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Good practice Imported

Digital Maldives – National Digital ID and Connectivity for Climate-Resilient Public Services

Maldives · Malé · See the Maldives profile · See the Malé profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 82% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A $10M World Bank-backed programme is building the Maldives' first national digital ID (eFaas) and expanding broadband competition to remote atolls, aiming to cut costly inter-island travel for health, banking and social-security access.

10 USD million
World Bank IDA grant financing the programme (approved June 2022)
83.9 %
National internet penetration (2025)
>85 %
Population with access to high-speed fibre (2025)
~16 %
Population remaining offline (2024)
Digital Maldives – National Digital ID and Connectivity for Climate-Resilient Public Services

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology (Maldives) / World Bank
Period
2022–2027 (ongoing)
Keywords
digital government, broadband connectivity, digital identity, climate resilience

Context

The Digital Maldives for Adaptation, Decentralisation and Diversification Project, approved by the World Bank's International Development Association in June 2022 with a $10 million grant, supports the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, the Communications Authority of Maldives, and the National Centre for Information Technology across the archipelago's roughly 1,200 islands.

Objectives

Expand broadband market competition, strengthen digital identity, and build climate-data platforms to support climate-resilient public services.

Activities

The National Centre for Information Technology launched the eFaas national digital ID in 2022, followed by a biometric selfie-verified mobile app in 2023 letting citizens authenticate for government, banking and telecom services online; draft digital identity and digital transformation legislation ('Maldives 2.0') was released for public feedback in June 2025.

Results

According to UNDP's 2025 State of Digital in the Maldives assessment, the country has reached near-nationwide 4G coverage, 83.9% internet penetration, and over 85% of the population with access to high-speed fibre; outer islands such as Laamu and Haa Alif atolls now have broadband and 4G quality close to that of the capital, Male.

Conclusions

A fuller integrated digital identity system enabling remote access to healthcare, social security and banking without inter-island travel is targeted for 2027. The IFC and Internews both flag that affordability and service quality still lag in the outer atolls, and that the roughly 16% of Maldivians who remained offline in 2024 are disproportionately older residents and those in the most remote islands. The programme's core digital-ID rollout is also still mid-implementation, with no independent outcome evaluation published as of mid-2026.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — $10 million World Bank IDA grant covering broadband market reform, digital identity systems and climate-data platforms.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Approved June 2022; digital ID and broadband components already rolled out, with the fuller integrated digital identity system targeted for 2027.
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology (Maldives), Communications Authority of Maldives, National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT)

Conditions for success

  • Institutional capacity-building across the Communications Authority and NCIT rather than a single implementing unit
  • Phased rollout (digital ID in 2022, biometric app in 2023, draft legislation 2025, full system targeted 2027) allowing incremental delivery across a dispersed archipelago

Common failure modes

  • Affordability and service quality still lag in outer atolls, per IFC and Internews
  • Roughly 16% of the population remained offline in 2024, disproportionately older residents and those on the most remote islands - meaning connectivity gains have not yet closed the digital-inclusion gap for hardest-to-reach groups
  • Digital identity and digital transformation legislation was still only in draft/public-feedback stage as of June 2025, behind the original full-rollout ambition

Where it fits

Governance type
national government with donor (World Bank) co-financing
Scale
national (archipelago of ~1,200 islands)
Income level
upper-middle-income (Maldives)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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