| Project Detail |
The development objective of the Statistics Capacity Building Project for Republic of Congo are to (i) strengthen the National Statistical System in the production and, dissemination of timely and robust statistics relevant for policies and decision making, and (ii) promote the demand for statistical information. The proposed additional financing (AF) would help close the financing gap that resulted from the Government’s inability to release the anticipated counterpart funding. In the past two years, the Republic of Congo has been facing severe financial constraints due to the decline in oil prices. The additional loan would also help finance costs associated with new activities requested by the Government including the (a) construction of a new building for the National Institute of Statistics (Institut National des Statistiques, INS) and the Center for Applied Statistics and Planning (Centre d’Application de la Statistique et de la Planification, CASP) – (‘complexe INS-CASP’); (b) implementation of a general enterprise census; (c) introduction of performance-based payments (PBPs) as a means to increase motivation and performance of staff; (d) technical assistance (TA) to support the macroeconomic framework committee; and (e) support to the development of a National Development Plan (NDP). The AF will include a first level of restructuring to (a) revise the Project Development Objective (PDO); (b) extend the project’s current closing date by 22 months to April 2021 to make up for the delay in project implementation due to the delay in effectiveness and the absence of counterpart funding and to allow sufficient time to complete all new and remaining project activities; (c) review existing activities to focus on the most relevant ones and to reallocate funds between and within project components to ensure sufficient funding for the construction of the office building |
