The World Bank commenced its regular supervision and support mission today and will continue until the end of April 17, 2025. This mission will be conducted virtually by the Co-Task Team Leaders from the World Bank, Mr. Jerome Bezzina (Sr. Digital Development Specialist and Ms. Anna Metz (Sr. Digital Development Specialist). Also joining the Co TTLs was Ms. Siew Sanz Ng, a Young Professional from the World Bank. Ms. Dhumya Ahmed (Team Associate) and Ms. Mariyam Ajufaan (Team Associate) participated on behalf of the World Bank Country Management Unit of the Maldives. The Ministry of Finance and Planning was represented by Mr. Mohamed Yammai (Chief Resource Mobilization Executive) and Mr. Mohamed Auzam (Resource Mobilization Analyst).

The key stakeholder organizations of the D’MADD project also joined the virtual meeting. Minister of State for Homeland Security and Technology, Dr. Mohamed Kinaanath, represented the National Centre for Information Technology, Mr. Ilyas Ahmed (Chief Executive) joined on behalf of the Communications Authority of Maldives. In contrast, Mr. Mohamed Umair (Director) joined from the Department of National Registrations.

Dr. Ibrahim Waheed (Project Manager), Ahmed Haleem (Communications Specialist), and Ms. Fathimath Shafa Hussain (Project Officer) participated in the D’MADD project.

The World Bank mission began the meeting with a brief overview of the mission, which included conducting a regular review of the project's implementation progress for each component and reviewing the fiduciary and safeguards aspects of the project. Furthermore, the team highlighted the acceleration of critical project activities, including the development of the climate data platform. The mission team was pleased to have secured trust funding for initiatives that aligned with the D’MADD project components, which is a testament to the D’MADD project team's strong performance and effective execution of their responsibilities.

The team also highlighted the discussion around the new Maldives 2.0 initiative, which was mentioned by the Minister of State, Dr. Mohamed Kinaanth, during the Global Digital Summit 2025 in March. Along with the fact that the 8 Pillars of the vision align with the D’MADD project, the team said that the strong will from the highest level of the government to push the digital agenda opens the opportunity to request additional funding for the digital sector. The team also emphasized the expediting of the data protection bill submission to the parliament as it is a disbursement condition for most tasks for the project.

The participants from the other stakeholders also gave an overview of the project-related tasks.

Dr. Kinaanath assured that the current four digital bills in the pipeline were a top priority of the government to move forward with the president’s vision. He also highlighted that many of the pillars align with the current World Bank-funded D’MADD project. He mentioned that the dates for the launch of Maldives 2.0 initiative is not finalized but is planned for next month.

The stakeholders' members also shared a brief overview of their respective components.

Mr. Yammai from the Ministry of Finance also highlighted the need for the data service bill that crosscuts across other projects in the donor portfolio.

The Communications Authority of Maldives reported that the component on regulatory capacity building and increasing the competitiveness of the broadband market was progressing very well as scheduled. According to Mr. Ilyas, the consultants are expected to visit and conduct training and capacity-building workshops for the CAM staff next week.

The DNR reported the successful completion of the pen testing and security assessment and is now working to resolve the identified issues. They also reported that the activity for redesigning the CRVSID system for the Maldives is underway, and the consultant has completed the requirement-gathering meetings that involved other stakeholders in the process.

The meeting was concluded with the note that follow-up individual meetings will continue online over the course of the week.