The study carried out by Vidzeme Planning Region (VPR) on establishing a monitoring system for the quality of economic development within the PoliRuralPlus project has become the basis for further cooperation with the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development (VARAM). Following the presentation of the study on 17 July 2025, the Ministry invited VPR to participate in working groups established to improve the Regional Development Indicator Module (RAIM).

RAIM (www.raim.gov.lv) is a national data platform that compiles socio-economic indicators on Latvian regions and municipalities. It is the central tool for regional development monitoring and decision-making in public administration. VARAM is currently implementing a project to expand RAIM by developing new indicators in three areas – education, social welfare, and the Green Deal. Each area is expected to include 20–25 indicators, enabling comparison of municipal performance and providing a solid foundation for evidence-based policy planning.

The PoliRuralPlus study analysed the economic development monitoring system in the Vidzeme region. It revealed that the existing system is significantly constrained by data fragmentation, a limited set of indicators, and the lack of real-time data availability. The authors proposed concrete solutions – supplementing RAIM with new indicators, applying artificial intelligence and big data in analytics, as well as strengthening institutional cooperation between national and municipal levels.

On 14 August 2025, Vidzeme Planning Region took part in the thematic working group on education alongside specialists from VARAM, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Central Statistical Bureau. VPR was the only Latvian planning region currently involved in this process. Several additional working groups are foreseen in the future, with VPR participating on the basis of both its long-standing experience in development planning and monitoring and the new competences gained through the PoliRuralPlus project.

These insights enable Vidzeme Planning Region to propose well-grounded solutions for improving data management and development monitoring systems. The region’s findings are already being applied in the refinement of RAIM to ensure that the indicators developed are practically applicable and deliver benefits to municipalities as well as all planning regions in Latvia.

In parallel with participation in VARAM working groups, in September 2025 Vidzeme Planning Region will invite stakeholders to the co-creation hackathon “Data to Develop” (D2D) within the PoliRuralPlus project. Its aim is to design a prototype for a unified regional development monitoring framework that could be used in the future by municipalities and other planning regions. The hackathon will address current challenges in municipal development monitoring – data fragmentation, inconsistencies in indicator definitions, and the lack of automated tools. It closely aligns with VARAM’s work on developing new indicators for the RAIM system, with ministry representatives themselves actively involved in the process.