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What we’ve done

Commissioned research, evaluations, and technical work for government agencies, councils, courts, and international organisations, alongside the research and tools we publish ourselves.

Projects

What we work on

Research, knowledge systems, training, digital services, fieldwork, and council development work – for ministries, councils, international organisations, and the public sector.

Research · UNICEF Child and Family Well-Being

The Cycle of Vulnerability for Women and Children Within Family Life

Original qualitative ethnographic research centring women’s lived experiences. Interviews were conducted in Dhivehi, in private settings, at a length that allowed accounts to be given in full. The study maps how vulnerability accumulates across four life stages and identifies the protective factors that interrupt it.

38%
of child criminal cases come from divorced families
88%
of children of IPV victims witnessed the violence
60%
of domestic violence survivors lacked knowledge of support services
as likely to exhibit fearful-avoidant attachment: children from divorced families
  • Nineteen in-depth interviews, 1.5 to 3 hours each, conducted in Dhivehi in private settings
  • Two focus groups with more than 70 participants
  • Six protective factors identified, across four mapped life stages
  • Draft publication of approximately 90,000 words carrying around 50 recommendations
Knowledge systems · Ministry of Social & Family Development

KnowHow knowledge base

A searchable knowledge base built to become MSFD’s core policy resource. Knowledge relevant to social policy in the Maldives sat scattered across agencies, servers, and individual staff members’ memories. When staff turned over, the knowledge left with them.

The core is a 15-part social policy encyclopedia. The four domains the Ministry is directly responsible for each run to book-length depth, and each is paired with sector training materials designed to be adapted into interactive courses for Ministry staff.

  • Over 340,000 words across more than 400 sections in the four core domains
  • Cross-domain literature review, statistics compendium, and a graphs and charts library
  • Island-level mapping of social service providers, plus CSO and NGO directories and an expert roster
  • Legislation timeline and treaty obligations mapping across CRC, CEDAW, and CRPD
  • Indexed Dhivehi-language news archives and standardised document templates
  • The Ministry’s 2025–2028 project portfolio and workplan
Research · Westminster Foundation for Democracy · Sept 2024 – Feb 2025

Cost of Politics in the Maldives

PPL led the research and principal authorship of this study, commissioned by WFD and funded by the British High Commission under the Integrated Security Fund. It documented campaign economics in granular detail rather than in general terms.

The sample was drawn across both major parties and independents, Malé and regional constituencies, male and female candidates, youth and experienced campaigners, and winners and losers. Co-authored with a team from Align Consultancy LLP which included a former Attorney General and a former Deputy Attorney General.

  • 22 in-depth interviews with candidates and experts, 6 written questionnaires, and a citizen focus group
  • Average campaign budgets of MVR 2–5 million per race, 75–90% of it allocated to vote-buying
  • A going rate of approximately MVR 5,000 per vote
  • Primary elections costing MVR 200,000 to 4 million, with no party financial support
  • 40 to 100 SOE positions promised per constituency as campaign currency
Read the report →
Council development · Island and city councils

Development work with local councils

Councils carry statutory responsibility for planning and development but rarely have the technical capacity in-house to produce the documents that responsibility requires. We work with island and city councils on development plans, technical assistance, and investor materials.

  • Development plans and the analysis and consultation behind them
  • Technical assistance on council processes, data, and reporting
  • Investor materials for island locations and sites seeking outside investment
Training · UNICEF Child and Family Well-Being

National Family Mediation Programme and Training of Trainers

Building the National Family Mediation Programme from the curriculum up. The approach is child-centric, treats gender-based violence screening as mandatory rather than discretionary, and draws a clear distinction between arbitration, mediation, and reconciliation.

  • Seven-day Training of Trainers intensive for 15 to 20 participants from MSFD, DJA, and the Family Court
  • Trainings for atoll mediators held in Malé, expected to result in around 60+ trained mediators in the Maldives, many based across the atolls
  • Training manual finalised; two rounds of mock sessions completed
  • Mandatory GBV screening built into the mediation pathway
Data systems · Kulhudhuffushi City Council · starting soon

Registry of Residents, Land, and Vehicles

A city-level registry that will bring residents, land, and registered vehicles into a single maintained record. Councils are asked to plan services, allocate land, and manage traffic without a dependable picture of any of the three.

  • A unified registry spanning residents, land, and vehicles, agreed with the council and starting soon
  • Built to support council service planning, land allocation, and revenue administration
Education and awareness · UNICEF Child and Family Well-Being

Relationship education and public awareness

A marriage preparation programme delivered digitally, paired with public education content designed to reach people well before they reach the Family Court. Course content is designed for delivery at Grade 10 and at university level.

  • Six-course marriage preparation programme with interactive checkpoints and bilingual Dhivehi/English delivery
  • Video content as short acted scenarios in Dhivehi with English subtitles, spanning communication, financial literacy, safety and rights, health and wellbeing, parenting, and community support
Fieldwork and enumeration · with eGen Consultants Ltd

School enumeration for the GPE-KIX Regional Study on Educational Resilience

School enumeration in HDh Atoll, Seenu Atoll, and Kaafu Atoll – spanning the country from the far north to the far south by way of the central region – for the GPE-KIX Regional Study on Educational Resilience, delivered alongside eGen Consultants Ltd.

Running a study in the Maldives means getting enumerators onto islands that are hours apart by sea. We do that work, both on our own projects and for organisations who need fieldwork capacity here without building it themselves.

  • Enumerators and field teams across the atolls, from the far north to the far south
  • Survey administration, school and household data collection, and quality checks
  • Available to research partners commissioning fieldwork in the Maldives
Digital systems · UNICEF Child and Family Well-Being

Family Court digitisation and procedural standardisation

Rebuilding the Family Court’s paper processes as digital ones, with two aims held at once: making the forms usable by members of the public without assistance, and standardising what they capture so that policy-relevant statistics can be drawn from ordinary casework.

  • Digitisation of Family Court forms, with ease-of-use improvements for general public users
  • Data standardised into formats from which policy-relevant statistics can be extracted
  • Consistent procedures across Malé, the islands, and international marriages
  • Standardised, gender-sensitive marriage agreement templates covering financial rights and obligations, education and career pathways, family planning, domestic responsibilities, and dispute resolution – with versions for general, international, and inter-religion marriages
Technical support · National Library of Maldives · pro bono

Technical support to the National Library

Ongoing pro bono support to the National Library: Social Council papers, action plans, technical documents, surveys and focus groups, and stakeholder consultations. The library has a clear sense of what it wants to do and limited capacity to produce the documents the approval process demands.

  • Social Council papers, action plans, and supporting technical documents
  • Surveys, focus groups, and stakeholder consultations to underpin them
  • Papers we prepared secured Cabinet approval for a budget allocation of approximately MVR 270 million towards a new central library, regional libraries, and a boat library for the atolls. Cabinet approval is a step towards funding, not a released budget line, and we will update this when it appears in one.
Advocacy outcomes

Work that changed something

Policy advocacy · 2024–2025

Turning third spaces advocacy into official policy

Sustained publications and advocacy on the lack of community spaces in Maldivian urban development were reflected in a Cabinet decision in November 2024 to develop a “Third Space Community Centre” in central Malé. The space was subsequently opened in Lily Magu as the Youth Hub.

Research · Westminster Foundation for Democracy

Both major parties adopted some Cost of Politics recommendations

Following publication of the Cost of Politics in the Maldives study, both major parties incorporated some of the recommendations into public statements.

Policy advocacy · 2025

Remote work visas announced by government

We have advocated for the introduction of remote work visas as a form of economic diversification through our economy publications. The government has recently announced the planned introduction of remote work visas.

Community · 2024–2025

Mainstreaming small-scale event approach for third spaces

Starting from NYE 2024, we ran small-scale movie screenings at small venues like karaoke rooms and our terrace as a form of third space. Since then, karaoke room based movie screenings following a similar model have popped up across Malé City.

Partnership and funding enquiries are welcome. Get in touch.