Welcome to the official website of the Ministry of Atolls Development. The Ministry of Atolls Development (MOAD) was initially established as the Ministry of Provincial Affairs in the late 1970s. The Ministry was renamed the Ministry of Atolls Administration (MOAA) because of its central role in the administration of the rural atolls, in the early 1980s. The change in name, in November 2003, to the Ministry of Atolls Development is indicative of greater role that the Ministry has to play in the socio-economic development of the atolls.

Atoll Offices and Island Offices together with Atoll Development Committees (ADCs) and Island Development Committees (IDCs) assist the Ministry in discharging its functions.

Atoll Development committee and the Island Development Committees alongside the Government, place an increasing emphasis on the importance of decentralized planning and management of development activities. The government is in the process of establishing fully operational Development Cells in atoll administration under the aegis of the Ministry of Atolls Development.

The Maldives being a country with scattered small islands, it is difficult to provide service delivery to them equally. Therefore the Government has adopted a population and development consolidation policy to minimize the effects of diseconomies of scales faced by promoting economically viable population concentrations. The policy employs the strategy of encouraging the inhabitants of small islands below a population of 500 to voluntarily move to larger islands where socio-economic services and employment opportunities are in place to enable them to enjoy a better standard of living.