FY10 16.52 54.86 FY11 15.66 56.93 FY12 28.81 115.57 FY13 31.08 126.42 FY14 14.96 61.72 FY15 6.87 26.21 FY16 Total: 177.51 721.25 Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results A beneficiary survey was not required for this project. Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results No stakeholder workshop was undertaken. Annex 7. Summary of Borrower's ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR Borrower´s comments on WBG ICR The borrower after reviewing the ICR has provided the following comments: • We commend the team on a well conducted and well-structured ICR, which we believe reflects accurately the project’s implementation. • The team may want to consider clarifying the history of the different operators in the market at different points in time during the life of the project. On a first stage there were three operators (ENITEL, PCS and MOVISTAR), which then were reduced to two (ENITEL and MOVISTAR), to be later increased again to three with the addition of XINWEI. This has had an effect on both competition and prices. • The team may want to highlight the importance of demand side activities to foster the use of ICTs in the population. Without such activities, interventions such as this project remain lopsided on the ICT supply side. In this context, it is also important to have enough budget dedicated to fund local facilitators to coordinate demand side activities and ensure the project’s sustainability. • One of the lessons learned in this project is about how governments can foster the use of ICT without trying to become telecom operators. In this case the project proved how an innovative model, “Microtelcos”, could foster the use of ICTs even in remote rural areas, and then let the market act. This model was used in Tisey-La Garnacha. The project funded the development of light ICT infrastructure, providing Internet access to three small rural tourism firms. This model fostered the use of ICTs by the small firms and allowed for the promotion of sustainable tourism. Regular operators that were not paying attention to this sector, decided then to enter this market after seeing the success of this intervention. This same model was then used to develop Internet access in coffee fields in other areas of the country. Some of the coffee producers then shared Internet access with the local school. The only cost for the project in this second phase, once it had been proved in La Garnacha, was promoting the use of the model. This proved that there are many different interventions, different from becoming an operator, by which governments can foster the expansion of ICT infrastructure and the use of ICTs even in remote areas. The Government ICR The borrower prepared the Government ICR which original full document inserted below in Spanish, and its conclusions translated into English read as follows: The project has achieved and in many instances surpassed the expected results. It has also contributed to improving the quality of life of the population in rural and remote areas of Nicaragua, through expanding access to public telephone services, mobile telephony and Internet to the population in rural, urban and semi-urban areas. Some visible benefits include the following: • Increase in the number of minutes of use of the telephone service, which were derived using the incoming and outgoing traffic of telephone use. • Increase in the number of hours of use of Internet, which were also derived from traffic reports. • Reduction in the average distance that residents in rural areas of Nicaragua served by the project had to travel to reach the places where the public telephone service exist. • Reduction in the price of international calls due to increased competition and especially the use of Skype. The population also benefited from financial and time savings, as they no longer need to travel to obtain some of the services from municipal and departmental governments. Furthermore, the population have acquired knowledge and skills in the use of ICTs, and enabled the development of tools and services to solve issues such as health emergencies, natural disasters, and security issues. Another important result is the creation of a culture of ICT use by the technical and administrative staff of public institutions in the municipalities. Likewise, it has contributed to the development of ICT skills among students, professionals and the general population in the municipalities. It has also helped to create economic activities within the communities, allowing people to transact with institutions and firms that provide products and services, thus achieving more effective results. The project has been highly relevant as it has responded to the needs of the communities that were previously isolated. It has also promoted the use of ICTs in all sectors and is strengthening tourism SMEs, and facilitating trade of agricultural products among the beneficiary communities. The services have come to meet the communication needs of youth and adults, regardless of the geographical area, professions and trades in urban, rural and semi-urban areas. It is remarkable to have developed broadband access in the remotest areas of Nicaragua including Alto Wangky, Rio Coco, and the Caribbean coastal region. The success factors identified that made the implementation of the project effective and efficient were: (i) The political will to fulfill the objectives related to reducing the digital divide in previously inaccessible areas of the country; (ii) the implementation of a wider scope than planned with the same resources assigned to the project; (iii) strict compliance with the procedures for tendering and contracting of consultants for the implementation of activities; (iv) diligent monitoring of activities to ensure favorable conditions are created for the implementation of project activities; (v) a highly dedicated and technical team who ensured the efficient implementation and monitoring of activities and achievement of planned results for all components; (vi) strategic alliances with various partners to generate synergies and efforts achieving results; (vii) development of local capacity to ensure operation and sustainability of telecenters. INFORME DE CIERRE DEL PROYECTO DE TELECOMUNICACIONES RURALES DE NICARAGUA, CRÉDITO 4168-NI Y CREDITO ADICIONAL 5130-NI. 2007 -2015 DICIEMBRE 2015 GLOSARIO DE TÉRMINOS. AIF: Asociación Internacional de Fomento. BM: Banco Mundial. CSE: Concejo Supremo Electoral. PTR: Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales. SIGFAPRO: Sistema de Gestión Financiera y Administrativa de Proyectos. SNIP: Sistema Nacional de Inversión Pública. TELCOR: Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos. UCP: Unidad Coordinadora de Proyectos. I. RESUMEN EJECUTIVO. Este documento contiene el informe final del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales, ejecutado en la fase primera, 4168-NI y en una segunda fase como financiamiento adicional 5130-NI, ejecutándose en el periodo 2007-2015. El Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales en su primera fase, Crédito 4168-NI, ejecutado desde el 2007 al 2012. Este incrementó el acceso y redujo los costes de los servicios de telecomunicaciones en las zonas rurales de Nicaragua, logrando beneficiar comunidades rurales no atendidas, con el aprovisionamiento de servicios de telecomunicaciones. Entre los servicios habilitados por el proyecto se mencionan: 104 puntos de acceso a Internet, 101 telecentros, 37 estaciones de telefonía móvil, 612 teléfonos públicos y 9 estaciones de voz y datos con la tecnología VSAT. La segunda fase del proyecto crédito 5130-NI, se desplegó infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en áreas rurales no atendidas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua y Zona de Régimen Especial Alto Wangky, con la instalación de 27 estaciones de telefonía móvil y servicios de Banda Ancha. II. ANTECEDENTES. En el 2001, el Gobierno con la asistencia de la AIF financió el proyecto de reforma del sector de las telecomunicaciones obteniendo resultados que favorecieron la liberación del mercado, la cual ha derivado en un aumento del número de teléfonos fijos y móviles de 194.000 en 1999 a cerca de 6.8 millones en 2013. Como resultado del éxito logrado en el proyecto de reformas del sector de telecomunicaciones, en el 2005 el Gobierno de turno pidió al Banco Mundial el financiamiento de la continuación del proyecto enfocado en desarrollo de las telecomunicaciones en zonas no atendidas surgiendo el Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales el cual fue impulsado por el GRUN y comenzó a ejecutarse en el año 2007. La República de Nicaragua, a través del Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público, en fecha uno de junio del año dos mil seis suscribió un convenio de financiamiento con la Asociación Internacional de Fomento (AIF), para la ejecución de Proyectos de Telecomunicaciones Rurales, para lo cual se requiere una unidad que implemento su ejecución. Con fecha de veintiuno de diciembre del año dos mil seis, el Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público y el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) suscribieron un acuerdo de implementación y transferencia de recursos para la ejecución del proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales, acordando que la UCP sería la responsable de la coordinación y ejecución del proyecto. En el periodo comprendido de junio del año 2006 a diciembre del 2013 la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyecto ejecutó el convenio de crédito No 4168-NI con el financiamiento de la AIF, orientado al desarrollo de la infraestructura y ampliación de los servicios de telecomunicaciones. Producto del éxito alcanzado en esta primera parte del proyecto, y conociendo las necesidades de telecomunicaciones sobre todo en la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua, donde la brecha digital era mucho más amplia, se decidió extender el proyecto de telecomunicaciones rurales mediante un financiamiento adicional, crédito 5130-NI,el que se centró en el desarrollo de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en las zonas más remotas del país: Alto Wangky, Rio Coco Arriba, Rio Coco Abajo y el Litoral Norte y Litoral Sur de la Región del Caribe Norte y Sur de Nicaragua. III. OBJETIVOS DE DESARROLLO DEL PROYECTO. El objetivo de desarrollo del proyecto es aumentar el acceso a y reducir los costes de servicios de telecomunicaciones en áreas rurales de Nicaragua. IV. DESCRIPCIÓN DEL PROYECTO. IV.1. PARTE 1: EXPANSIÓN DE INFRAESTRUCTURA DE TELECOMUNICACIONES EN ÁREAS RURALES. Cr. 4168 y Cr. 5130. IV.1.1. Componente 1.A Telefonía: Telefonía Pública Rural (TP) y Estación Base Transceptora (BTS). Asistencia en relación con el tendido y el suministro de teléfonos públicos y el establecimiento de una red de telefonía móvil y servicios en la áreas no atendidas del beneficiario a través de la instalación de estaciones bases y requisitos relacionados con los elementos de las redes, las que fueron conectada a otras redes de telecomunicaciones públicas a través de radio enlaces de microondas, estaciones repetidoras, cables de fibra óptica y otros elementos de red. Con el crédito 4168 NI, se desplego infraestructura de telecomunicaciones lográndose habilitar los servicios de telecomunicaciones: 37 estaciones de telefonía móvil, 500 teléfonos públicos con energía eléctrica, 101 teléfonos públicos con energía renovables, 2 teléfonos públicos con blue energy y 9 estaciones VSAT (voz y datos), para un total de 612. Esto estuvo a cargo del operadoras ENITEL, S.A. (Claro) y Telefonía Celular de Nicaragua (MOVISTAR). La población beneficiada con el despliegue de telefonía pública se estima en 414,703 habitantes, de los cuales 208,000 fueron mujeres. Con el crédito 5130-NI, se desplegó infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en áreas rurales no atendidas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua instalando 27 estaciones de telefonía móvil y datos (Estaciones Base Transceptoras con servicios de Banda Ancha). Los servicios de telecomunicaciones llevados a través de la infraestructura desplegada fueron los siguientes: datos (Internet) y voz. Esto estuvo a cargo de dos operadoras ENITEL, S.A. (CLARO) y XINWEI Itelcom.Nic. S.A. (COOTEL). IV.1.2. Componente 1.B Internet: Telecentros y Puntos de Presencia (PoP) Se llevó a cabo una consultoría del estudio de demanda de Internet que sirvió de base para realizar la Licitación Pública Internacional para la habilitación de Puntos de Presencia de Internet y equipamiento de Telecentros para 101 cabeceras municipales. Con este subcomponente se aumentó las horas de uso del servicio de Internet, el número de suscriptores y el número de cabeceras municipales con acceso a Internet manteniendo los precios minoristas de los servicios. En este componente se habilito una red conformada por 104 puntos de presencia de Internet (POP) ubicados en igual número de cabeceras municipales y comunidades, beneficiando aproximadamente a 456,616 habitantes que no tenían acceso a Internet. Las tecnologías utilizadas para la habilitación de los puntos de presencia de Internet fueron: ADSL, enlace inalámbrico por CANOPY y por enlace satelital utilizando VSAT. El proceso de instalación de telecentros dio inicio en el mes de diciembre de 2007 con un pilotaje en cuatro sitios en los municipios de Santa Rosa del Peñón, San Juan del Río Coco, Wiwilí de Nueva Segovia y San Juan de Limay. En el año 2010, se concluyó de manera satisfactoria el proceso de instalación de telecentros completando así un total de 101 Telecentros en funcionamiento logrando una cantidad estimada de 374,883 beneficiados. Se realizaron actividades de capacitación por parte de los proveedores de los servicios y equipos de cómputo con el propósito de capacitar a los administradores de Telecentros en el buen uso y manejo de los equipos y herramientas de trabajo relacionado a los aspectos de hardware, software y conectividad. Adicionalmente se desarrolló un proyecto piloto “Proyecto El Tisey”, el cual dotó de herramientas TIC a tres pequeñas empresas eco-turísticas, este proyecto fue realizado por un pequeño operador de servicios TIC ( Microtelco), y consistió en llevar el servicio de Internet desde la ciudad de Esteli hasta el cerro El Tisey en donde se distribuyó hacia las micro empresas eco-turísticas: Rancho don Luis, Centro de Producción de Queso la Garnacha y Eco Posada El Tisey. Se realizaron 13 capacitaciones, cubriendo 96 Telecentros y 195 personas participantes, a través de coordinaciones con la Universidad Centroamericana. Se realizó una capacitación para entidades socias- estratégicas para el fortalecimiento de capacidades de los telecentros, con la participación de 20 personas. Se acreditaron los telecentros ante INATEC. Con el fin de que estos contasen con la certificación para prestar servicios de capacitación tales como: Operador de Micro computadoras, Windows, Office e Internet, inglés, Mantenimiento y Reparación de PC, Técnico medio en Programación, Cajero, Kardex y Diseño de páginas WEB. IV.2. PARTE 2: FORTALECIMIENTO INSTITUCIONAL DEL SECTOR REGULADOR Y ASISTENCIA TÉCNICA A COMUNIDADES – Cr. 4168-NI. IV.2.1. Componente 2.A: Suministro de asistencia técnica a TELCOR apoyándolo en su reestructuración y en las áreas de competencia, interconexión, regulación de precios, resolución de conflictos, derechos y quejas de los consumidores, contabilidad de costos y nuevas tendencias de regulación. La Unidad Coordinadora de Proyecto, fortaleció al Ente Regulador en el periodo comprendido entre el 2007 y el 2013. En el componente 2.A, se destaca lo siguiente: 1. Propuesta de nueva ley de telecomunicaciones. 2. Plan Nacional de Banda Ancha. 3. Normativa para la prestación de servicios de telecomunicaciones en áreas no atendidas. 4. Actualización al sistema de monitoreo del espectro radioeléctrico actualmente operando en TELCOR, a través de la adquisición de un módulo para realizar modelos de propagación de ondas. 5. Proyecto: “Telefonía Voz sobre IP para Correos de Nicaragua”. 6. Estudio de Pre Factibilidad y Diseño del Proyecto de Desarrollo de la Infraestructura TIC de la Costa Caribe (RAAS, RAAN y Río San Juan). 7. Consultoría para identificación, planeación y ejecución de acreditación de Telecentros en INATEC. 8. Reingeniería de toda la base de datos de intranet y la creación de un portal web transaccional del Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR). 9. Estudio de impacto social del Proyecto de Despliegue de Infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones en la Costa caribe y el Departamento de Río San Juan. 10. Proyecto de introducción de contenido basado en las TIC para apoyar el desarrollo socio económico del departamento de Estelí - Ajuste e instalación de servicios comunes reutilizables existentes, desarrollo y optimización de los portales municipales. 11. Estudio de impacto ambiental del Proyecto de Despliegue de Infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones en la Costa caribe y el Departamento de Río San Juan. 12. Elaboración línea base para el Proyecto SIC-TIC de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense y Río San Juan. IV.2.2. Componente 2.B: Capacitación de los empleados de TELCOR, de conformidad con la identificación y preparación de planes de capacitación basados en evaluación de aptitudes y de conformidad con la nueva estructura organizacional Como parte del componente 2.B, la unidad apoyo a TELCOR a través de la capacitación de 98 colaboradores de la institución, los cuales actualizaron y perfeccionaron sus conocimientos en diferentes áreas de interés tales como: 1. Contabilidad Forense (auditoría forense) 2. Curso en línea de CCNN (Cisco Networks) 3. Curso Online de Windows Server 2003. 4. Formulación y evaluación de proyectos 5. Progreso del Gobierno Electrónico en Bolivia. 6. Aspectos Regulatorios del Gobierno Electrónico. 7. Interoperabilidad e inter procesos públicos institucionales. 8. Implementación de redes de agregación Ethernet / MPLS para la prestación de servicios múltiples, organizado por la UIT. 9. Legislación aduanera. 10. Regulación de la interconexión y acceso. 11. Diseño gráfico. 12. Redes de Costos. 13. Red de arquitectura. 14. Redes WAN. 15. Tecnologías Emergentes de Telecomunicaciones. 16. Servicios Web NET (Módulo 1: Introducción, Módulo 2: Intermediario, Módulo 3: Avanzado). 17. Curso avanzado ASTERIK 18. Gestión de servicios IT, ITIL V3. Control de IT de COBIT 4.1. 19. Seminario Nacional de Contabilidad. 20. Gestión de proyectos Administración Electrónica Parte 3 21. Políticas Públicas para el Impulso de la Sociedad de la Información. 22. Herramientas de Geo-codificación ARCGIS. 23. Postgrado Ejecutivo de Telecomunicaciones. 24. Aspectos Regulatorios de Gobierno Electrónico. IV.2.3. Componente 2.C: Suministro de aplicaciones de Internet y asistencia técnica a los usuarios de POP en las comunidades rurales del Beneficiario, incluyendo MECD, MHCP, MAGFOR, MINSA, y las municipalidades del Beneficiario. Se suministraron aplicaciones de Internet y asistencia técnica a los usuarios de POP en las comunidades rurales beneficiadas, en colaboración con MAGFOR, MINSA, CSE, Policía Nacional y las municipalidades. Estos sistemas son el Sistema de Información de Fierros (SIF), Registro Civil de las Personas y un Sistema Administrativo Financiero. Algunos municipios fueron beneficiados con más de una aplicación de gobierno electrónico. Estos sistemas están siendo administrados por instituciones gubernamentales como MAGFOR para el Sistema de Información de Fierros y CSE para el Registro Civil de las Personas y Gobiernos Locales y Regionales para el Sistema Administrativo Financiero. Sistema de Información de Fierros Instalado en 78 alcaldías municipales, beneficiando aproximadamente a 150,000 usuarios. Este sistema permitió la digitalización de los libros de registros de fierros de ganado que utilizan las alcaldías municipales obteniéndose mayor control de la propiedad del ganado e incrementándose la recaudación municipal en este rubro. Actualmente la información está almacenada en una base de datos en el MAGFOR que incluye propietarios de fierros, información de fierros, inventario de ganado y de fincas, cartas de venta, guías de traslados, etc. Este nuevo sistema agiliza el proceso de verificación que evita inscribir imágenes que ya han sido inscritas por otros ganaderos. Esto permitió agilizar trámites de varios días, en una sola gestión, convirtiéndose en un procedimiento de minutos. Registro Civil de las Personas Instalado en 22 alcaldías municipales inicialmente para inscribir los nacimientos. Posteriormente se automatizarán todos los procesos vitales relacionados a nacimientos, defunciones, matrimonios, divorcios, etc. Se suministró hardware, se instaló el sistema y se capacitó a los usuarios. Este sistema fue implementado en conjunto con el Consejo Supremo Electoral, el Ministerio de Salud y alcaldías. Sistema Administrativo Financiero (SAF) Instalado en el Gobierno Regional Autónomo del Atlántico Sur (GRAAS) con sede en Bluefields. Permite consolidar la información financiera orientada a la descentralización de las diferentes entidades que le corresponde al GRAAS. Este sistema permite, entre otras funciones: 1. Llevar control de las finanzas, presupuesto y tributación. 2. Vincular los flujos de presupuesto, tesorería, contabilidad, patrimonio y función pública. IV.3. PARTE 3: ADMINISTRACIÓN DEL PROYECTO El Componente 3 del proyecto tuvo como finalidad a través de la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyecto garantizar la ejecución del proyecto y administrar adecuadamente y con transparencia los fondos de TELCOR y del Banco Mundial. Se llevaron a cabo auditorias para evaluar los estados financieros y dar validez a la gestión del proyecto. La administración de la UCP brindó el apoyo necesario a través de la realización de las compras locales y suministros de oficina, además llevó a cabo el inventario físico de los activos fijos del proyecto y mantenimiento del equipo de oficina y mobiliario. Otras de las tareas que el área administrativa realizó fue la introducción de los indicadores de gestión o de resultados en el sistema SNIP y SIGFAPRO. El área administrativa apoyó el desarrollo del fortalecimiento institucional en base al componente 2 del proyecto gestionando la capacitación al personal de la UCP y otras áreas de TELCOR. En coordinación con otras áreas de TELCOR se logró llevar a cabo un plan de capacitación. IV.3.1. Componente 3.A: Fortalecimiento de la capacidad técnica de la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyectos de TELCOR para implementar el proyecto, incluyendo monitoreo y evaluación, a través del suministro de asistencia técnica, capacitación, costos de operación y equipo Ampliación del personal de la UCP La UCP inició operaciones con un personal permanente relacionado al área administrativa (cinco personas), ingeniería (tres personas) y de asistencia general (tres personas) para un total de once personas pagada con fondos del proyecto. Por el desarrollo de las actividades de la UCP, se solicitó a RRHH el apoyo de personal técnico de otras áreas de TELCOR, lo que permitió, ampliar las actividades de la unidad, como instalación de telecentros, sistema de fierro, instalación de teléfonos públicos, registro civil de las personas, etc. De tal forma que se integraron dos personas al área administrativa, una persona a servicios generales y trece personas al área de ingeniería, ocasionalmente se requirió del apoyo del área de sistemas de TELCOR para ciertos trabajos técnicos. Equipos Con el desarrollo de las actividades de la UCP se adquirieron materiales y equipos necesarios para el apoyo técnico del trabajo de campo y al momento del cierre del proyecto se cuenta con los siguientes medios: Camionetas: se iniciaron con tres y actualmente la UCP tiene cinco camionetas funcionando. Equipo informático: la UCP adquirió computadoras de escritorio y portátiles para realizar trabajo de campo y cada una de las personas que requiere equipo de comunicación permanente cuenta con equipos asignados con más de 5 años de uso. Además se cuenta con otro tipo de equipos que apoyan el trabajo como son; GPS, Kit de herramientas necesarias para la reparación de los equipos instalados en los telecentros y de oficinas, etc. Inventarios de cámaras filmadoras y fotográficas, equipos de oficinas, mobiliarios y otros de apoyo técnico que se fue ampliando conforme el proyecto lo fue requiriendo. Consultoría de Monitoreo y Evaluación de Impacto del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales La Consultoría de Monitoreo y Evaluación de Impacto del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales de medio término, se realizó con el fin de medir el grado de satisfacción e impacto económico en la población beneficiada, evaluación del impacto de los tres componentes del proyecto y el nivel de eficiencia de la Unidad Coordinadora en su implementación. Esta evaluación fue realizada por la empresa consultora MC2GROUP pagada con fondos del Banco Mundial. Se realizó en el periodo de septiembre de 2011 a febrero de 2012. IV.3.2. Componente 3.B: Estados Financieros Auditados De acuerdo a las normas financieras de la AIF, y como parte del manejo financiero de los fondos, así como el cumplimiento a lo establecido en el Manual de Operaciones del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales, se realizaron ocho revisiones periódicas desde enero de 2007 hasta octubre del 2015. Las intervenciones fueron desarrolladas por la firma Narciso Salas Chávez, S.C. y PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC Nicaragua). En la parte Financiera, la auditoría confirmó y verificó la presentación de la información en sus diferentes informes especiales de proyectos financiados con fondos de la AIF, como estado de fuentes y utilización de fondos, estado de inversiones acumuladas, estado de desembolsos y estado de la cuenta especial, dando una opinión y certeza razonable de las cifras presentadas. Así mismo en el transcurso de las auditorías se detectaron debilidades de cumplimiento al control interno, que no fueron de gran impacto ni generaron opinión desfavorable, las debilidades se fueron superando, hasta lograr un cierre satisfactorio del proyecto, tal como se expresa en el último informe de auditoría al 31/12/2013. Las auditorías practicadas a la ejecución de los fondos del Proyecto generaron un costo total de USD 69,828.77. Los períodos auditados fueron los siguientes: 1- Enero a Diciembre /2007 2- Enero a Diciembre/2008 3- Enero a Diciembre/2009 4- Enero a Diciembre/2010 5- Enero a Dic/2011 y Enero a Junio/2012. (18 meses) 6- Julio/2012 a Diciembre/2012 y Enero a Dic/2013 (18 meses) 7- Junio de 2013 a diciembre de 2014 8- Enero a Octubre de 2015 Se generaron un total de seis informes de auditorías en los ocho periodos revisados. IV.3.3. Seguimiento Ambiental y Social En cumplimiento con la legislación internacional, nacional y las Salvaguardas Sociales y Ambientales del Banco Mundial, TELCOR a través de la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyectos (UCP), y en vista de la ejecución del crédito adicional 5130-NI, también conocido como Proyecto de Despliegue de Infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones en la Costa Caribe y Rio San Juan, contrató los servicio de un consultor ambiental y un consultor social para medir los impactos ambientales y sociales del proyecto y cuáles medidas de mitigación tomar para reducir estos impactos y maximizar los beneficios que se llevaron a cabo en las comunidades beneficiarias26. La UCP también conformó un equipo de funcionarios de TELCOR profesionales de las ciencias de la Tierra, tales como Ingenieros Forestales y Agropecuarios, los que conformaron un Equipo de Seguimiento Ambiental y Social (ESAS) para el proyecto, tomando como insumos las dos consultorías mencionadas en líneas anteriores, más la experiencia profesional del ESAS, se formuló un Plan de Seguimiento Ambiental y Social (PSAS), el cual planteó estrategias y actividades, tanto ambientales como sociales, y de pueblos indígenas propiamente. Paralelo a este PSAS también se elaboraron dos Planes de Planificación para Pueblos Indígenas (PPPI), uno realizado por el consultor social al inicio como parte de la consultoría social y uno elaborado por ESAS, este último incluía los insumos de las primeras consultas y vistas a los sitios y comunidades donde se desplegó la infraestructura. Para fortalecer el trabajo del ESAS, UCP contrató los servicios de un consultor de origen indígena (mayagna), por un lapso de 9 meses. El proyecto se desplegó en áreas protegidas de interés nacional e internacional para lo cual se tomaron las medidas de conservación pertinentes. Se realizó una primera visita para evaluar la viabilidad ambiental y social de los 24 sitios donde se emplazaría la infraestructura, así mismo se realizaron las consultas, asambleas y reuniones en cada comunidad para tener los respectivos avales comunales y de sus líderes territoriales. Una segunda visita fue efectuada para verificar el traslado de materiales a los sitios de construcción para verificar el cumplimiento de las normativas ambientales y sociales, mediante reuniones con los comunitarios para resolver problemas relacionados a este tema. 26 Consultoría ambiental llevada a cabo por el Ing. Kamilo Lara, y consultoría social ejecutada por el Lic. Rafael Rivas La tercera inspección se realizó para verificar el cumplimiento de los planes de gestiones ambientales de las empresas torreras que estaban construyendo la infraestructura en cada uno de los sitios. Posteriormente, una cuarta visita fue realizad para ver los impactos ambientales y sociales post despliegue de la construcción de los sitios. Finalmente, se llevó a cabo una quinta visita en la cual se realizaron los talleres de sensibilización y alfabetización TIC en cada una de las comunidades beneficiadas, que permitiesen a los comunitarios conocer las ventajas que resulta del uso de las TIC, tanto para el desarrollo socioeconómico, como ambiental. En estos talleres se entregaron a los asistentes cartillas, con contenido de uso de las TIC, diseñado especialmente para los pueblos indígenas, producto de los cual 190 personas fueron capacitadas en esta temática. Se realizaron también reuniones de seguimiento con los líderes de las zonas en las oficinas de UCP en Managua y en las cabeceras regionales de las comunidades beneficiadas. A través de los Gobiernos Territoriales Indígenas (GTI) y las secretarías políticas regionales se realizaron campañas radiales referentes al proyecto. V. EJECUCIÓN PRESUPUESTARIA V.1. COSTES DEL PROYECTO Y FINANCIAMIENTO Coste del Proyecto por Componente (en Millones de US$ equivalentes) Costos y Financiamiento del Proyecto (a) Costos del Proyecto por Componente (en millones de USD equivalentes) Estimado Estimado de la Financiamiento más Porcentaje Componentes Evaluación (USD Adicional (US$ Total actual de millones) millones) (USD Evaluación millones) 7.96 2.60 10.56 10.36 98% 1. Acceso Rural IDA: 5.3 IDA: 2.60 7.90 9.42 A. LOCAL: 2.66 A. LOCAL: 0.00 2.66 0.94 2. Fortalecimiento de la 0.81 2.00 2.81 0.82 29% Capacidad Regulatoria y Asistencia Técnica a las comunidades IDA: 0.70 IDA: 1.00 1.70 0.82 A. LOCAL: 0.11 A. LOCAL: 1.00 1.11 0.00 0.70 1.30 2.00 2.41 121% 3. Administración del IDA: 0.60 IDA: 1.00 1.60 1.99 Proyecto y Auditorías A. LOCAL: 0.10 A. LOCAL: 0.30 0.40 0.42 9.47 5.90 15.37 13.57 88% Costes Totales Estimados IDA: 6.60 IDA: 4.60 11.20 12.23 de la línea de base A. LOCAL: 2.87 A. LOCAL: 1.30 4.17 1.34 0.73 0.60 1.33 1.68 126% Contingencias 0.44 IDA: 0.40 0.84 0.00 A. LOCAL: 0.29 A. LOCAL: 0.20 0.49 1.68 10.20 6.50 16.70 15.27 91% Costes Totales del Proyecto IDA: 7.00 IDA: 5.00 12.00 12.23 A. LOCAL: 3.2 A. LOCAL: 1.5 4.7 3.04 Los porcentajes están hecho en base al total de las dos fuentes de financiamiento, lo ejecutado entre lo proyectado. Financiamiento Estimado de la Estimado más actual Evaluación (USD millones) Porcentaje de Fuente de los fondos Evaluación (USD millones) (USD millones) Prestamista 4,704,000.00 3,046,967.40 65% IDA Crédito 4168-NI 7,000,000.00 7,544,478.98 108% IDA Crédito 5130-NI 5,000,000.00 4,688,356.81 94% Costes Totales del Proyecto 16,704,000.00 15,279,803.19 91% Ambos créditos se desembolsaron en un 100%, sin embargo estos fueron afectados por las fluctuaciones de los DEG27 en relación al dólar. 27 DEG: Derecho Especiales de Giro El crédito 4168-NI fue firmado por el importe de USD 7, 000,000.00 (4, 900,000 DEG) y lo desembolsado fue de USD 7, 544,478.98, teniendo un 7% de más desembolsado y ejecutado. En cambio con el crédito 5130-NI, fue firmado por USD 5, 000,000.00 (3, 300,000 DEG) y fue desembolsado USD 4, 688,356.81, sufriendo una pérdida del valor del 6.23%. Resultados por Componentes: MONTOS MONTOS REAL COMPONENTES ESTIMADOS EJECUTADOS CUMPLIMIENTO % MILLONES US$ MILLONES US$ 1. Acceso Rural 10.56 10.36 68% 2. Fortalecimiento de la Capacidad Regulatoria y 2.81 0.82 5% Asistencia Técnica a las comunidades 3. Administración del Proyecto y Auditorías 2.00 2.41 15% Contingencias 1.33 1.68 11% TOTAL 16.7 15.27 100% Cumplimiento en Base al total ejecutado: 100% Cumplimiento ejecutado / estimado: 93% Análisis Económico y Financiero El Proyecto de Expansión de Infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones en áreas Rurales, se cumplió en un 98% conforme la proyección inicial. Con este porcentaje se logró instalar 27 estaciones de telefonía móvil y datos (Estaciones Base Transceptoras con tecnología 3G+) en igual cantidad de comunidades de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua, para proporcionar los servicios de telefonía móvil y Banda Ancha. Fortalecimiento Institucional del sector regulatorio y de asistencia técnica a comunidades. Había una proyección de US$ 2.81 millones, sin embargo solamente se ejecutó un 29%, debido a que los fondos se priorizaron para cumplir con el primer componente principalmente en la proyección y ejecución del crédito adicional. Los resultados son los siguientes una Ley del Marco regulatorio de TELCOR, Consultoría de Impacto de medio término, impacto social y ambiental, estudio de línea base, reingeniería de base de datos TELCOR, dos consultorías individuales para el suministro y asistencia técnica para estudios de factibilidad. El bajo cumplimiento de ejecución es porque quedaron algunas actividades sin ejecutar con fondos de contrapartida, tales como: Sistema de alerta temprana. Centro de datos Bluefields. Implementación de aplicaciones. Gestión y Auditoría de Proyectos Con el porcentaje de ejecución equivalente al 121% de cumplimiento, se logró mantener un equipo base de la UCP compuesto por once personas, desde el año 2007 a Junio/2015, se contrataron seis auditorías externas, cuatro para el Cr 4168 con un costo de USD 50,548.77 y para Cr 5130 se realizaron dos auditorías con un costo de USD 19,280.00 la adquisición de equipos de uso de la UCP y se cubrieron los costes operativos del proyecto. Contingencias: Los proyectado en contingencias con fondos IDA, fue trasladado para el componente uno y tres en ambos créditos, el porcentaje de ejecución corresponde a la fuente de contrapartida local. (126%) Del 100% proyectado y estimado, se logró un porcentaje de cumplimiento del 91% incluyendo ambas fuentes financiamiento, aunque la ejecución de la primera etapa del proyecto se logró con éxito, la segunda etapa que corresponde la ejecución del financiamiento adicional presentó atrasos en la ejecución y administración de los dos principales contratos para ejecutar el componente uno, esto causó el atrasos en la proyección de desembolsos lo que provocó que el saldo del préstamo se viera afectado por los variaciones cambiarias de los DEG en relación al dólar. La complejidad de la zona de impacto del proyecto, también ocasionó la sub ejecución, como condiciones climáticas, dificultades en la penetración para el traslado de materiales, conflictos de tierra, conflictos políticos entre otros. VI. AQUISICIONES Y ASPECTOS LEGALES VI.1. ADQUISICIONES Para Crédito 4168: Categoría: Adquisición de bienes y contratación de servicios de no consultoría 1. Contratación en 2008 de 104 puntos de presencia de Internet en 104 municipios. 2. LPI-001-2008 “Adquisición de equipos de cómputo y accesorios para el equipamiento de telecentros”. 3. LPN-002-2008 “Compra de muebles y sillas para computadoras”. Telecentros. 4. Contratación directa en 2009 para adquisición de equipos y accesorios para piloto en cerro Tisey, La Garnacha y La Tejara (Restaurante Don Luis). 5. Contratación directa en 2009 para adquisición de actualización de software del módulo de extensión adicional de modelos de propagación de ondas para monitor plus. 6. Contratación en 2009 directa para extensión del servicio de telefonía celular en 6 comunidades no atendidas con poblaciones mayores de 1000 habitantes. 7. LPI-001-2010 “Extensión del servicio de telefonía celular en 24 comunidades no atendidas con poblaciones mayores de 1000 habitantes”. 8. Compra en 2010 de 100 teléfonos públicos con tecnología GSM a la empresa Telefonía Celular de Nicaragua S.A. (MOVISTAR). 9. Compra en 2010 y 2013 de 350 teléfonos públicos con tecnología GSM a la Empresa Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (ENITEL). 10. Contrataciones directas en 2012 y 2013 para la contratación del servicio de telefonía e Internet a través de tecnología VSAT en 9 municipios. 11. LPN-001-2011 “Adquisición de equipos y servicios de soporte técnico para fortalecimiento de Correos de Nicaragua a través de telefonía de voz sobre IP”. 12. LPN-002-2011 “Adquisición de equipos informáticos para implementación de aplicaciones TIC en alcaldías municipales”. 13. Compra de 110 teléfonos GSM alimentados con sistema de paneles solares. 14. Contratación directa en 2011 para la instalación de sistemas de telecomunicación pública con energía renovable y bajo el manejo privado en una comunidad del Territorio Rama y Kriol y la comunidad de San Ramón Viejo en el municipio de Kukra Hill, Región Autónoma Atlántico Sur (R.A.A.S). 15. Comparaciones de precios para compra de 5 camionetas 4x4 para uso de la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyectos. 16. Comparaciones de precios para adquisición de equipos de cómputo, accesorios, y equipos de comunicaciones para uso de la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyectos. Entre 2007 y 2013 más de 500 procesos de compra de gastos operativos con fondos de contrapartida aportados por TELCOR. Categoría: Contratación de servicios de consultoría 1. Consultoría para fortalecimiento de la capacidad regulatoria de TELCOR. 2. Consultoría para identificación, planeación y ejecución de acreditación de Telecentros en INATEC. 3. Consultoría para fortalecimiento de las capacidades de los Telecentros de Nicaragua como catalizadores del desarrollo local. 4. Consultoría para monitoreo y evaluación de impacto del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales. 5. Estudio de Factibilidad y Diseño del Proyecto de Desarrollo de la Infraestructura TIC de la Costa Caribe (RAAS, RAAN y Río San Juan). 6. Reingeniería de toda la base de datos de intranet y la creación de un portal web transaccional del Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR). 7. Proyecto de introducción de contenido basado en las TIC para apoyar el desarrollo socio económico del departamento de Estelí - Ajuste e instalación de servicios comunes reutilizables existentes, desarrollo y optimización de los portales municipales. 8. Consultoría individual para implementación y desarrollo de Sistemas de Fierro, Administrativo y Financiero, Registro Civil de las Personas. 9. Consultoría individual para identificación, planeación y ejecución de acreditación de telecentros en INATEC. 10. Consultoría individual para soporte técnico para implementación y desarrollo de Sistemas de Fierro, Administrativo y Financiero, Registro Civil de las Personas. 11. Estudio de impacto ambiental del proyecto de despliegue de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en la Costa caribe y el Departamento de Río San Juan. 12. Estudio de impacto social del proyecto de despliegue de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en la Costa caribe y el Departamento de Río San Juan. 13. Elaboración línea base para el Proyecto SIC-TIC de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense y Río San Juan. 14. Elaboración de propuesta un plan nacional de banda ancha para Nicaragua. 15. Auditoría del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales financiado parcialmente por el crédito AIF No. 4168-NI y ejecutado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) durante el período 01 de enero 2007 al 31 de diciembre 2007. 16. Auditoría del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales financiado parcialmente por el crédito AIF No. 4168-NI y ejecutado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) durante el período 01 de enero 2008 al 31 de diciembre 2008. 17. Auditoría del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales financiado parcialmente por el crédito AIF No. 4168-NI y ejecutado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) durante el período 01 de enero 2009 al 31 de diciembre 2009. 18. Auditoría del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales financiado parcialmente por el Crédito AIF No. 4168-NI y ejecutado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) durante el período 01 de enero al 31 de diciembre de 2010. 19. Auditoría del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales financiado parcialmente por el crédito AIF No. 4168-NI y ejecutado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) durante el período 01 de enero 2011 al 30 de junio 2012”. 20. Auditoría del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales financiado parcialmente por el crédito AIF No. 4168-NI y ejecutado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos (TELCOR) durante el período 01 de julio 2012 al 31 de diciembre 2013”. Para Crédito 5130: Categoría: Servicios de No Consultoría. El Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales llevó a cabo la compra de bienes y contratación de servicios de acuerdo a la legislación nacional y las normas de la AIF. La adquisición de bienes y servicios de no consultoría se desarrollaron de acuerdo a Normas Contrataciones con Préstamos BIRF y Créditos de la AIF de mayo 2004 y revisada en octubre 2006. La contratación de servicios consultoría se desarrollaron de acuerdo a las Normas Selección y Contratación de Consultores por Prestatarios del Banco Mundial, edición 2004, versión 2006. Se ejecutaron satisfactoriamente alrededor de 540 procesos de compra y contrataciones abarcando los 3 componentes del proyecto 4168. Con el crédito Adicional 5130 NI, se ejecutaron dos licitaciones: "LPI-001-2014 Licitación Pública Internacional" Adjudicada a Xinwei Itelcom.Nic. S.A., contratación de servicios para “Despliegue de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en la Costa Caribe y Río San Juan”, para proporcionar acceso al servicio de telefonía móvil a las comunidades: Klark, Andris, Cabo Viejo, Bismuna, Awastara, Krukira, Wawabar, Kum, Ninayari. "LIL-001-2014 Licitación Internacional Limitada" Adjudicada a ENITEL, S.A., contratación de servicios para despliegue de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua, para proporcionar acceso al servicio de telefonía móvil e Internet de banda ancha a las comunidades: Amack, San Andrés de Bocay, Aniwas, Walakistang, Raití, Yakalwás, Yapuwás, Sandy Bay (Sirpi), Pueblo Nuevo, Kisalaya, San Jerónimo, La Esperanza, Santa Fe, Kitaski, San Esquipulas, San Carlos, El Karrizal/ Tilba Ilka, Sixa Yaris. Categoría: Bienes. "PTR-CP-002-13 Comparación de precios", compra de equipos de cómputo y accesorios, así como equipo multifuncional (copiadora, escáner, fax) a las empresas DATASYSTEM, S.A. y PBS Nicaragua. El detalle de la compra es de: "1 Equipo multifuncional XEROX CQ8900s (copiadora, escáner y fax), 1 Batería estabilizador de 2200 VA, Set de tintas negras/ tintas de color Cian/Magenta/Amarillo y 5 computadoras Portátiles". Categoría Servicios de Consultoría Individual. Contratación de un Especialista Informático en Desarrollo de Sistemas por un periodo de 10 meses. Categoría: servicios de consultoría individual (contratación directa) Contratación de personal permanente de UCP-TELCOR (7 personas) por un periodo de 26 meses y una persona, especialista ambiental y social operativo, por un plazo de 4 meses. Categoría: Gastos Operativos. Contratación de personal permanente de UCP-TELCOR (4 personas) por un periodo de 26 meses Categoría: Servicios de consultoría (firmas). "TELCOR II-44-SBCC-CF Selección basada en calidad y costo", contratación de la firma PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC Nicaragua) para realizar "Auditoria del financiamiento adicional al Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales (Cr. AIF 5130-NI) Junio de 2013 a diciembre de 2014 y de enero a junio de 2015 incluido el período de gracia". VI.2. ASPECTOS LEGALES La asesoría legal para el Crédito 4168-NI, como un eje transversal ha tenido presencia en la mayoría de las actividades realizadas durante la ejecución del Proyecto de Telecomunicaciones Rurales, prestando la asistencia técnica legal en temas como: 1. Revisión del actual marco legal y de regulación del sector de las Telecomunicaciones. Integrando un equipo de trabajo el cual elaboró junto con un consultor internacional una propuesta de Ley de comunicaciones y una Ley Marco Regional de Telecomunicaciones. 2. Previo a la contratación del consultor la asesoría legal estuvo presente en la discusión y aprobación de los TDR para la consultoría “Elaboración de un estudio comparativo del marco regulatorio regional y propuesta de ley marco de las telecomunicaciones a nivel centroamericano. 3. Trabajo en equipo para la elaboración de normativa de MICROTELCOS. 4. Se elaboraron y se suscribieron Convenios de colaboraciones con instituciones públicas, ONG, cooperativa y personas naturales, en los cuales estos fueron suscritos con la presencia de la Asesoría Legal, actuando en carácter de Notario Público y dando fe del acto presenciado. Entre estos convenios tenemos: 5. 99 convenios para la instalación de 101 telecentros suscritos con municipalidades y/o concesionarios privados, se realizaron 10 recisiones por incumplimiento. 6. Convenio con el Consejo Supremo Electoral para la instalación, ejecución y puesta en marcha del Sistema de Registro Civil de las Personas en las municipalidades del país. 7. Convenio con INATEC para la acreditación de Telecentros instalados por TELCOR. 8. Convenio con MAGFOR, para la instalación de Sistemas de Fierro en el marco de la trazabilidad bovina. Este sistema fue instalado en 78 municipalidades. 9. Convenio con CHF (Fundación para la Vivienda Cooperativa) , con el objeto de establecer mecanismos de colaboración entre ambas entidades para la implementación y despliegue de tecnologías de la información con la finalidad de fortalecer la capacidad institucional de los gobiernos municipales y mejorar la eficiencia, eficacia, transparencia y calidad de los servicios que presta a la población así como de empoderarlos a través de las TIC para la participación en la gestión y decisión del quehacer de los gobiernos municipales y de esta forma elevar la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos en los municipios considerados en el programa. 10. Memorándum de Entendimiento con la Alcaldía de Managua para la instalación del sistema de Registro Civil de las Personas. Elaboración de Contratos en Instrumentos Públicos 1. Contrato suscrito entre TELCOR y ENITEL relativo a instalación de redes de acceso a Internet, en 104 municipios del país. 2. Contratos en formato del Banco Mundial, elaborados por Adquisiciones y revisados por asesoría legal. 3. Contrato suscrito con ENITEL para la Extensión del servicio de Telefonía Celular en 24 comunidades no atendidas con poblaciones mayores 1000 habitantes, ello implicaba la instalación de 24 BTS, a dicho contrato se le realizaron tres adenda para ampliar el número de BTS a instalarse. 4. Contrato para la Adquisición de Equipos y Servicios de Soporte Técnico para fortalecimiento de Correos de Nicaragua a través de Telefonía de Vos sobre IP. 5. Contrato de Adquisición de equipos informáticos para la implementación de aplicaciones TIC en alcaldías municipales, este contrato fue suscrito con DataSystem. 6. Contrato para la consultoría de estudio de impacto ambiental del proyecto de despliegue de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en Rio San Juan 7. Contrato para la consultoría de impacto social del proyecto de despliegue de infraestructura de telecomunicaciones en Rio San Juan 8. Contrato de consultoría Reingeniería de toda la base de datos de intranet y la creación de un portal web transaccional de TELCOR. 9. Contratos varios de servicios de Consultoría para realizar auditoria en distintos periodos del proyectos 10. Contrato de Consultoría con Consorcio ABS- Millennium para la el diseño de un plan de Banda Ancha para Nicaragua. 11. Contrato de consultoría para proceso de acreditación de telecentros ante el INATEC en una primera fase en la segunda fase la contratación se realizó por medio de Contrato de servicios profesionales, con un tiempo de vigencia determinado. 12. Contratos de trabajos de los compañeros que colaboran en la UCP y que fueron suscritos con TELCOR como ejecutor del proyecto. 13. Contrato de consultoría de Ingeniero especialista informático para implementación y desarrollo de sistemas de fierro, administrativo y financiero, registro civil de las personas, a este contrato se le realizaron dos adenda. Elaboración del acuerdo administrativo (AA-001-2009) “Creación de la Unidad Coordinadora de Proyectos como instancia de la estructura de TELCOR”, publicado en La Gaceta No. 47 del día martes 10 de marzo del 2009. Poderes especiales en escritura pública 1. Poder especial (varios) para salida vehículo de la UCP fuera del país, (todo Centro América). 2. Poder especial (Varios) para realizar trámites administrativos para la para salida de vehículo de la UCP fuera del país. 3. La asesoría legal ha estado brindando sus aportes en diferentes áreas tales como: en adquisiciones en lo relativos a los diferentes procesos de licitaciones, revisando con mayor énfasis los documentos de licitación en la parte relacionada a las condiciones generales de los contratos y condiciones especiales de los contratos. 4. Administración en lo relativos a trámites administrativos en los cuales se ha solicitado la asistencia legal como son procesos de reclamos por accidentes de tránsito, tramites con seguros del parque vehicular de la UCP y en materia laboral. 5. Revisión de informes en los casos de las consultoría para verificar el cumplimiento de lo contratado. 6. En los casos de apertura de ofertas y adjudicación de licitaciones la asesoría legal ha participado integrando los comités de licitación con derecho a voz pero sin voto. 7. Se ha brindado asesoría puntual requerida en su momento por el Director de la UCP y cualquier otro colaborador de la Unidad. La Asesoría legal en el marco de la en ejecución del Crédito NI-5130, dio asistencia en los siguientes puntos: 1- Reuniones con personal del ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público y elaboración de un borrador propuesta para la Enmienda Numero uno al Acuerdo de Implementación y Transferencia de Recursos entre el MHCP y TELCOR para la ejecución del Proyecto Mejoramiento de la Infraestructura TIC en la Costa Caribe y Rio San Juan. 2- Asistencia legal en calidad de integrante del Comité de Licitación Pública Internacional LPI-001-2014 Despliegue de infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones en la Costa Caribe y Rio San Juan, proceso en el cual se le adjudico contrato en el proceso de licitación se le adjudico contrato a la empresa Xinwei Itelcom.Nic.S.A. 3- Asistencia legal en calidad de integrante del Comité de Licitación Internacional Limitada LPI-001-2014 Despliegue de infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones en la Costa Caribe y Rio San Juan, proceso en el cual se le adjudico contrato en el proceso de licitación se le adjudico contrato a la empresa ENITEL S.A. 4- Revisión de contratos adjudicados: a) entre TELCOR y ENITEL S.A y b) entre TELCOR y XINWEI Itelcom.Nic. S.A. 5- Elaboración de contratos de Servicios profesionales entre TELCOR y José Omar Dixon. 6- Revisión de contrato de consultoría individual por medio del cual se contrató al ingeniero José Omar Dixon. En calidad de Especialista ambiental y social. 7- Revisión de contrato de consultor individual por medio del cual se contrató al Ingeniero Marlon Salvador Ramírez en calidad de Especialista Informático en Desarrollo de Sistemas. 8- Asistencia legal en calidad de integrante del Comité de Licitación en el cual se adjudicó contrato a PWC Nicaragua, para realizar auditoría financiera al proyecto relacionada con el financiamiento adicional Crédito NI- 5130. 9- Revisión de informes mensuales y por el tiempo que duraron las consultoría de: a) Ing. Marlon Salvador Ramírez Membreño y b) Ing. José Omar Dixon Coban. 10- Revisión de informes durante la prestación de servicios profesionales del Ing. José Omar Dixon Coban. 11- Asistencias legales puntales solicitas por la UCP. VII. RESULTADOS DEL PROYECTO 1. Se instalaron 612 Teléfonos Públicos beneficiando aproximadamente 414,703 habitantes. 2. Se instalaron 104 Puntos de Presencia de Internet beneficiando a 456,616 habitantes. 3. Se instalaron 101 Telecentro beneficiando 374,883 habitantes. 4. Diseño de proyecto de infraestructura para la Costa Caribe. 5. Se expandió la infraestructura con 64 estaciones bases beneficiando a 162,054 habitantes. 6. Se instaló el sistema de registro civil de las personas en 22 Alcaldías municipales. 7. Se instaló el sistema de fierro en 78 Alcaldías municipales beneficiando a 150,000 usuarios aproximadamente. 8. Capacitación de 98 colaboradores de TELCOR en temas de diferentes especialidades TIC. 9. Elaboración de propuesta un plan nacional de banda ancha para Nicaragua. 10. Elaboración de normativa de MICROTELCOS. 11. Elaboración de propuesta de nueva Ley de telecomunicaciones y líneas generales para armonización del marco regulatorio a nivel regional. 12. Fortalecimiento de telecentros en la Costa Caribe mediante sinergia con UNESCO de Costa Rica. 13. Se capacitaron 195 administradores de 96 telecentros en administración de las mismas tareas realizadas con estudiantes de la UCA. 14. Debido a la estrategia de negociación implementada, la búsqueda de recursos provenientes de otras fuentes y alianzas público-privadas, se produjeron buenos resultados y grandes ahorros. Gracias a ello se tuvo un ahorro de USD 5, 074,500.00. VIII. CONCLUSIONES 1. El Proyecto ha alcanzado los resultados esperados y a la vez ha contribuido a mejorar las condiciones de vida de la población en las áreas rurales de Nicaragua beneficiadas por éste, mediante el acceso a los servicios de telefonía pública, telefonía celular y acceso a Internet a la población rural, urbana y semi-urbana. Algunos beneficios muy visibles son los siguientes:  Aumento en el número de minutos de uso del servicio telefónico, tal como ha sido reportado en el informe por el tráfico entrante y saliente.  Aumento en el número de horas de uso del acceso a Internet, tal como ha sido reportado en informes de tráfico.  Reducción de la distancia media que los residentes en zonas rurales de Nicaragua atendidos por el proyecto tenían que desplazarse para llegar a las localidades donde existía el servicio de telefonía pública.  Reducción en el precio de las llamadas internacionales, debido a una mayor competencia y sobre todo por el uso de Skype. 2. El impacto del proyecto está vinculado, entre otros, al acceso de los servicios de información y comunicación de telefonía pública, telefonía celular e Internet domiciliar y telecentros a la población que habita en zonas rurales alejadas. La población también han logrado obtener beneficios en el ahorro económico familiar, en el uso del tiempo, ya que ahora no incurren en gastos de desplazamiento para realizar gestiones de servicios o transacciones comerciales a las cabeceras municipales, departamental o a la capital. Por otro lado han adquirido conocimientos y han desarrollo capacidades en el uso de la tecnología. 3. Los servicios de telefonía pública, celular e Internet, se han convertido en una necesidad para resolver las necesidades de comunicación y de información en la población rural. Se sabe que los servicios habilitados en el proyecto son herramientas efectivas porque disminuyen el tiempo para establecer comunicaciones así como movilización a grandes distancias a la hora de resolver situaciones de emergencias de salud, desastres naturales, problemas de seguridad. 4. Un aspecto importante es la creación de una cultura tecnológica sobre el uso de las TIC por parte del personal técnico y administrativo de las instituciones públicas en el municipio. De igual manera se ha desarrollado capacidades en el uso de la tecnología en estudiantes, profesionales y en la población en general en los municipios. 5. Se ha contribuido a mejorar las actividades económicas desde la comunidad, permitiendo que las personas realicen transacciones con las instituciones y con las empresas de producción y de servicios, logrando de esa manera resultados más efectivos. 6. El proyecto ha sido muy pertinente ya que ha respondido a las necesidades de las comunidades que se encontraban incomunicadas. Asimismo ha promovido el uso de la tecnología de la información y la comunicación en todos los sectores y está fortaleciendo las MIPYME turísticas, así como facilitando el comercio y la venta de productos agropecuarios de las comunidades beneficiadas. Los servicios han llegado a satisfacer las necesidades de comunicación de los jóvenes y adultos, indistintamente de la zona geográfica, profesiones y oficios en las comunidades urbanas, semi-urbanas y rurales beneficiadas. Es destacable el haber llevado la banda ancha a las zonas más remotas de Nicaragua: Alto Wangky, la rivera del Río coco y el litoral de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua. 7. Los factores de éxito identificados que hicieron posible la ejecución del proyecto de manera eficaz y eficiente fueron los siguientes: (i) La voluntad política para cumplir con los objetivos relacionados con la reducción de la brecha digital en zonas inaccesibles en el país; (ii) el haber realizado más acciones de las que se había planificado con los mismos recursos asignados al proyecto; (iii) el estricto cumplimiento de los procedimientos establecidos para las licitaciones y contrataciones de las consultorías para la ejecución de las actividades de los tres componentes del proyecto; (iv) el seguimiento in situ para garantizar las condiciones en la ejecución de las actividades del proyecto; (v) el haber contado con un equipo de trabajo muy profesional y eficiente que garantizó la ejecución y el seguimiento de las actividades para asegurar el logro de los resultados planificados en todos los componentes; (vi) el haber establecido alianzas estratégicas con diferentes socios para generar sinergias y compartir esfuerzos orientados al logro de los resultados; (vii) el haber creado capacidades a nivel local para la operación de los telecentros y la sostenibilidad de los mismos. IX. LECCIONES APRENDIDAS 1. La implementación de un proyecto que contenga aspectos tecnológicos es clave involucrar a todas las entidades y población beneficiaria desde el inicio de su ejecución, con la finalidad de que se apropien, se identifiquen y desarrollen iniciativas complementarias. 2. La conformación de redes y el uso de alianzas estratégicas son los mecanismos que produce sinergia y facilitan la obtención de los resultados y beneficios en proyectos de desarrollo. 3. Los actores que intervienen en un proyecto deben estar claramente identificados así como sus roles y ser del conocimiento de todos los otros actores. 4. Igual preocupación debe dedicarse a la instalación de la infraestructura para el acceso a los diversos servicios, como a la definición e implementación de una estrategia para el uso de los mismos. 5. La realidad de los diferentes municipios en Nicaragua es muy diversa, por lo tanto las soluciones y enfoques que se planteen no pueden ser las mismas. Los municipios afectados por la pobreza o pobreza extrema requieren de un enfoque y tratamiento diferenciado, así como de apoyos, subvenciones y consideraciones especiales que los otros municipios no requieren. 6. La sostenibilidad de un proyecto debe ser considerados desde el diseño mismo de éste y ser materia permanente de atención de los responsables de implementar el mismo. 7. El modelo de Asociación Público Privada utilizada en el proyecto, en el que el gobierno financia la infraestructura requerida para llevar las telecomunicaciones a localidades alejadas o con baja población –lo cual lo hace poco interesante para los operadores privados– y la entrega de esta infraestructura a estos operadores para que brinden los servicios a la población, es una solución óptima para atender sus necesidades, que de otra manera no podrían ser atendidas. 8. Una buena estrategia de negociación y la búsqueda de recursos provenientes de otras fuentes, producen buenos resultados y grandes ahorros. Por un lado, las propuestas originales que presentan las empresas responsables de implementar la infraestructura usualmente tienen valores excesivos que pueden ser reducidas si se tiene una posición firme en defensa de los intereses del país. Por otro lado, existen oportunidades para obtener donativos, software sin costo y otros recursos, pero eso requiere un trabajo de búsqueda e identificación de las otras fuentes y de un posterior convencimiento de ellas para obtener estos nuevos recursos. 9. El modelo de utilizar pequeñas empresas de telecomunicaciones para habilitar servicios de telecomunicaciones a zonas remotas donde los operadores establecidos no lo hacen debido a los altos costos de operación que tienen debe ser promovido 10. El empoderamiento político del TIC en las entidades estatales y población en general debe ser promovido. Se requiere siempre considerar la necesidad de acompañamiento en los proyectos TIC para que la población aprendan a sacar el máximo provecho a la tecnología desplegada sobre todo con un enfoque de uso de las herramientas TIC en la producción, la salud y la educación. 11. La necesidad de presupuestar financiamiento para poder desarrollar los planes ambientales y sociales que los proyectos demanda son de fundamental importancia. Annex 8. Comments of Cofinanciers and Other Partners/Stakeholders There were no comments from cofinanciers, and other partners/stakeholders involved for this project. Annex 9. List of Supporting Documents - Project Appraisal documents - Financing Agreement (IDA-41680 and IDA-51300) - Restructuring Papers - Mission Aide Memoires (in Spanish) - Implementation Status and Results reports - FM Supervision reports - TELCOR project reports - Procurement Management reports 87°W 86°W 85°W 84°W 83°W 15°N 15°N Cabo Gracias a Dios HONDURAS To Auasbila Wani Waspam Lagoon Leimus NICARAGUA N R E G I ÓW aw Cayos Miskitos AUTÓNOM aA W Pahara a wa Bocay D E L A C O S TA Lagoon CARIBE NORTE la (RACCN)K ka y o el Bilwi Boca Bonanza 14°N uk Ama Co Karata c To Tegucigalpa ala Lagoon b La Rosita ya Mogoton NUEVA JINOTEGA a (2,438 m) Bamba Is Siuna SEGOVIA a Kukalaya EL S ALVAD OR n Ocotal Wounta Quilalí Wiwilí a r Lagoon s t To San Somoto MADRIZ le Miguel il Prin za rd San Sebastián p olk a Prinzapolka C o a de Yali ESTELÍ o Gulf of C a Fonseca Estelí alp Somotillo Jinotega Turna Grande d tag e Ma La Cruz de 13°N Potosi Río Grande 13°N Punta Cosigüina Matagalpa MATAGALPA Rio Blanco El Sauce CHINANDEGA Sébaco s Muy Muy Kurinw á Nuevo Amanecer Caribbean LÉON t o Chinandega REGIÓN Sea Corinto Boaco BOACO Siqu AUTÓNOMA ía Perlas Léon MANAGUA C D E L A C O S TA Lagoon M o s q u i ía Lake or Si q u CARIBE SUR PACIFIC OCEAN Managua d Laguna San Benito il (RACCS) de Perlas Puerto le Mico Esc Sandino MANAGUA Juigalpa ra Rama o nd i d o 12° N MASAYA Lóvago Bluefields 12°N Masaya Granada CHONTALES Bluefields C Jinotepe N IC A R A G U A Bay GRANADA h Masachapa o CARAZO Lake Nueva n Guínea RÍO ta CITIES AND TOWNS Nicaragua Pu P aG ntta un Go orrd daa 0 20 40 60 Kilometers SAN le I. de Ometepe DEPARTMENT CAPITALS R I VA S Punta Gorda nn Rivas San JUAN 0 10 20 30 40 50 Miles NATIONAL CAPITAL a Miguelito Peñas Blancas Punta RIVERS San Juan del Sur Gorda Río In San Carlos d io Bay MAIN ROADS El Castillo de 11°N La Concepcíon RAILROADS San Juan del Norte S GSDPM Map Design Unit IBRD 33456R1 MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES an Jua n This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank. DEPARTMENT BOUNDARIES To San José C O S TA R I C A The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World Bank JULY 2014 Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES 86°W 85°W 84°W 83°W