This pillar will support the critical building blocks for strong implementation, learnings, and coordination of the Program at regional and national levels. Activities to be financed are as follows:

• Supporting national project implementation units (PIUs) and a regional policy coordination unit (at COMESA), including key thematic experts, project managers, specialists for financial management (FM), procurement, environmental and social specialists, and others as needed.
• Institutional capacity-building activities at the national and regional levels, covering key topics to enhance implementation readiness (budgeting, procurement, and so on) and institutional adaptations required to adapt to the rapid changes in the technology landscape, change management, procurement, and quality assurance considerations for implementation, among others.
• M&E efforts and capacity building at the Program level and at the level of each recipient, strengthening efforts to collect timely, comprehensive, sex-disaggregated information and communication technology (ICT) data and conducting real-time, short-term and long-term impact evaluations and assessments.
• Peer-to-peer learning workshops, study tours, and the establishment of regional coordination platforms and tools for knowledge creation and sharing.
• Financing for stakeholder consultations and citizen engagement, paying special attention to ensuring that project interventions are designed to maximize the participation of women and PWDs in all activities and leveraging civictech tools where applicable.
• Financing of e-waste and activities related to Environmental and Social Standards (ESS).