The D’MADD team presented the project's progress at the project review meeting held at the Ministry of Finance and Planning on September 10, 2025.

Dr. Waheed started the meeting with a detailed presentation of the project’s activities, updates on the procurements and budgetary figures. He also highlighted key challenges and issues faced in implementing certain aspects of the project.

The discussions that followed centred on the matters that had halted the project's timely progress, which the project team addressed.

The most urgent issue stressed by the Project Manager was the delay in submitting the Personal Data Protection and Privacy Act to the parliament. The bill is a key disbursement condition to move forward with major procurements allocated for the activities planned for the Department of National Registration and the National Centre for Information Technology. The D’MADD project has assisted in the formulation of the bill and provided professional expert services to the Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology through linked trust funds during the first quarter of 2025. The consultancy aimed to ensure the bill conforms to international best practices and is acceptable to the global community. The Project Manager requested that all involved parties provide maximum assistance in submitting the bill to parliament. He reiterated the importance of the bill as this is a mission-critical item, and the procurements depend on the legislation, which will only proceed afterwards. Thus, this is a significant uncertainty for the project team, as the project's 5-year duration has now reached its midpoint.

Additionally, the government's pending decision on the type of ID card —whether it's a chip-based or QR-based smart card —also stood as a significant barrier to proceeding with procurement activities, according to Dr. Waheed. He noted that this was also a factor beyond the PMU's control and requested an expedited firm decision on the matter by the relevant agencies. He highlighted the World Bank’s stance on the issuance of a smart card with a chip, based on cost and sustainability, as well as alternatives using Digital Identity Apps.

The Project Manager also requested better coordination from the departments of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, as procurement related to the specialised training and exposure trip for the NCIT eFaas team failed due to the lack of support and coordination from the Finance Ministry. Digital Identity is a key pillar of the President’s Maldives 2.0 vision, and thus, the exposure of how countries with advanced digital identity mechanisms will significantly benefit the government. Dr. Waheed emphasised that considerable effort was invested in organising the training program. The Ministry’s actions not only resulted in the loss of valuable time and financial resources but also risked reputational damage with the training agency, which had already committed significant resources to support the Maldivian team.

Since the World Bank’s supervisory mission was planned for this October, many of these issues are to be discussed during the mission, as proposed by the World Bank Country Management Unit.

Overall, the task team leaders expressed satisfaction with the PMU’s performance on its tasks, commending the successful implementation of activities that were not dependent on external decisions. These include the progress of the ongoing Multi-Hazard Early Warning System pilot program in Fuvahmulah City, the Maldives Ocean Hackathon in 2023, and the Passive Acoustic Monitoring pilot program in April 2024, among others.